The birch is beautiful. Don't change it since it harmonizes so well with your floors. One thing you could do is have a birch shelf for your cookbooks that looks built in with molding that matches the cabinets and goes all the way to the ceiling.

It's a shame the backsplash is so dark. If you're up to changing that--big, messy job--mosaic glass tile in golds, black, and white would look fantastic.

New more modern drop lights would add a lot.

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From the pictures, it looks fine to me. I would worry about painting in a high humidity environment. If you want to paint any of it, I'd do the island, which you said is showing some wear. How about a bright navy like in your pillows? I would go with light counter tops.

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Housegal200, I am DEFINITELY up to replacing backsplash...dark floor tiles have always seemed like an odd choice, from the minute we walked into the house! I love the idea of updating the lighting, too. What would you do about countertops?

Houssaon, I have been flirting with the idea of a blue island! You're encouraging me. We actually have pretty well-controlled humidity in this house and the weather isn't as big a factor as it could be (Nova Scotia...lots of cooler weather and wind to go with our ocean). I do like the light countertop idea. Any materials you would recommend?

As you can see from photos I posted, all those birch kitchens have black countertops, which make an excellent contrast to the birch. If you do a mosaic glass mix of colors, then the black would be fine unless you do the navy island. If it were me, I'd just do the custom bookcase, backsplash, new lighting, and faucet you like and not paint the island.

If you are going navy on the island, then white with some gold, blue, black mixed in would work but make sure it harmonizes with new blacksplash. This kitchen with the mosaic trim is golden oak but not too far in color from yours. It has a white countertop with other colors in the mix.

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Good luck!

housegal200, I can see how the darker counter is nice with the birch and lighter oak floor, especially if I lighten the backsplash, which is a must for me. The other drawback to a navy island is that there are a number of black elements in the house, including custom furniture that we like and don't plan to change. Keeping black or veined black countertops helps keep the black in the kitchen. So maybe we'll paint the island BM Maritime White or a similar colour. Because we use the island as a server for dinners, it would help keep the island referencing the dining area, which has BM Maritime White chairs and side table. Lots to think about...change one thing and other things are in play, right? :) Thanks for your input.

I'd leave the splash alone, paint the cabinets white, change the duplexes to blend into the tile.. Update the hardware and you'll find a nice bright space in the aftermath.

Sorry, Jan, what's a duplex in this context? Any hardware suggestions? The backsplash on the back wall is floor tile and I hate it so very, very much. The backsplash on the island is stone (covering water-damaged wood as the island had no backsplash) and we like it well enough, but don't love it.

Oh...outlets and light switches, right?

I like the cabinets as they are in this space. I would put a light quartz on the countertops and backsplash. It may just be the photos, but the wall color makes the rooms look dreary. I would use a white tinted with either a tiny bit of blue or green, so it pulls in all those colors from your beautiful views. That would also look great with your woods and your existing furniture.

Calidesign, the rooms look darker in the photos than they do in real life (in real life this is a light-drenched house), but I'm with you...that taupe colour is not wonderful. The only reason why it's lasted as long as it has is that it's in very good shape and with such an open-plan house and high ceilings, it's a big job to change it.

Beth, I love your suggestions....the crackle glass would be great here. Cool countertop...is it a resin with glass bits? It's beautiful! I like the nudges you and houssaon have given me toward more blue. I do worry sometimes about putting too much blue (though in my heart, I'm not sure that's a thing, at least for me). And I can hardly believe I have ended up in this gorgeous spot and I get to see what I see out my windows. Have you had a chance to visit PE and NL? I hope you do!

Thanks for chiming in, Carol. The "don't paints" are piling up. And thanks for the kind words. We're going for a look that's relaxed and welcoming and doesn't fight with THAT VIEW! :)

No, I have not. would love to visit my roots someday.

the recycled glass is set in a resin. I believe that particular one is from IceStone. I actually have one from Vetrazzo in my bathroom. I love it. It's the Bistro Green Patina.

The cobalt one they have is to die for.

these are others from icestone

Beth, I love to collect sea glass, so these countertops would probably be so much fun for me, and a nice tie-in to living on the ocean. Your bathroom countertop is beautiful, BTW.

thx sharon. if i lived at the beach, I would do one of these in a heartbeat. I love the sea glass as well. now shipping to NS might be a pain, but you would certainly be one of the few, if not only one, in the area that has it.

Why did you pick a flooring that so closely matched the cabinets? If you had gone a few shades lighter or darker, you'd have saved yourself any need for all this subsequent make-up work. :(

Love Beth's suggestions on blue island and backsplash, but I bet you'll end up painting everything eventually (to the tune of $$$), probably some shade of white, to get out of that inside-a-cigar-box all-wood feeling.

acm, there is no lighter shade. It's natural oak (i.e., unstained). The alternatives were natural birch (exactly the same as the cabinets) or natural maple, which would yellow a lot over the first year. There is actually more shade and grain variation in the oak than in the other two woods. Darker floors would not suit this house, our lifestyle or, especially, our taste.

Beautiful beach home...I think your floors and cabinets look wonderful. Our cabinets are painted at the beach and while they look bright they are not particularly easy to keep clean...especially when someone scuffs their painted nails on the doors. Think painting island would be pretty and a nice change that you maybe looking for... My only question is about the trim around the base of cabinets...why is not either the color of floor or color of cabinet?

Thanks, Libbmom...you have sharp eyes. :) I should have mentioned in my original post that the quarter round has just been installed and needs to be stained and sealed or just sealed, whichever gets us to match cabinet colour.

You made a really good point about marks on painted cabinetry! I give the birch a quick clean about monthly and oil it about twice a year, and other than that, it's maintenance-free, which is a nice thing that you have reminded me not to take for granted!

Floors go almost infinitely light, either naturally or via a bit of pickling.

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But that ship has sailed. Hopefully you'll have some fun redesigning the kitchen as you go! If you end up painting, you could update the cabinet pulls to something larger as well, filling the old holes.

acm, I'm aware of pickled floors, but I'm not a big fan in general, and certainly not for this house. We were committed to a native and abundantly available species from eastern Canada, which meant birch, pine, maple or oak. We're delighted with how the floors look throughout the house, so you're right that the ship has sailed, and we're so thrilled to be on it. :) I am much more bothered by the hideous backsplash and the tired laminate counters at the moment. I think we'd like to change those, along with the sink and faucets, and probably light fixtures, and then see how we feel.

You know, it's not the birch per se. It's the AMOUNT of birch, and that bothered me before the oak floors went in. Perhaps painting the island will do the trick, though I also wonder how to get rid of the birch pantry wall, which is...odd, I think. I don't see how to do that without painting the crown moulding, and I'm not sure that's the right way to go. If I could keep just the birch cabinets themselves, and paint everything else, I think I'd be happy. But I'm not sure how to do that without it looking as though we started to paint our kitchen and then got fed up!

I suggest painting the cabinets white and change the counter tops to marble or quarts which is very durable. The kitchen is too much the same with no contrast. Follow your instincts and paint! Good luck!

Those beautiful seaglass countertops Beth H. found for you with your birch cabinets which, ahem, do harmonize so well with your floors, would be a knockout with the navy island. Then just light/white/cream plain backsplash. I hope you don't go for white cabinets ever since your existing ones look fantastic and you already have a lot of white furniture. Good luck with your project.

housegal200, a very good point about the white furniture! I was playing with a decorating app this morning and was really delighted with how much better everything looked when I "painted" the walls and backsplash a soft white, getting rid of the dingy taupe calidesign noted and that terrible backsplash most of us hate. I "painted" the island in a few different colours, but did end up rather loving a couple of blue options--no surprise there. :) I've researched the countertops Beth found and I can definitely get them in Montreal, which is 775 miles (1250 km to me) away, but there's an urban...excuse me, rural legend that there's a store in Halifax (an hour away) where I can get them. So...before and after pics at some point.

I'm incredibly grateful to everyone who weighed in. Even though the advice differed, it's been helpful to see my space through others' eyes, and to get comments and suggestions from people, whether pro or informed non-pro, who are interested and knowledgeable about all this stuff. Sometimes it's easier for me to realize what I don't want (oh, that backsplash!) than to figure out what I do want. So thanks, everyone!

the pantry door is an easy fix. take out the middle panel and do a leaded glass, a frosted glass, a mercury glass, seeded glass, (you get the point)

once you do the island, get new countertops and lose the dark splash, the whole space will open up and won't be too much wood. And seriously, if you still don't like it after all of the changes, you can always paint then.

Hey, Beth, that's an idea! Something opaque so the world doesn't judge my pantry mess. :) I found a really nice image on the IceStone site of a kitchen that had flooring and cabinetry pretty much like mine, light IceStone counters, a farmhouse white sink and a blue glass backsplash...and it all looked amazing!!! Thanks a lot for inspiring me.

sounds beautiful! glad I could help. please alert me when it's all finished so I can see. maybe i'll make a trip out there some day and stop by for tea in your new digs!

One last question.. Since I have several black-painted-and-natural pine pieces in the house, will that fight with the blue island? I really don't want to paint or get rid of the pine pieces, especially the custom-made server (photo#1). These pieces aren't in the kitchen itself (though photo#3 with the bad lighting is in the dining area), but with such an open plan they would be visible from various spots that would have a view of the island. I do have black mixed with bright navy or chambray elements in the house now, so I'm hoping it will work, but wouldn't mind feedback on that. (Ignore the stuff on top of the server...I was playing.)

And I would love to give you tea and a whole East Coast dinner...hope you do visit!

no not at all. you don't have to be matchy matchy. black and pine are gorge together. blue plays well with both colors. they all coordinate. that's all you have to be worried about. it's also far enough way that it won't really matter. love that tall hutch. I actually refinish/ paint vintage furniture. I've done some in black like that.

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Okay, good! I'm on board with the whole not matchy-matchy thing....don't like matching earrings and necklaces either. :) These black and pine pieces came from our previous house in another province, and they mean a lot to us (aside from being very useful). We put my grandmother's good china in that hutch, and we pull it out all the time. Thanks!

It's not looking good for the recycled glass countertops without a horrendous additional cost. They are just not a thing in Atlantic Canada. I think I'll have to go on some serious shoreline excursions to collect sea glass and make a tray or something for my kitchen. And I'm back to the drawing board on a countertop. We have been trying to incorporate local materials whenever possible, so that looks like Nova Scotia granite.

lol. yeah i figured shipping was going to be horrible. any cement countertop makers out there? you can make your own. I actually made a few pavers with the recycled glass and cement in a mold. then spent a million hours grinding and buffing! I can understand why they r so expensive.

what about soapstone? or some type of bluestone or limestone? those are all rather east coast 'stuff'.

I love your commitment to local materials! The cabinets are great as is.

I would -

Paint the taupe! Maritime White is a great choice, it really helps the walls fade away. Your bedroom is great. You want the great views to be the focus, not that meh taupe wall color. Yes yes yes to a blue island!

do as the above poster said and paint the pantry area (Maritime white) and then do a matching neutral backsplash. I would keep the backsplash basic and neutral to not compete with island color.

go as either as white or as dark as possible for the countertops. Dark would tie into your other black furniture pieces- is soapstone an option? I don't know what colors Nova Scotia granite has, but I'm sure it's beautiful stone.

replace your lights for something less wrought iron and intrusive

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Yes, Beth and Regan13, I have confirmed that soapstone is local! Most Nova Scotia granite seems to fall in mid-tones, but there is a white with black flecks I've seen (on my shoreline, but apparently it's also available in countertops from a local company that makes counters from local granite). We have had a lot of fun rehabbing things we bought with the house and respecting and incorporating local materials when we can. It's a way to celebrate this beautiful area (and support this small economy) without lobster-trap lamps and the like.

Regan13, thanks for the encouragement on Maritime White for wall colour, blue island and light, neutral backsplash. Also agree it's time to say goodbye to the lights that came with the house. As for painting the pantry, do you envision painting the door (with glass insert...really LOVE that idea of Beth's), wall and crown moulding in the Maritime White wall colour? And what is anyone's thought on trim colour? The trim in this house is beautiful. It's currently the custom colour the original owner did and you may be able to see in the bedroom photo that it's darker than the wall paint, but lighter than the (dreaded) taupe.

LOL at the lobster trap decor!

I think the slightly darker trim in the bedroom gives it a nice cottage-y vibe. The layered white tones look nice with other whites and woods you have going on in the house. I would try to match the current trim color for the trim, crown molding and door frame, do the the walls and section just above the cabinet doors Maritime White, and leave the glass paneled door wood.

Definitely check out the differences between soapstone and the granite as far as usability goes, not just cost and appearance! Paint color is just about appearance, but for counter tops you might find that one material fits your lifestyle better.

Love your home!

Thanks, regan13, we love this place! I do a lot of cooking, often with friends and family, including seasonal preserving, and it gets messy, so good point about a countertop that works for how we live. And I appreciate the paint detail suggestions very much. Before and after photos coming up...eventually (it's a slow-moving labour of love).