I just purchased a house with honey cabinets that are in good condition. I finally decided to purchase brushed nickel (long thin circular ones) hardware. I am changing the floor to wood (honey tone) and adding granite counter tops in white with splashes of the color honey throughout. I will eventually add moulding, which will give the cabinets an added touch.

Personally, the kitchen looks like it was well taken care of and doesn't need a thing. TRUST ME... it will be a waste of time and money to do all that work to make a sale. Why? Because the new owner will likely come in and RE-DO it to their own taste preferences. I have seen, and been guilty of doing just that thing when I get into a new home. The most I would commit to is a fresh coat of neutral paint color on the wall, and a new floor (and the new floor only if it needs it). Save your money for decorating your own new home!

Clean and fresh, lightly "staged" (not cluttered) will do more to sell your home. In the end it is going to come down to cleanliness, and square footage. The rest will happen when the new buyer moves in and takes over... Just like you will in your new home. '-)

Depending on your resale value, you may not want to do anything, but if you will recoup the costs I would here's what I would try. Since the gold oak is outdated, I would have them redone. I recommend a professional job where they paint them then they hand rub a darker stain to make it appear like a wood grain. You can go with a darker stained look, but not too dark since the appliances are white. It is much simpler than having them sanded and refinished and it looks just as good. It is more expensive than painting them yourself, but less expensive than refacing or replacing. In my opinion, the white on white is too stark and is difficult to keep clean.

Do the back-splash first - nice tiles - you do not need too much so you can even afford higher end ones. Change the wall color and if you really believe you should refinish the cabinets after that make sure it is done properly. Sand, prime, minimum 2 coats of paint and protective coat.
I would sagest green moss color it is gorgeous on kitchen cabinets! I did it to my cabinets. It looks like brand new! I also have changed all of the hardware - cost about $200-$250 plus paint.

Kitchens sell the house! Although your kitchen looks great already, if I was a buyer an off white, light gray, or white kitchen would stand out amongst the other billion houses that I would be looking at. In my opinion, women will most likely have the final say about choosing the house, and our dream kitchen would put it on the top of the list. Light kitchens are more feminine, men seem to like orangey oak for some reason, but nothing says eighties more than orangey oak! I'm in the process of painting my orange oak cabinets to Benjamin moore's " white wisp" in melamine paint, so far it's been going great, lots of elbow grease, but not as bad as i thought it would be. I definitely have the patience taking it slow and doing a good job, but I'm not sure i would do it to the best of my ability if I knew I was selling it! Either way if you do it yourself, get a professional to, or if you decide to leave it as is, it will sell, it looks like a nice, cosy and updated place. All the best!

Oh yah, I forgot to mention, the grain will probably peek through the paint no matter how many coats you do, this might turn off potential people looking at your place. A simple but dusty way of filling the grains is to use seam filling stuff, "Sheetrock 20 CGC" and then sanding it until smooth. It's making a huge difference in my cabinets. I'm only doing it on the cabinet doors and drawers. And only on the large sides of the cabinet boxes. This step took me an extra day to do (not all day, just here and there) and I think it will be worth it! Good luck:) if I can do it, you definitely can!

My husband would definitely say "no painting oak" - and your cabinets are in nice condition and would not deter me as a buyer. I could live with it until I saved to replace. However, the white walls and white appliances are too stark. Warm it up with a color. Although green has been suggested and I like green, many men I have talked to do not care for green. A blue would be better. A friend just redid her kitchen in Sherwin Williams Zeus (gray) and Drizzle as an accent. It rocks! My husband LOVES gray walls. We are going to redo our kitchen in these colors - and replace our golden oak cabinets.

PLEASE tell me the how you edited your Kitchen Photo? I've looked everywhere to do this!

Gutsy gardener, contact Houzz and the helpful staff can give you pointers.

with your counter tops id say no to white cabinets ... pic a nice color .. grey .. mocha .. black ... do a backsplash accordingly .. if at all .. good luck :)

Probably all solved now but my suggestion would be if possible remove crown molding from cabinets to get clean straight finish and remove molding from around window and have clean straight wall edges. That will reduce amount of wood. Then wall paint and splash back, with stainless steel tap to finish off.

I'm curious to know what you ended up doing! Pics, too!

I really do like the updated white cabinets. It looks more uniform not disjointed

What do you think about grouping your beautiful vases? Create a story with them rather than a story of having them all spread out. Food for thought.

If you wanted you could paint an accent wall
A different color.

Leave the cabinets alone. I agree, put in an inexpensive backsplash!

Don't paint them ... looks like all the woodwork in the house is that color. Believe it or not, there are those that despise white cabinets ... let the new owners decide.

paint

New buyer may like wood look better, so I wouldn't spend the money. Backsplash is a good suggestion. I wonder why you bought white appliances… stainless steel would have looked better, and white or black in not what people want nowadays.

I personally don't like painted cabinets, I like more natural woods...in fact actually despise painted cabinets!....ours were already painted when we moved in so stuck with painting unless put in new cabinets...From what I have seen in nicer homes, Cherry is the first choice, but then a darker oak..if you can have them professionally stained as above poster mentioned, I would do that...I also prefer black or stainless appliances...but everyone has their own opinions. You do have a lovely kitchen though either way.

and yes backlash is great suggestion!!!

I would leave the cabinets as is if you will be selling next year. I also don't think you should switch to stainless appliances as some posters suggest. Not everyone cares for them and if you don't want the added expense I would keep the white, which I think look great. Just warm up the space a bit with fresh flowers, bowl of fruit, etc.

For the best update, paint the room first, add a simple backsplash, leave everything else the same. It is too much to re-do your kitchen for a sale next year. Chances are the next owner will want to do something else anyway.

Recently after my divorce, I moved into a small home with honey oak cabinets. My previous home was custom built and had a creamy white paint on the upper cabinets with seeded glass in the doors in two areas, and knotty alder wood in the rest of the large kitchen. The knotty alder looked wonderful and did not show fingerprints and smudges like the painted cabinets. I am having thoughts about doing something with the "dated" oak in this new place, but NOT planning to paint. Just too much upkeep! I am a fussy housekeeper and avid cook, but got very weary of always having to clean those painted cupboard doors. They begin to look tacky in a couple years. I am convinced that in ten years after all those painted cabinets have found their way into homes, owners will be dying to get rid of them. Wood is timeless. I am considering stripping down the oak cabinets and putting a lighter finish on them, sort of a semi-bleached look or maybe Flemish oak. I can always stain them darker again in the future. Once you paint, you are stuck with it and can't easily go back to the original wood. I totally agree with the comments about the backsplash update and of course new hardware. I have recently eliminated the old white appliances and installed stainless everything. I am pricing out some black granite to replace my laminate countertops, which are a nice neutral and in excellent condition. Is granite going to be "dated" soon?

Original homeowners here... We decided to leave the cabinets alone, update the hardware, paint the walls green, add a greenish glass small subway tile backsplash.

We got bids to bid the cabinets, but they were about 2k. We didn't want to tackle the project ourselves either. We felt that the risk to reward just wasn't there.

We just put the house on the market 1 week ago. Had a few showings but the open house is this weekend. No negative comments (yet) about the cabinets that the realtor has heard.

Your upgrades look very nice.

Let the new homeowner redo the kitchen if they don't like it. And if you've ever watched House Hunters in HGTV, you know that every homeowner HATES every kitchen of every potential home they walk into regardless of how beautiful it is!! I've never heard such snarky comments in all my life, and can hardly wait till they go to sell their home, and see what it's like to be told how hideous your home is.

I agree with Momadeus--wood is timelss, and oak cabinets will be back in style in another 10 years when people discover that painted cabinets look horrible over time, especially if you did it yourself.

I think i would leave as they are! The white mock up looks like a whole lot of white. The new home owners will want to make it their own, anyway. So, let them! : )

Love your choice of wall color and tile backsplash really ties it all together. Great job and Good Luck!

Yes, I like adambroderick's updates, too. Nice restful decor. Just needs the new owner's accents and accessories. I would also deemphasize the window trim and change those switchplates to something that blends in better. I have put in wall plates that are paintable and they just disappear! This is a little off-topic, but I am curious about how the stove was vented. I am grappling with how to trade out my old stove that is not externally vented and put in a pro dual fuel Wolf (similar to my previous home). I have the same vaulted ceiling, but the existing stove is on an internal wall and a new unit cannot be put in place and externally vented in that location according to an expert HVAC guy I consulted. I now have a self-venting fan over the stove that is very ineffective and will never be adequate with a high-powered range. Suggestions from anyone would be welcome. Also thoughts on what to do about those tiny, useless cabinets that are put in over the stove venting and the fridge. I will go over to another forum to check out comments on these other issues. By the way, I have painted my previously boring white walls in a warm soft gold called Clair De Lune by Behr.

The paint and backsplash look really nice!

We recently painted our oak cabinets ourselves. To get the grain out I used a product called Behlens then sanded ALOT and used oil based Sherwin Williams paint. It was a lot of work, but for less than $400 it looks like a million bucks. Backsplash is stone shaped like subway tile. I am still putting on the new hardware.

I can't believe how many people are against painting the honey oak cabinets but I for one know for a fact that it would update the kitchen tremendously! I had to convince my husband so I did all the work myself. Yes it was a lot of work but the finish product was a complete success! So many people were amazed at how well the paint job turned out and how the whole kitchen was transformed. Looking at pictures before and after is like day and night...NO regrets here. It will be much easier to sell your house for your asking price when it looks modern and the buyer doesn't see it as work to be done!

Original homeowner here. I just wanted to close the loop on this topic.

We were debating about painting the cabinets in order to provide a more updated look for resale value. Well, we got lucky and sold the house after 20 days on the market and a little above asking price. We actually had to lower the offer to the match the appraisal.

I continually asked the realtor about viewer feedback and the cabinets were never mentioned by any buyer. We ended getting $163 a square foot, which is a really good price for our market.

Based on our experiences, investing in updating the cabinets would have not brought any return.

Well done. Now, onto bigger and better things. I actually rethought my earlier comment and thought against it. I would have left it alone as well. maybe I would have put up a backsplash and updated the hardware, but paint, no. If I had unlimited funds, then maybe put new doors and drawers. So happy you sold as is. Good on ya!

I think your oak cabinets are very nice. I would definitely put in all stainless appliances though and new sink hardware. The white is very dated and doesn't show well. I think the rest of your kitchen looks good (countertops, wall color, and no need for backsplash).

oh, and painting cabinets just screams that you tried to do a cheap fix on something that needs to be replaced. Wood is quality, even if it is not the tone the buyer likes. It sends a better message to leave the wood. Let the buyer make the decision on whether they want to keep them.

Honey cabinets scream cheap and old to me! As a stager and designer, I would rather see a little grain, a great focal backsplash, and some very nice stone countertops than any kitchen with honey oak cabinets. I personally would NEVER buy a house with Oak cabinets, and usually walk out if the kitchen when it requires me to immediately buy new ones, and causing me to spend $10K to $20K for cabinets after I buy the house. If something has to go in that scenario, let it be the purchase of new cabinets and draw the focus away with the wall color, the hardware, the backsplash and new light fixtures. Afterall, it is the whole look, and not just painted white cabinets. I never get the bang for the buck when I do those things and still can't see anything but the honey oak cabinets when I walk in the kitchen. I spent $500 on a horrible kitchen several years ago to try and get a house sold that had an orange laminate floor, orange wallpaper, awful wood cabinets that were more than worn, and sold the house after months on the market in a couple of weeks by ruffing up the cabinets, adding white knobs, changing the paper to a bright blue stripped wallpaper with matching curtains, covering the old floor with square white tiles and putting in clear glass in the built in hutch in two weeks. The kitchen was cute, clean and inviting. Isn't that what you are looking for. That was 20 years ago so I am sure those updates are a bit outdated, but I am not sure than anyone could tell you how bad the cabinets were because the room looked very good overall. Men usually don't want any wood to be painted, and women usually want a clean and light kitchen. It is not that they are white, but it makes them feel good. Men, if you want to do the kitchen, then keep those awful Oak cabinets.

DEFINITELY PAINT THE CABINETS! You may want to paint them other than White. Creamy beige if that works with the countertops or a shade of grey. It all depends on the actual color of the granite you have. And the island in a different color cabinet is perfect. The wall color appears to be too bland. You may want to warm it up depending on the cabinet color.

Get rid of the vase collection. They are too small and insignificant for the space.

Read ALL the posts before commenting. The house sold.

I will second that. The house sold with the cabinets as is. Not every house buyer reads this forum and therefore knows that cathedral oak is outdated and that white painted cabinets are the soup of the day. Many house buyers just look for a house that is in their price range and looks well-taken care of.

it's still nice to read others opinions regarding - I've seen people install whole new kitchens and yet the buyer tore them out and re-did it to THEIR taste - we never know, but, unless you have them painted professionally, they still look like old cupboards with a coat of paint...

Thank you, but I DID read all the posts! We are using a professional painter, and again I say, whatever gives you a good first impression helps sell the house. Obviously, after reading all the posts, I think that the majority simply do not like honey stained oak cabinets on the average. The bathrooms and kitchen sell the house.

Hookedongolf2004 you are absolutely correct in my opinion! Honey oak cabinets are dated and do not go well at all with white appliances and I know this for a fact because that's what I had until I decided that my kitchen would look a whole lot better if I painted them white and after a bit of work convincing my husband it was the right thing to do, I did all the work myself and I couldn't be happier omg! We got up to date flooring, backsplash, hardware and wall paint...talk about a gorgeous new modern kitchen I have now!!! We've gotten so many compliments from people and some of my friends have decided to paint their cabinets after seeing ours. It's like you said, a good first impression helps sell the house and kitchen and bathrooms are what sell your home for sure, no doubt in my mind. I decided to paint mine white but off white would also be nice. You can see the wood grain through the paint but they still look modern just the same!

Oh and I forgot to mention that for my cabinets I did use Kilz so that the wood didn't bleed through!

Oak is so ugly! I would definitely paint. I wouldn't want to buy a house with oak cabinets and it would really have to have other great selling points for me to buy it.

OLD POST FROM 2013 . BE AWARE THIS HOUSE SOLD.

I would definitely paint the cabinets, but try a gray like Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray or Accessible Beige. Use Behlens first to smooth out the wood grain. Good Luck!

Extending our cabinets up to the ceiling and refinishing them white was the best thing I ever did. Here is our recent remodel: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/thanks-to-houzz-readers-for-designing-my-new-kitchen-dsvw-vd~2963682?n=1

Painted Oak blond cabinets and pulled wallpaper. Cabinets changed hardware and the kitchen is beautiful.

The objective here is to appeal to the buyer - therefore: I would paint them to bring them more up to date - adding a nice backsplash is also a good idea as suggested - in addition conceder removing all of the decorations above the cabinets for a more slicker look - just add a couple of cheery décor