I'm a big fan of all white, but I don't think it's necessary in your kitchen or living room. Your wood stain is beautiful and isn't dated. You might want to change the pulls on your cabinets to give it a different feel. If I were you, I'd just focus on the accessories: rug for dining room, throw rug for kitchen, lighter upholstered chairs for table, centerpiece, items for builtins in living room, etc. can you post more pics of living room to get a better idea of the space and whether the chair is a good fit? Good luck!

Lucky I had the same issue. Had to look at it several times!

I like the idea of painting the kitchen white to brighten it up more and to define and separate the kitchen from the living area better.....however I agree with the previous poster that the natural cabinet color is nice as well.........painting cabinets is a big project if done properly...so unless you have lived there a long time and are just tired of it the way it is .......skipping painting the cabinets and working on the decor and perhaps wall colors may be the easier option to liven up the kitchen

I have almost the same floor plan - kitchen and family. I’ve painted the cabinets espresso, changed the knobs and got rid of the ramp

If it is in the budget, rework the cabinets to the left to hold the TV. It looks very high.

From Pinterest:

I did paint my bookshelves, but not my kitchen. My refreshed oak kitchen is in my "my pics" idea book.

Thanks ! Yes that is a blanket :)
I can add some more pictures as the wall is really awkward so I'm not sure what to do.
We just moved in and I've never liked the oak so I thought black white and grey . Not sure what chairs to buy or ideas.

The First 3 pictures at of my house and the last one is what I am thinking of doing just not sure how :(

If you hate the open banister enough to keep covering it, my first step would be to make that puppy more solid or into a full blow half wall to remove the clutter of things thrown over. Visually it will help things look less busy right off.

The first thing is find a new home for the T.V and IMO the cabinets to the left of the T.V can go and use that space for the T.V. Then decide what color you wa You do not seem to be using the shelves on the right either why not remove them and replace with a nice console with a piece of art above to balance out the TV on the other side.The chair in that position is not connected to the rest of the seating so it needs to be angled into the room or removed.

I agree with your idea of moving the chair or replacing it with something less bulky. I think your cabinets are fine and your dining room is neutral enough of a transition but the lighting could also be the ticket to have a more graceful transition than having to splurge on painting.

We just moved and just put the tv there :(
I don't really love the closed cabinets either.
Does anyone have any pics of what I could do ?
Thanks so much !
The blankets were just there for us to use that day they aren't normally there

I am sorry you just put the TV up there - it is something people are seeing on design shows which is not the best:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/on-my-soapbox-mounting-the-flatscreen-too-high-dsvw-vd~4537748

change out the door handles to longer pull handles, add antique mirror or interesting wallpaper like grass cloth behind open shelving and need. larger area rug

Facentet
Do you have any pictures ?
Thanks for the idea !

The fireplace and bookcases are nice but IMO, they look too heavy for the room, especially with the TV placed so high above the fireplace (doesn't it make your neck hurt to watch TV so high up?)

This is my interpretation of what Patricia Colwell suggested:

I reduced the height of the cabinets on each side to line up with the top of the mantle. I moved the TV to the cab to the left (I think you need to keep some cabinetry for cable, satellite, Roku, etc units). I placed a contemporary piece of art where the TV was. Notice how much less the wall unit dominates the room now. Your windows have more presence.

I also edited out the oak railing between nook and FR. It's not your style and IMO, it adds unnecessary visual clutter. Removing it may also make it easier to come up with new furniture arrangements since it's no longer forcing traffic to take only one path.

I like the chair but I agree that it's current placement is awkward. I also think bringing its color over to the couches with pillows or to the windows with drapery panels would help tie it in with the couches. Both actions would also add pattern to a room that is MOL solid blocks of color.

I'd start slowly in the kitchen.

Remove the wooden valance over the window, find another place for the MW and replace the MW hood with a chimney style hood.

If you want to change the look of the cabinets, check into refacing them instead of painting them. If you match the base cabinets' wood and finish, you'd only need to replace the upper cab doors, eliminating the arched detail, which isn't a current trend.

Refacing only the upper cab doors would be less expensive than replacing
all drawer and door fronts or having them professionally painted. It
would also give you the option of replacing the desk kneehole space with
drawers, giving you a place for a MW drawer (that's what the funny
looking gray and black thing is in the photo below).

Do you like the void space above the upper cabs? I hated mine - such a
damned nuisance to dust up there. Refacing may give you the option to
fill the void with a tall piece of fascia board and trim to take them to
the ceiling.

This is a very rough interpretation of how the above suggestions would look:

Another relatively easy, inexpensive update, relatively speaking, would be to replace the 4" backsplash with a full height tile backsplash.

No matter what else you do, hire an electrician to add can lights. Your kitchen is woefully underlit with just the one ceiling light fixture. Add undercab lighting, too.

Oops, meant to add photos showing my tall fascia and crown molding above my cabs.

Yours would be slightly taller than mine since your upper cabs are likely 42" tall and mine are 45".

Sorry I don't have any pictures but you can search on houzzs so many options to look at. you could go as simple and paint just the back of open shelves just to brighten things up a bit and replace shelves with glass shelves with lighting if an option

Lisa
Thanks for all you did and everyone for their ideas !!! I'm finding it a really hard task ! My husband really likes the tv there :(
But ... yes maybe I can take all the shelving there and just leave the middle part
I wonder what the wall would be like ?
Do you think I should do like the picture I had and do cream and black curtains go to with the cream couches I have?
I do like putting the cabinets all the way to the top
Way nicer !

It's the issue of the full colour too connecting family room to kitchen all white and then grey ?

AC LB
Did the other pictures help ?
I was worried to change anything until I did the cabinets
We rushed hanging the tv up and now I'm not sure :(

Patricia Colwell Consulting
We just put the tv there :(
We have lived here for about 2 weeks so I just want thing ls more modern but unsure how to do it because the stuff at this house is nice just a different style

I love your kitchen just the way it is and I think it creates a perfect balance with the living room space. I would maybe think about incorporating open shelves above the sink or maybe painting upper cabinets off-white.

Mandie, do you mean the drapes that are cream with black banding? That's not really adding color or pattern since it's mostly another solid block of color with a solid colored edging.

I'm suggesting drapes more like these in spun honey (color of your chair), cream and black with the former two colors being the dominant colors:

I agree with facentet that you need a larger area rug. You can do a tone on tone texture similar to what you currently have or a patterned rug.

If you go with a bold geometric pattern for the drapes, find a rug with either a tone on tone texture, a smaller geometric pattern (the 2nd photo from the bottom) or one with some softness to the pattern (3rd and 4th from the bottom).

Hit the photo limit, more to come in next post.

If you're not used to adding pattern and/or color as I suggested above, then stick with rugs and/or drapes that have tone on tone texture, are softly patterned or have a patterned banding around the edges. Baby steps. =)

The following rugs are examples of what I mean, even if they aren't in your color scheme

HTH!

PS Pity your DH likes the TV above the fireplace because IMO, it dominates the fireplace and the room. But I'm not really surprised that's his preference. IME, men are more than happy to have the TV be the star with everything else paying it homage. =) My DH wanted to put a 55" wide TV in a cabinet that is 8" too narrow for it. We compromised; we're replacing our 42" TV with a 49" TV that is about 3" wider than the cabinet (it's mounted on an arm and angled so that slight additional width isn't a problem).

How funny Lisa ! Yes men are special aren't they. We just moved in and that's the first thing we had done !! I don't even love tv !!
Yes I like the patterned rug ! Cute !
I am thinking of a place I can put that rug :(