Hi at first look, your kitchen looks great with lots of light coming in. I love kitchens with windows.

Sorry about incomplete message earlier.

I think the creme maple glazed look will lighten up the room, with a UBA tuba granite counter top or any other counter with a blend of browns and beige with Venetian gold. Once you finalize the counter top we can pick the backslash and take it further

Good luck with your project and keep us posted

My kitchen is a cottage / French Country style. French Country may be different then what you are thinking for French. Anyway, I kept my old cabinets because I could not afford new ones and mine were still in good shape. I did get new quartz counters, backsplash and farmhouse sink. The sink really helps the "French country" style and so does my simple wood hood, plate rail cabinet and the decor with antique china, floral prints and rose canvas art work. My kitchen is in my "my pics" idea book. My basement kitchen also has some ideas - skirted sin base and open shelving. It is also in my idea book and I did it very inexpensively.

https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/57579129/thumbs/my-pics-work-in-progress

The first thing for you to decide is if you want to work with the cabinets you have. This will depend in part on your budget and if your cabinets are in good shape. You have a lot of cabinets - probably a third or more of what I have. You might want to convert or replace one cabinet with a plate rail or bit of open shelving if you can live with open shelving. I just recommend a little. Put dishes on the lower shelf and put decor on the uppers so you only need to keep the lower one super clean.

I would reface your cabinets, change the lights, countertop, flooring and backsplash but that all depends on your budget

Here is what they did.

I would paint those cabinets a pale green, get better lighting and too bad you did not get a counter depth fridge .Add some stainless knobs to work with new appliances. If the kitchen and cabinets function for you then invest in new counters , if not then just paint and live with it until you can redo the whole thing.

I think the cabinets are great! Please don't paint them. If you decide to replace them, then you are basically starting from scratch, so nothing existing even needs to be considered.

I also hate the floor. What is the flooring in the rest of the house? If you change anything, change the floor. How old is the house?

A counter depth fridge always looks better, but they cost more and hold less. I would, however, not post things on the side of the fridge. Eliminating that is much, much cheaper than any other potential upgrade, and would make a huge, immediate difference. You have a roomy kitchen. Put a burlap covered board from Ballard on a wall somewhere.

Speaking of your roomy kitchen - there seems to be a lot of space. If you replace the floors (and I hope you do) and the counters, maybe you could pull the cabinets along the fridge wall out three inches, so the fridge doesn't project so much.

You might want to consider budget and how much storage space you really want. Consider taking the soffit out and replacing the top cabinets with taller one and maybe some with glass doors or open shelves. Paint all the cabinets to match. Replace counters and hardware like stated. Figure out the floor as this will help sort out color. Have fun!

Thank you everyone for the helpful comments! House was built in 1979 and we bought it almost 6 years ago. I don't think the house has been updated since it was built. Everything is in pretty good condition, just very outdated. I will post pictures of the kitchen from when we first moved in. And oh god you should see the master bathroom- that will be a fun one! Big gigantic pretty much non working jacuzzi tub and teeny tiny shower. And carpet for days, even up the side of the tub!
I really like the maple cream glaze color for the cabinets. I think it would go well with all the dark trim in the rest of my house. I like that granite color too. And yes I can't stand that laminate flooring ! Ugh! We are thinking of getting hardwood. What would you suggest for floor color? Light or dark? The flooring goes into our family room, which is the darkest room in our house.

Here is a picture of my family room. Also a picture of my entry way hallway and floors. Disregard the kid's artwork and mess! Haha!

My house was built in 1976:) In my home the trim work was pine that had been stained very dark. Over the years I painted all the trim and eventually replaced doors. We did the kitchen and doors in the late 1990, so used natural oak, the "in" wood of the time. I still like the natural, but I might have done the doors a shade darker if I was doing it now. You are lucky to have the hardwood floors.

We replaced doors because the originals were flat hollow core that were cracking and we had paneled doors in our first home an missed them. No matter how you "update" some things will pass out of style. My front hall tile is no longer "in" but it does not bother me.

You are lucky to have the space to work with on the master if you are able at some time to redo it. So many homes of this era have tiny master baths. We did ours so long ago that I can see it may need to be done again in another 5 years - if I can save up for it.

Front hall - these stairs were a project I did three years ago. It did not cost much but took a lot of sanding.

My bookcases are not one each side of the fireplace but along another wall. It took me a long time to decide to paint the bookcase, but I am glad I did. I do like wood, but the dark, dark bookcase sucked the light out of the room.

Not the best pics:)

I'd stay with the dark flooring to match the trim and paint the cabinets a light grey or go with the maple glaze that was suggested above. Hope that helps!

I notice you have a cat - pick a floor that matches the cat! I have a yellow lab - and his hair on dark floors is beyond noticeable -

I love your white shelves and your sewing desk is fun! White really brightens everything up! Stairs look very nice as well! I agree about the four panel doors- definitely worth the extra expense. Yes we are lucky to have so much space for our master bathroom, but it is frustrating that so most of it is wasted space right now. That would have to be a complete renovation (that I am looking forward to but we decided kitchen first). We have talked about moving the washer and dryer to the master bath from the basement whenever we decide to remodel.
Our kitchen and family room flooring is laminate and has cracks and spaces in between a few seems. My orange cat matches the flooring now!

Well, we have been in our home 27 years:) I remember the cracked vinyl floors, interesting shades of carpet and our appliances were harvest gold! I like older homes and tend to look to the past for inspiration rather than to what is "on trend" but then I like that old fashion look. The bathrooms I did with old fashion white subway tile still look good while my master looks a bit dated with the large 12 x 12 tiles - but the colors are pretty, so I don't mind and fortunately there is no carpet.

If you are going to DIY, one thing I bought years ago that has paid for itself many times over is a small wet saw - uses a little four inch blade. I've done 2 bathroom floors, kitchen backsplash and tiled over 400 sq ft of basement. I feel like my projects are at an end - for a while, but I wish I had bought a nail gun.