Your question is pretty open ended so I don't have a lot to add just yet but hopefully bumping this up to the top will get you some more responses.

So, are you purchasing new cabinets, counters and backsplash? Or do you plan on painting your current cabinets and adding a backsplash? Does the kitchen open up to a breakfast area or another part of the house that you have to coordinate with?

Painting the cabinets would be my first move. BM marscapone would look great and, if you could afford it, I'd add new countertops. BM MARSCAPONE

Are you planning to replace the cabinets?

Hello Genevieve-

(I've always loved that name!)

Congratulations on your new appliances!

You are asking for suggestions to make the kitchen feel lighter?

Well, be careful what you wish for!

Genevieve, it is obvious that you cook a lot and often, and you have many tools of the trade.

The problem is that your kitchen is has a lot in it on all the surfaces making it seem very crowded, and giving it a cluttered and heavy appearance.

Can you please do a serious re-organization?

Please remove everything from the tops of the cabinets.

Do you have a basement or an attic?

Take out everything from your cabinets you don't use at least once a week and put it in your basement or attic.

If you still don't have enough room in your cabinets for your things, buy a pot rack to hang from your ceiling that is large enough to hang most of your pots.

That should create a lot more cabinet space.

In your now emptier cabinets, put all the things that are on your counters, so that the only things remaining on your counters are your electric percolator, microwave and toaster.

Please get rid of that huge plant on the counter, it doesn't belong on a kitchen counter, ditto for all those little plants taking up valuable real estate.

Remove that large plate from the wall.

Put up a sturdy shelf there and put your microwave on it. In fact, maybe put up two shelves on that wall, and on the higher shelf put the microwave, and on the lower shelf put the toaster, and put them both high enough so that you can still prep food on that counter.

If there is no outlet on that part of the wall, have an electrician install one that has 4 outlets and make sure it is a GFCI.

Read and read and read on the internet about organizing your drawers and shelves to maximize storage.

Now that you have de-cluttered, you will see how much lighter your kitchen looks and how much lighter you feel being in there, it feels like losing weight, but a heck of a lot easier!!

As far as design decisions, of course tile counters are the pits! Get some sort of solid surface.

I would paint the walls and the ceiling in the white family, but of course there are 50 shades of white.

Are you keeping your floors?

Are you keeping your cabinets or replacing them?

Painting wood cabinets is not easy at all, it is quite a process to prep them correctly and paint them and rather expensive.

I think the most important question is:

Is this your forever and ever house?

If not, maybe you shouldn't invest a ton of money into buying new cabinetry, or even repainting the cabinetry you have and buying a backsplash and expensive counters.

Save that money and put it toward "moving on up."

Here's what makes sense to do in this kitchen.

As I suggested earlier-

De-clutter, organize, build shelves, add outlets if needed.

Paint.

Put up a pot rack. (You can always take it down when you show the house to sell.)

Change the ceiling light fixture.

If you need more light, you can get battery operated puck lights for under the upper cabinets.

Change your counters to a solid surface that is inexpensive. (There is a good chance that whoever moves in after leave will tear out the entire kitchen and start from scratch anyway.) You can even get quartz, corian or granite tiles with grout in a color that closely matches the stone.

Leave the kitchen cabinets, and if they are grimy, clean them well.

If there are areas where their finish is worn away, find a product to cover that raw area.

Genevieve, have you lived in your home a long time or did you find the kitchen like this? The lower cabinets look like oak, but the uppers look a bit different, and as though they might have been stained at some point.

If your cabinets are in good shape, and if it’s in your budget, you might consider getting them painted professionally. Then you might replace the tile counters, even with a nice laminate.

It’s hard to tell from your photos, but are your walls textured, or is that wallpaper? Smooth walls might update the look.

The two simplest approaches to lightening your kitchen is through A) a limited (two colour) palette and B) additional lighting. Use your local cabinet resources for help with the rest, taking along a budget, current storage needs, dimensions and a floor tile sample to guide the process. Happy Houzzing.

Before you start in this rabbit hole, you need to stop, take a deep breath and decide what you want the end product to be.

The shiny green paint is distracting. A lighter color would work better.

You already have a backsplash and adding one on top of the tiles would be superfluous.

loobab has given you some great ideas.

I like your darker kitchen cabinets and your countertop -- and I believe your kitchen can be made lighter without painting all your cabinets.

IF you're considering repainting, a lighter, less shiny shade of green or another color might be worth considering for the walls.

Is your stove hood unvented -- could you remove those two doors to the cabinets above the stove hood and create there a brightly painted open shelf to house and display some colorful canisters or oversized serving dish?

You could wallpaper your backsplash or paint it something other than the same shade/color as your walls -- but not solid white (that would be too stark a contrast with the darker cabinets).

Alternately, if you're going to tile your backsplash, you could choose a lighter, cheerful two-colored backsplash tile -- light in color but definitely something other than solid white. Add a single row of tile that is the solid color within the new backsplash that is the primary reason you chose that backsplash, installing it just above the single row of white.

If you prefer to paint your backsplash, you could add some bright cheerful trivets to the wall. You can even swap these out according to your mood or the season.

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1366&bih=650&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=ft6lWsqLEZK2zwKkh6vYDQ&q=colorful+metal+pot%2Fpan+trivets&oq=colorful+metal+pot%2Fpan+trivets&gs_l=psy-ab.12...13729.15196.0.17034.9.9.0.0.0.0.334.773.8j3-1.9.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.7BQ53NZz7yQ

You can also decorate according to your mood and/or the season with sun catchers.

I have a similar kitchen window -- but mine are covered with sun catchers -- the thicker ones with a lot of bright red and green and blue birds and flowers and butterflies.

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1314&bih=514&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=2dylWtSPFsLpzgKKwYzgBA&q=tiffanhy+sun+catchers&oq=tiffanhy+sun+catchers&gs_l=psy-ab.3...221523.223137.0.223391.9.9.0.0.0.0.186.702.6j2.8.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..2.1.183...0j0i10k1j0i7i30k1j0i7i10i30k1.0.LaUji8nj2_E

Good luck with your project; let us know how it turns out.

Better lighting and under cabinet lights would be a big help. Loobab has some good suggestions but the mixer isn't going in a cabinet and I could never give up the plants in my kitchen. Most suggestions here on GW are to remove the microwave from over the stove so I don't think that will help, especially with the height of the cabinets over the hood. The photo of the sink area with the pot light over it are much lighter than the other pictures. Get a better ceiling light and under counter lights! Then tell us what your long term plan and budget is.

There are several good articles that can help guide you also....

http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/kitchen.design.rules.htm

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/new-to-kitchens-read-me-first-dsvw-vd~4306041?n=585

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/things-you-added-or-removed-that-you-love-regret-in-your-kitchen-renov-dsvw-vd~4273188

Then Maria Killam will help you with these....

http://www.mariakillam.com/loveyourinstallation/

http://www.mariakillam.com/boringequalstimeless/

http://www.mariakillam.com/the-best-backsplash-tile-for-your-kitchen/

Genevieve, we really need a detailed floor plan and pictures of the whole area, please.