Pay 8-14K to have the insides and outsides professionally painted with a catalyzed finish. You will still have painted oak with the grain telegraphing through it and oldbixes,likely without modern highquality soft closing drawers and other "must have" features. Or you can put that funding towards new cabinets,counters, and backsplash. And enjoy it,no matter what your price point is in the market.

Do you plan on being in your home much longer, or are you preparing to sell?

If you plan on being in your home another 10 years and like your cabinets, I would either do nothing and take a trip, or if you want a refresh, go with new counters and backsplash. I just finished new counters, backsplash and farmhouse sink with my oak cabinets and I am very happy with my kitchen. (Pics in my "my pics" idea book.)

Its good that you are aware of your homes value when making improvements but tax assessors don't enter your home, potential buyers will. We just completed a kitchen reno of our 25 year old home. The first decision was to keep the oak cabs or replace them? After inspecting them inside and out, we decided it would be a mistake to keep them, they were just too beat up. We ordered new cabs ,never looked back, completed the remodel at 50k, very pleased with outcome. Good luck

Tax assessments are very different than real estate appraisals. I would suggest having a realtor come in and tell you whether or not he or she thinks that replacing the cabinets would be over-improving your your area and the current market.

We painted ours but it was a DIY project; we had solid wood cabinets where the construction was solid, but the finish was absolutely horrid. We painted the exterior (white) after adding pieces for shaker style fronts, and then did the interior side walls the same white as the cabinets and painted the shelf surfaces a very light gray. As it was a DIY, I used a high quality indoor/outdoor enamel paint on the interior shelves. With proper prep we've really had no issues with chipping or scratching on the exterior or interior surfaces. The only place we've had any damage to the interior paint on the shelves is our pots/pans leaving a few marks. I'm going to repaint and then place a piece of thin clear plastics (plexiglass).

We had a poorly maintained house by the previous owners, so the inside of the cabinets would have looked horrible left unpainted. I don't think it's as common, but it can be done.

My apology for my delayed response, out of state company arrived.

I appreciate all your input! Replacing the kitchen cabinets would be a beneficial update & won’t over improve for the neighborhood. I would enjoy the toots & whistles of new features, although the existing is high quality, in good condition & solid wood. The big pushback is the extraordinary sum spent on updating our home the past 3 years. It’s a large home that we've replaced the roof, fiber cement siding for fire prevention (live in the pine trees), 3 large second story redwood decks to Trex, (huge mistake as wind actually blew our deck furniture off the Trex deck & that never happened with redwood), along with custom railings, 3 bathroom overhauls (master bath to go), removed all wallpaper and painted, some with professional faux finish, plus a number of other updates. Several years ago we did replace the kitchen counters & backsplash with Russian Granite. Our view from the top of a hill is pristine & breathtaking, otherwise we would have moved from this money pit. At this point I don’t want to spend “fun money” on a new kitchen but if painting them would reduce the value for resale (which most likely won’t be in the next 10 years) of the home, I’d reluctantly do it. It would easily cost $50,000 and that’s not for custom cabinets.

Thoughts?