I love all your color choices. I think they will look fantastic.

I think your are headed in a fabulous direction.

Let me make a suggestion. When you paint your cabinets, can you figure out a way to treat the soffit portion? You can add some molding etc. to give it some dimension, Here are some examples:

Kitchen Transformation · More Info

San Jose Res 2 · More Info

Painted Kitchen · More Info

I love your choices also - love the laminate countertop You might wait to purchase the backsplash tile until your cabinets are painted & your countertop is in place. Lighting may change the tones of the whites. Jpmom's suggestions for the soffets are excellent. Please share pics.

" You might wait to purchase the backsplash tile until your cabinets are painted & your countertop is in place."

I'd definitely do this!

This is counter to standard GW advice. But I would choose the backsplash tile before choosing paint colors. Paint comes in infinite colors; tile doesn't. I would chose the tile to coordinate with the counter and then chose a paint color that works with both. If you paint before choosing your tile, you may inadvertently eliminate some of your best tile choices.

I like your choices as well. I think painting those cabinets will brighten the kitchen up a lot. And your floor is actually pretty nice. I agree that some molding on the soffits will help too. Take your laminate sample to the paint store, it will help a lot to see what color paint would look best on the cabinets. When you narrow that down, get a small sample can of paint, paint a large piece of cardboard with it, and look at it, along with the laminate sample in your kitchen's light. You might have to get a few sample shades, there are so many shades of white and off white with various undertones.

I don't mind your kitchen...anyway...looks like a good project for two finishes to the cabinets...perhaps a gelstain to darken either a section or lowers...with paint on another area...or 2 colors of paint-for the U area and a 2nd color for straight wall. I'd mix it up somewhat, as you have nice areas to work with. You're seriously going to paint those nice oak soffits?? how about a reverse of the typical.....gel stain darker or evened out shade to all your UPPERS and paint the bases in your white/light of choice. Some nice glass doors on uppers with darker stain, and different light fixture-NICE.

If you use brown cardboard. You will need several coats so the brown doesn't show through and give you undertones the paint doesn't really have. My dollar store sells two pieces of white foam board for a buck. I suggest buying several and putting the different shades of white you like the most on each of the boards. Well, one shade per board. And move the boards around to different parts of the kitchen during different times of day with different lighting before deciding. Believe me, a color could look quite different in the morning vs. the evening. Or on a cloudy day vs. a clear, bright sunny day. Or at night with just the lights on. Or in a different part of the kitchen. That's why picking paint colors can take awhile. You will need to view in as many of these situations as possible to ensure it's a color that works well for you in all light conditions and locations.

Don't forget to paint the ceiling. It's dirty. You just can't see it. Once you paint everything else, it will become really obvious.

The color choices look nice. I love the fabric.

I would definitely paint the cabinets and soffits the same color. Treat the soffits as part of the cabinetry. (as in the photos I posted)

Here are a couple of other photos - the first two of them are fellow GW own cabinets.

I think If you paint the cabs, and leave the soffits stained, your eyes will go to the soffit.

Yes, adding crown molding to the soffits would be an easy improvement over the existing trim. (quarter round?) I also agree with crl that it is much easier to match paint to the other elements than it is to match the other elements to already painted cabs. However, backsplashes often look different when they are actually installed because of lighting issues. Look at samples underneath the cabinets and held vertically to the counters with the lighting installed.

Diane

Yes, I'd paint those soffits to match the cabinets. Colors do look very different depending on your kitchen's light. We brought home several sample tiles for our backsplash, in the store they looked perfect, at home they looked totally different. We finally got the right shade after trial and error. The last thing we did was paint the walls, well, that's not entirely correct. I painted before I had the counters and backsplash, and when everything was completed, the wall paint looked totally off, more peach than the beige I had thought it was. So, I painted again, after the cabinets, backsplash and counters went in.

Thank you for all your comments. You folks are great. We have taken the soffits down and painted the ceiling. We felt that removing them would open the space up. So I don't need to think of them again. Fortunately, we are not on a strict timeline so I've decided that I have to find the tile before I go any further. I love the countertop and the fabric. Everything else is paint. I just need to source the right shade of subway. I love the look of white subway tile so I am hunting for a bone/off white color. Not white, not beige and not gray. Someone kindly offered the suggestion of glass subway in a really light gray. I want a more matte look than what I've seen in glass. The hunt continues.....

I love red.

thanks for all the advice! The finished product is here: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/80s-kitchen-update-on-a-budget-dsvw-vd~4046304

Wow, it looks great. So much brighter and looks much more spacious. I had to go back and forth to make sure that you didn't expand the kitchen. Love your color choices.

Well, I don't think it was horrible before, but it sure looks better now. I love the red in the curtains, with all the cool calmness. Enjoy!

Fantastic! I can't believe those are the same floors! What a difference the change in cabinet and wall colour did to them!