Do you have a pic? I think it really is about personal taste some really grainy oak cabinets are out of style. You can refinish the cabinets with a more modern stain or depending on your style there are some old world rustic color stains that can work.you can also change hardware to bring them up to date . As for painting them they do really look nice we have done plenty of cabinet painting jobs and they look great, you can't even tell that use to be oak cabinets.

I had a similar epiphany with old pine wood in a ski apartment. I was trying to work against it for ages when suddenly I thought why not work with it? It turned out to be a pretty good idea - one of my most copied to ideabooks on Houzz! But it all boils down to the bones of the object - are they good enough to be salvaged and used in a modern context or will you stay stuck with them back in the decade they were created.