I think once your cabinets, countertops and appliances are in place, you'll find the colour will be more acceptable. It's just that it's one huge canvas of colour right now which is making you doubt your choice. I believe I personally would go with a lighter rather than a dark countertop though. I'm sure the sunlight coming through your windows or with your potlights on will make a difference to the look as well.

Amen, Renae Nonya. By day two I knew I had made a huge mistake having really dark flooring installed. After 3 months of constantly cleaning crumbs, dust, water spots, foot prints and puppy paw prints, I finally had to dig deep and expunge my mild OCD and return to the world of the living. After a year of living with the floors, I am back to the regular deep cleaning schedule and the occasional quick clean-up for high traffic areas. Now when someone compliments the beauty of my dark floors, I now say "thank you" instead of launching into a tirade about how hard they are to keep clean. On the positive side, I now consider my dark floor up-keep a part of my physical fitness routine.

I have a kitchen from a similar era, although it has a functional work triangle, external venting for the hood, and white laminate counters. I lived with it for 8 years before deciding to do something (1 month to demo, and yes, I hired a designer. She's fabulous and has saved me money, time, and energy.) For the first years, I decided not to do much with the cabinets for a couple of reasons: paint wouldn't give me the results I wanted (I experimented myself with some old doors from Habitat Restore), the cabinets were cheap builder grade, and they were sorta functional. I looked at the drawer slides first: they are low quality metal, and attached with to the cabinets with plastic parts at the back of the drawer with staples, and several plastic brackets have broken, and staples failed. Fortunately, Amazon sells replacement parts, or I wouldn't have functional drawers. The drawers are particle board stapled together. My advice is to look at the quality of the cabinet construction before you continue. What I did: I updated the deteriorating vinyl sheet floor to vinyl plank, added hardware to the cabinets, changed appliances, and added a few roll out tray shelves. I painted the walls, and added DIY under cabinet lighting from Home Depot (electrical was already there). Without the appliances, I think I spent less than $1,000 and most of that was on the floor. I know you want to make this kitchen better, and I think that's possible with a small budget. Drawer pulls, backsplash (maybe if you can DIY and find a reasonably priced tile), under cabinet lights if you can swing them, and paint the walls (DIY). Long term, if this was my kitchen, I'd be dreaming of a gigantic island to replace your two islands, external venting for the hood, and a better location for your cooktop. I think there are a lot of good things about your kitchen and the space in general, and you appear to have a lot of room to do something really cool.

Blotch leaf miner, very common on basil.