I get it, I honestly do. You wanted one kitchen but you got another. You dreamt of Brad Pitt and got George Clooney. My advice is to wait, get to know Clooney a bit before asking him to dye his hair and wear contact lenses. Get to know these cabinets, appreciate them for what they bring to the space. Change the backsplash and counters, absolutely. If you are changing the floors, make sure the new ones play well with your existing boxes. Maybe it would help if you posted inspiration images of your Brad Pitt kitchen.

Thank you for your reply! My husband is trying to convince me of this. To leave the cabinets; he thinks they will grow on me. You think white counters and backsplash will look ok with the cherry? I would take off the raised portion and corbels on island. Here are some current kitchen loves...

I have seen my countertops on white cabinets, dark wood cabinets and on my mid tone wood cabinets. I would look for a countertop that will work with both light and dark in case you decide to change out the cabinet color later. I think you will find the actual cabinet door style can fade into the background if your decor is right. You have a lot of upper cabinets and I think you might be able to remove some for your shelves.

One thing I did get which might be a help to your style is the Kohler Whitehaven "short apron" style farmhouse sink which can be installed on a standard sink base.

My kitchen is not your style - but look beyond that to the counter, backsplash and sink. Pics in my "my pics" idea book. My basement kitchenette is also there if you want some ideas for rustic shelves.

I'm glad you want to remove the raised part of the island. I think marble would be beautiful on these cabinets.

EAM's analogy made me smile.

I am a little concerned about the island. I do on think you can remove the raised bar, it's protective. The position of the cooktop in the island is unsafe. There is very little clearance on the left and virtually none behind. Add to that the lack of ventilation and I would be prioritizing replacing the island when I redo the floor.

Thank you all for your help! Jhmarie- love your kitchen, and really like the open shelving in the basement! Localeater- there is a pop up vent on the stove top, do you think that would be enough to block it, or you think it's still unsafe? I was going to have it hang over the back a bit as well to give a little more room between the stove and passerbyers ;). EAM and nosoccormom, thanks for the inspirations!! It's been hard finding the aesthetic I want, with raised panels (everything seems to be shaker). You all have lifted my spirits :)

You know, IKEA Bodbyn (white and gray) is raised panels. You can see lots of transitional/farm house type kitchens.

Or even something along these lines:

I think I would leave it alone completely for now and live with it for a year. It's not as if it's a nasty old kitchen - it's just not your taste (or mine, for that matter). See where you are financially in a year and then make it right. I would NOT put more money into a kitchen I did not like - pouring good money after bad. It still will not be what you want.

I hope you like the rest of the house better than you do the kitchen!

I would get rid of that floor ASAP! That is what is throwing me off the most. After you get that done, I would talk to several appliance people about the stove before doing anything about the counter. You might have to have the high counter there for building code reasons.

That brown granite is kinda blah with the cabinets. If you picked a counter that you liked that looked good with the cabinets as they are now and that looked good with the white shade you like, the cabinets could be painted in a few years and new doors made then, if you still didn't like the wood cabinets.

I wouldn't do anything until the floor is changed, I wouldn't be able to tell if I liked a counter or backsplash with that floor.

Come back with a new post after the floor is changed.

I wouldn't touch that floor until I knew what I could afford to do to the kitchen and what I wanted to do. You may well move/replace the island and you don't want to mess up a new floor. Live with this until you can afford to do what you truly want. It will be a waste of money to do otherwise.

I'm with Sherry. That floor is all kinds of bad and I could never ever ever be happy with the kitchen as long as it's there. It's another ornate element like the corbels and posts, except it's enormous, and draws the eye like crazy. I'd throw down some ramboard or even 79¢/sqft vinyl to neutralize it and see what the rest of the kitchen looks like then. *shudder*

ETA: the cabinets aren't what I'd choose for myself, but I think it's been pretty well illustrated above that they can be made to work with a lot of different looks, so I'd try very hard to keep them.

Anglophlia, She had said in her post that they were already doing the floors to match the rest of the wood floors in the house. Even if she moves the island later, the wood floors can be repaired.

I just now noticed the TV in the cabinet above the frig. I could watch Chopped and cook at the same time! Wonder why the cooktop isn't centered in the island?

The inside of a lot of raised panel doors are shaker in style. How about reversing the doors so the shaker style is on the outside? Since you're going to paint them anyway, you can fill any hinge and pull holes....

For me it's the backsplash and counters.

Thank you all for your input!! It's helpful to hear different ideas. I do agree the floors are the worst! Those are going for sure, and I think the layout will stay the same (I actually like it) so even if I did a different island (I would probably center the stove then), the floors would probably only need slight patching. Anglophilia, i am leaning towards your advice and not doing anything else until I can really get it done the way I want, just not sure how long I can live in it ;).

vpierce, so good to know! I will have to take a look on the inside, that would be an incredible money saver if we can make it look right!! Thank you for the tip!

I actually kind of like the floor. What is it? If it were wood, I'd leave it.

I like the cabinets, cherry cabinets are beautiful. But if you prefer a painted cabinet, you can definitely paint them. It's a lot of work to do it right, but it can be done. Or, if budget permits, you can hire someone to paint them. Refacing cabinets is expensive, not much less than replacing them outright. The floor is the thing that stands out to me, (not in a good way) but you said you are replacing that with wood.

If you are eventually thinking of redoing the kitchen layout, I would not spend money now. Instead, like eam said, I'd just live with it until you decide for sure you want George and have made sure he's stll healthy