Hi abej, I've 3 lines on refacing that we acquired to offer our clients. There 2 manufacturers of cabinets got into the business to prove to those who call the refacing side in that you are NOT saving money. The Labor turns out to be an even trade and if you look around you can get a strong all wood USA manufactured cabinet for less than the refacing. My parents refaced in the midwest. I'm on the East coast. I tried to send them to people but my step dad is stubborn. He he ok. He could have done better. He didn't want his daughter (step) giving directions anymore than my mother giving directions in the car. lol.

I was thinking about the Murals. DId you see the Kitchen Palette. It's a DIY and they can be interchangeable.

More on my website to see http://tgmcabinets.weebly.com

@aebj, I don't think plates on the soffit would look too 1970s. I think plates on the soffit is fairly timeless, although it definitely isn't a "modern" look, but I don't think that's what you're going for here anyway. I think if each plate was different but they were all blue and white ("willow-ish") it would look great. I also like the willow / delft tile for the backsplash; that would definitely pull in your cobalt blue. I get a lot of plates etc. on eBay; if you are patient and look on a regular basis, I bet you can create your own "set" of mismatched blue and white plates fairly inexpensively. Good luck -- I think it will look great when you're done with it.

The backsplash will limit what you put on the counter. An all white will give you the option to add blue canisters or whatever. You can still add plates on soffit or knobs or accessories in blue. Tile is too hard to replace if you make a mistake and make it too busy.

Echo the above - blue willow on the soffit is definitely timeless and traditional. Neiman Marcus had a set of blue willow-ish dishes for a really low price in their catalogue - 5 piece place setting for 8 for under $100 that was really pretty, if you were looking for dishes in general...

Oh, and with the plates - I think it's "the more, the merrier". Just a few looks kind of lame, but a big group looks good.

Saw some beautiful sea blue translucent subway glass tiles at home depot yesterday, not cobalt blue, but old definitely blend with he blue willow plates and give the kitchen an updated transitional look.

Been away from the site for 2 weeks..... What did you decide to do?

Hi all! I've been away myself. Sorry I haven't been able to update. We are going with the mentioned white paint on cabinets, yellow soffits and walls, white trim, dark blue countertop and blue mosiac glass tile backsplash. White appliances. New light. I'm collecting cobalt and white plates to place on the soffits. I will post pix when I can.

Great choices! Looking forward to seeing it.

Anilup2: Thanks! The pix of the mosaic backsplash isn't very true to color. The name of it is MotorCity. It's blue glass, which I think will add some "movement". The countertop is glossy, (new treatment for laminate), which we hope will work well together. Paint should go up next week. Then the backsplash and countertops. So it will still be another couple weeks of renovations.

nice backsplash waiting for new pictures!!!

Thanks Sacapuntaslapioz! As soon as the work starts on the kitchen, we will have pix up.

Everything in my house was brown when I bought it... real brown wood breadboard, brown carpet, brown cupboards. I have eclectic furnishings running from French to Asian and started collecting Polish Pottery. I kept the fan for hot Florida summers, added halogen lighting, painted the cupboards, added one set of glass doors, purchased pull out pantry cabinets from Costco, painted and installed a snap together vinyl floor. And then I sold the place within 30 days! in this market. On to my next project... a little 70s house that is going to end up looking like a Craftsman.

Losthorizonlisa: Brown is my husband's first color choice for everything. LOL. Thankfully, he has me to color his world. haha I'd love to watch the transformation to a Craftsman look. I love that style. I have to say tho, that having a stove up against a wall like in your pix has always made me uncomfortable. Just a personal thing.

New flooring options out there. This is one I am using. It is 3/8 tile (no future refinishing and very durable)

mtlman -- what flooring is that? ok for kitchen use?

Tile, yes perfect for washing and wear without refinishing.lasts.

He is a better picture at the store. Putting it in now.

I am in the middle of painting my kitchen cupboards and stripping wallpaper from unsized wall of 27 years. Oh, and the wallpaper had also been painted. Can't wait to see my lightened-up kitchen but hate my ceramic tile floor. I have been searching for reasonable, washable rugs in a 4x6 size which would be perfect but have not been able to find any in stores or online in that size that are washable cotton. Anyone have ideas?i think with a rug pad it would be safe.

WhiteChevy: Did you try overstock.com!

No, I will try it. Thank you. FYI for any of you that are painting your kitchen cabinets. I am using the "milk paint" and self- leveling satin top coat from Wood You. It is labor intensive but looks great on my 27 year old oak cupboards. They will be antique white with added crown and satin nickel knobs.

I didn't read very comment. You sure do have a lot of replies. Lol anyways my daughter did mosaic backsplash in her previous home with blue willow dishes. It is as easy as tile and looks great. It might just be the artistic accent you would need.
The cabinets doors could be faced with headboard then framed around edge and look fantastic. If you know anyone with basic woodworking skills they could do it easily. Paint them white or yellow and you have a upscale look.
I think the butcher block counter sounds great but otherwise a neutral white sounds best to me.
You could renew the inside of the cabinets with a wipe on poly and it would camouflage as well as make them cleaner.
Just some of my thoughts. You sound like a fun person. Wish I could help you in person.
Have fun- necessity is the mother of invention.

Before replacing a working dishwasher...check in the door panel for interchangeable facings...they used to have sheets with most of the most popular finishes stored in the door. Always consider a fresh coat of paint and upgrade the knobs...I'm sure with all the comments posted these are not new suggestions.

Put a nice crown molding around the ceiling (2 1/2"- 3 1/2"). If you do decide to put up crown molding, don't forget to tell the electrician, so the can lighting doesn't bump into or cover / prohibit you from putting up molding.Paint it and the soffit and the cabinets all the same color. This will make the 10'x10' space seem bigger. Before you consider putting molding around the bottom, measure the space between the countertop and the bottom of the cabinets. It should be 18". Some of these older kitchens didn't leave enough space for the modern conveniences we have today. If it is less than 18" I would suggest not putting molding around the bottom as it will further reduce the needed space.

RE: Painting the inside of the cabinet
Painting the inside is not done on new cabinets unless the space is open to the room. The reason for that is that it chips. However, a lot of these 'built-on-the-wall' cabinets did not have a cabinet bottom on the base cabinets. Instead the flooring was left exposed or linoleum was put down. If yours does not have a cabinet bottom, I would put down or replace the flooring with new white vinyl (glued down). You would have a clean, white base that wouldn't chip. If the insides aren't too bad, I'd leave them natural for the same reason. If they're not painted, I would polyurethane them--not for looks but to make them easier to clean. If they're painted already, I would repaint them white.

RE: Molding
Be careful about putting molding on this type of door. It is probably built as the picture below. Make sure that a piece of molding is going to work with the opening of the door. This can certainly be done, but it depends on the door, hinge, and space between the doors. If the molding is too close to the exposed hinge, you can see it would hit the hinge when the door is open even at a 90 degree angle.

RE: Lighting
Can lights will give you light that generally shines downward, unless you have a parabolic lens on them. That will spread the lighting out. You do generally need two kinds of light in a kitchen. Task lighting and ambient light. Task lighting lights a specific workspace. A good example of this is the light in a range hood that lights up the range top. Ambient light is light that is spread around the room, generally lighting it most everywhere. So can lights can be used to some extent with parabolics to spread the light around the room, but are generally used to light specific areas--such as the counterop/walk area. They may be sufficient in a small kitchen like this but I would suggest you get your electricians opinion on the type of lights needed. Also, do you have a light over the sink to give you some task lighting over the sink at night? If not, I would consider this one of the priorities.

Have fun... Can't wait to see the finale! :)

Here we are with the kitchen painting. The countertop has been removed and appliances are out of the way. The drawers are in the dining room. I really hate this part. It makes me feel so unsettled. Haha

It will look great when you're done! Keep it up -- your efforts will be rewarded!

Thanks, juniperjo! I hope it will come together well.

The countertop folks were able to cut the countertop without seams and by painful contortions and magic, our guys got it into the house and installed. It's covered with paper to protect it until the backsplash goes in this weekend. The rest of the house has been painted. Here's a peek! More after the backsplash goes in. I find this whole renovation thing so discombobulating!!

That countertop is very pretty. Is it Caesarstone, or a granite?

Thanks! It's a new laminate with a durable shiny coating. We found it here: http://samples.wilsonart.com/p-616-girona-falls-4894.aspx

I noticed your pic last night aebj. It looks almost like soapstone. It's gorgeous! Your finished kitchen is going to be a beautiful space ;-)

Onthefence: Thank you! I'm so excited! I'm terrified of ruining it at every step, so I'm delighted when a step goes well

Frances Shears: How is your kitchen redo going? Have you posted pictures somewhere?

Sharpkl: I would love to see pix of that backsplash!! I'm so jealous! No doubt it is beautiful!

My husband had me watching the latest episode of Duck Dynasty last night and Miss Kay was serving on Blue Willow! I'm... I'm... I don't know what to say!! I may have to throw away my beloved Blue Willow! How can I do that? How can I part with it? How can I start over? Oh dear! Oh dear! I suppose I shall have to try to erase that from my mind somehow and muddle on. Maybe Jimmy Buffet will loan me some mental floss.....

I think your kitchen has lots of potential and doesn't need but some tweaking. Without much $. I like the comments you have received, but thought I'd send you a photo of my renovated kitchen where we tried to mix old (mid-late 1800s home) with 'new.' There are a few things I'd still like to do here...add backsplash behind the sink, (and looking at this photo, maybe some more color!?) But, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I just thought perhaps my photo can help..yellow w/ cobalt accents. (I also have a siting area w/ white wicker chairs & dark blue cushions.) It made the room look so much bigger.

Librarymemaw: Love your kitchen! You have some nice wall space for pix or utensils.
Is that a bead-board ceiling? Nice!

We just launched a new line of ultra thin LED under cabinet lighting that would really help to upgrade your space as well. All of the lights have built in diffusers too so you won't get a glare on the tiles or countertops. And best of all, it's very user friendly to install so you might not even need an electrician's help if you wanted to install the lighting yourself.

It has interchangeable LED light bars and LED puck lights that you can choose from, in two colors of white (soft or neutral). Soft white is definitely preferred in kitchen lighting - and since they're dimmable too you can create a any atmosphere you want.

Complimentary design advice from our lighting specialists at (888) 880-1880 if you need any help!

http://www.environmentallights.com/led-under-cabinet-lighting/environmentallights-premium-modular-led-under-cabinet-lighting/led-under-cabinet-lights.html

We have installed under the counter lights. They are going to be very helpful!

Here is the kitchen backsplash. The countertop is still covered to protect it.

Wow, really nice!

It's going to make a huge difference . Beautiful!

White appliances, flooring and cabinet hardware installed. Still waiting on electrician for new stove.

Wow, great progress! Hope you can enjoy your new space very soon.

Thank you, Fuzinav!! We are really looking forward to it!

Any advice on hanging plates? I see there's a new adhesive type hanger, but im concerned the adhesive will decide to let go like the wall hooks do.

You can purchase plate hangers at the hardware store ( even the big box stores carry them ) in the section with picture hanging hardware. They are wires that stretch to fit on the back edges of the plate and then can be hung on the wall. They do not damage the plate but make it secure to hang.

Loving your renovation step by step pics. Good luck. Darn, I was late ;) would've recommended cobalt blue cabinets (paint) for existing ones. Nevertheless, Sneak peaks Look neat :)

Thanks, Anilup2! I have been looking online and found that there is a new adhesive plate holder that looks great, but I'm concerned that it won't hold up the plates forever. I'd be upset if my plates crashed to the floor and broke one night.

Another peek. Workmen left junk around the kitchen. We are not quite done.