I think the cabs as they are are ok. I think you are right about getting a pretty granite, maybe something dark and new hardware on the cabinets, especially if you are considering moving. I would get a nice big single bowl undermount sink and a new faucet.

what about these colors? they are formica but maybe i could find a similar colored granite.

I really like your kitchen. If the counters are in good condition, I wouldn't change them as they relate nicely to the floors and the crown moulding. I feel like granite can be bossy and might not coordinate as nicely.

I really love the look of navy with oak and off white right now. Here's an example. It's an apartmenttherapy.com house tour and the paint color is Behr's starless night.

If you're sure you're going to move, I'd consult with a realtor who knows your neighborhood and what buyers want. My area is a total frenzied sellers market right now and my friend who is getting ready to sell was told she really didn't need to do anything except declutter, clean and paint a bit.

Thank you @nosoccermom! That offers some ideas to keep major things the same and make them work together by adding some minor changes. I like it. It seems the cabinets were lightened but I guess it's just the other changes making them appear less orange bc the link doesn't make note of it.

I do like the navy and turquoise advise. I have some blue accents already so maybe that would be a way to balance out the orange in the cabinets.

I understand what you mean about the counters being too bossy. Unfortunately our countertops are not in good condition so that is something we do want to replace. The colors I posted above would tie everything together but I am afraid they would seem busy/bossy.

I think those counters are too busy also. i think a solid color would be better. Could you or your spouse hang pendants over the peninsula? Or get an estimate from an electrician? Updated lighting might be nice with some fun blue/teal retro stools or even less expensive, paint the stools you already have a super fun color.

I'll ask him about the pendants. That's a great idea. And I hadn't thought about painting the bar stools. I think I do want a solid surface counter top. Maybe I can find something with little color flecks for interest up close but that appears solid from a distance.

How much of your desire to change the kitchen is for your own functional needs, and how much is for resale? Because I am quite dubious about the value of this towards resale and would strongly advise you consult a real estate agent or two and consider if this is worth your money. You'd probably spend several thousand on counters. Add in new lights and wiring and stuff, and this is not an insignificant investment.

However, it's been my experience that a new counter on old cabinets (particularly if all of that is on top of an old floor) doesn't make the kitchen seem one iota newer or more appealing. The counter looks out of place, and the kitchen still just looks old. Ancient kitchen + random granite counters is a prepping-for-sale special that I saw over and over when I was house hunting. On top of that, the counter isn't ever something you can count in the "work done" category. The new counter has to be removed to update the old cabinets, so an old kitchen with new counters is still a gut job -- the only difference is whether or not someone first spent several thousand dollars on the new counters that will be torn out and tossed during the gut job.

If your current counters are not working for some reason, then sure, replace them for your own use with something functional and cheap. But don't spend the money on a really good, fancy counter if you're not doing the cabinets too unless a real estate agent strongly advises that will make you money.

There are kitchens where a few clever tweaks can bring them into this century and become a selling feature, but this is not a kitchen that can be elevated by a spit shine. It's not old enough to have vintage charm. Everything -- floor, cabinets, counters, etc. -- is simply dated. This kitchen's best features are that it's a good size and not a bad layout. You could add "totally updated and needs no work" to that list of features if you did the whole hog, but without replacing the floor and cabinets along with the counters and lighting, your kitchen would still be in the "needs work" category to buyers. So what would your investment have bought you?

Take that same money you were going to use here and totally update a bathroom or build a big deck or add something like french doors or a big closet to the master, and now you have bought yourself a real selling feature that you didn't have before.

I had honey oak with white multifleck and switched out to dark counters and it made a world of difference. The white just didn't do anything for the cabinets. The dark was more complimentary to the tone of the cabinets and warmed it up. Are you keeping your floors?

And we had black appliances like you do then switched to stainless when we were selling - both looked very nice with the dark counters. :)

Here is a quick sort of before and after. Hubby was so quick with the demo I didn't get it snapped in time and the after was not quite 100% done either! Our cabs were in good shape - good quality. I had a couple of doors refinished that had some steam damage from the dishwasher but otherwise they were good and solid.

thanks autumn. When we bought this house the kitchen tiles was something I completely hated. Now it's one of my favorite things. They are very easy to clean and very durable. I'm probably more functionally oriented than most people. We removed some tile in our foyer (only 6x12) and it was such a difficult process. We purchased a builders personal home so it seems everything he did was meant to last a life time. Because it's in the kitchen, breakfast, util, 2 halls and a bathroom it's lots of square footage and it would take probably $5k to remove it. Even if I hated them and weren't concerned with the cost, I'd still hesitate to do it because of the mess. So I just plan to make them work as best as possible.

@autumn.4 do you have a picture?

We had white sheet vinyl floors with the white multifleck counters and switched to the slate tile and the dark uba tuba. The laminate was totally wore out and scratched terribly. I'm not sure I'd go dark counters with white floor then. Maybe you could fine something mid-toned otherwise the floor will really stand out. Not necessarily a bad thing but normally you want to draw your eye up I think?

I can totally understand your hesitation at pulling up all that tile - that is large amount of square footage. Eek. That would be a real mess!

@Jillius, thanks for your honesty. I do feel the same way you do for the most part. Fortunately our house has a great deal of other good qualities. Since we aren't sure about building, I'm trying to do things we would do whether we stay or go. My husband has hated the counters we currently have since we moved in and I want to get a gas range. So those updates are for us. Changing the counter tops led to the discussion about painting or staining the cabinets and so on and so forth. You know how one things leads to another. I appreciate your advice. I have looked at it for years and some days I find it hideous and other days I'm like I LOVE my kitchen. I'm not a person who has to have everything perfect, up to date and new but many buyers are that way. It's very nice to have others look and offer opinions from a different perspective and fresh eyes.

I just saw the picture. I love your kitchen autum.4!!

You know what would probably be very smart? Moving the existing uppers to the ceiling and putting a floating shelf under them like this:

You have high ceilings, and that would highlight them without costing much in materials. If you have the skills to do that yourselves, that could have major impact for nearly no money.

Thank you. We were happy with how it turned out and it did help sell it vs. the before. I know the outlets stuck out like a sore thumb but that didn't seem to matter when we listed it. We DIY'd the floor so that was a savings for us. Overall we felt like the color granite we chose really tied it all together and the 'honey oak' wasn't standing out near as much.

When I moved in my house we had the same color cabs throughout the house.

We completely remodeled the kitchen and replaced the cabs but in the other rooms, we have just painted.

I agree that blue wall paint looks really good with that color of cabinet.

Here is a close up shot of my front bathroom. The cabs, flooring and white bath tile were all original, but the walls were painted an antique white. (Yes, it DID look horrid next to the white tile!!) After painting, everyone complemented the bathroom, thought I had replaced cabs, etc because the blue made the cabs pop.

Sorry for how messy it is. I do need to refinish the cabinets, 22 years of wear and tear, plus this bathroom being shared by 4 kids ages 2-7, it is definitely worn now. The cabs looked much better when we moved in 5 years ago.

Autumn 4, I think your kitchen remodel came out great. I didn't even notice the outlets until you mentioned them and then I went back and looked. Small changes can make a huge difference. I removed my 20 year old honey oak cabinets because I hated the tombstone uppers. However, they were in great condition. Very solid. Honestly I could have replaced the upper doors and painted them and I think they would have lasted another 20 years. Everyone's budgets and reasons for remodeling are different :)

autumn I didnt notice them either

If the counters are a problem, I don't see a problem with just replacing them. We've done that and been fine. I would only stain those cabinets if the finish is going bad. I agree that granite might be too much in your space. Maybe something more like Corian or Silestone or one of the other lesser expensive solid surface options? Or laminate. Personally, I love laminate.

I think a dark blue would look awesome and due to their positions on the color wheel, blue should greatly reduce the slight orange tint to your stain. New hardware can make a huge difference. I probably wouldn't replace the appliances unless the are not working well.

Personally, I think your floor is just a classic, tile floor. It will probably never be super-trend but it won't be super-UNtrendy either, imho.

Sarah, if you are considering removing the skylights, you might replace them with solatubes. They bring in lots of light, not as much heat, have options like light control and a light bulb kit. I love mine in our old house.

@bpathome those are cool! But we dont actually have skylights, it is the boxed in florescent lights. I may have called them the wrong name. Ours are custom so they are nice but dated. We would have to repair the ceiling if we take them down which wouldnt be a huge expense just a mess. We did recently have to replace the skylights in our sunroom. The newer ones are much better. I wish we had done it sooner.

I agree with posters above, to only do what you want for yourself now. You won't make your money back on anything else.

Your cabinets and counters are fine. Get new formica if you really want it- I don't think it's worth investing in more expensive counters. If I was looking to buy your house, my biggest concern would be the floors, because as you say, it would be so expensive and messy to replace them.

Painting the walls, maybe changing the lighting, new appliances, are all good ideas that won't be too expensive.

We remodeled our kitchen last year and removed our honey oak cabinets. While I love my new kitchen, my old kitchen was perfectly functional, the cabinets were still in great shape and looked nice with the Uba Tuba Gold grantite counters. We replaced the floor in all the common areas before we moved in, mainly because there were so many cracked tiles in the living room and hallway and it is a bear of a job to do once living in the house. But the tile in the kitchen was in good shape and functional. As far as tile being dated, I assume that is a regional thing because in South Florida we see new $500,000 plus homes with tile floors. The newer, more expensive homes have larger tiles and light grout, but your floor in good condition would not phase me a bit. I don't know how easy it is to change the color of grout, but if it could be lightened, that would help the smaller tiles be less apparent, the grid of dark grout is what stands out the most.

I definitely would not raise the cabinets and add shelves below as someone suggested. Wall cabinets are set at a certain height for a reason, to make them easily accessible to average size humans. If you raise them enough to put a functional shelf, you are limiting the accessibility for a huge segment of the population, short and average height people. To me, this would scream I have short cabinets and I DIY'd a fix that failed miserably. While it would be nice to have taller wall cabinets, finishing them to the ceiling with moulding and crown would help with an updated visual appeal.

I would definitely change the counters if that appeals to you. We put granite in 3 years ago (DH wanted it) and it looks fine for us with our old cabinets. We basically made the kitchen more functional by moving cabinets & adding an island, so the counters had to go. I would have been happy with formica, but it is hard to find an installer around here besides the big box stores & the price difference wasn't that large. As far as Corian being cheaper, here it was the most expensive except for high end quartz, which I could not figure out. We did use an entry level granite, so it was most cost effective for us. I love my revamped kitchen & this house will most likely not see a new kitchen until I'm 6 foot under. We had no concern for resale, as I will most likely be 6 foot under when that happens also. Good luck!

Here's a blogger who lightened their grout. link. I think it would update the look for sure, but I imagine the dark grout is a lot less maintenance. Less maintenance is my favorite.

With respect to the link I posted above, I think it's different lighting :)

And here's the garden web thread on updating kitchen with gel stain etc.

I wanted to update on what we ended up doing. We updated and put the house on the market and the changes we made were very well received while showing it for sale. Overall I was pleased with the look and the ease of sale. Pictures at Trulia link below.

http://www.trulia.com/property/3225317444-4-Summer-Pl-Hattiesburg-MS-39402#photo-10

After prep of scrub with TSP then, rinse with water, 1 day of try dry, then a coat of wood contitioner, I did java gel stain (light coat, wipe on wipe off) on the bottoms with a arm-r-seal clear coat in satin. The color turned out very rich with depth. I just loved it. We wanted two tone so we painted the tops. I personally would have gone more taupe but since we were selling it was recommended to go light. It's Elmira White semi from Benjamin Moore. The walls are Pashmina satin with birght white gloss trim. The counters are Formica River Gold. We did not have one complaint about the formica vs granite during showing. We did all the bathrooms too, white sinks bronze hardware. If I were staying in the house I'd probably have put a light coat of antique glaze on the top cabinets. Something we were considering adding when we received an offer. We also did not have any complaints noted about the tile floors.

Thank you for updating.....I read thru this as I'm dealing with same kitchen resale issues. Your kitchen is beautifully updated and I love it. Painting the uppers really tied in the floor making it all work really well together. I would purchase your home in a heart beat. Great job!

You did a fantastic job throughout. The changes you made, completely updated your kitchen and kept it's charm. It's unbelievable how different house prices are in the rest of the country. Small condos in my neighborhood go for $380K+

You did a great job - and that's a beautiful home. Good luck with your move!

wow! Kitchen turned out great! I love the two tone... Overall your house is gorgeous.. I love the exterior and the sun room (?) with wood wall!!

Your home is beautiful! The kitchen update is amazing-- what great ideas and the execution is awesome. I've screenshot your before/after and autumn4's for a friend struggling with similar cabinets. Thank you!

Congratulations on your pending sale! It's such a crazy time when you're selling and moving and such--I really appreciate you taking the time to update your thread. Best wishes for a smooth closing.