I recently posted about a weird bar in the living room of the house we're in the process of purchasing. Now I am back with a question about a partition/half wall in the kitchen. We are somewhat certain we shall demo the half wall and try to make the attached island a longer attached island, but my mother's voice warning me about losing storage space has me concerned. Should we instead try to get the wall to go up to the ceiling? It just seems so silly to have it only part-way up. We are also not sure if we can find a matching piece of granite to keep the countertop seamless. Oy.

The cabinets are depressingly dark, so we will want to repaint those at some point - I would also LOVE a new countertop since the rounded edges and decorative island supports/buttresses (are those even necessary??) are sooo not our taste, but it's 'fine' and a redo would be expensive so I think for now I'm stuck with it. Any advice on cabinet colors would be appreciated too - I was thinking perhaps a light grey or a dark lower and white upper with some glass doors to lighten things a bit. Would it be too ridiculous to add cabinets to the existing ones so they're all the same height? (More storage and more modern!)

(I apologize for the lack of photos! Keep your eye tuned to the right side of each photo and you can catch a glimpse of the partition wall. It has about three small cabinets and a microwave attached to it; I think we can move the microwave into the pantry.)

For those curious, our other decisions have been (or rather, will likely be) white on the walls, a white backsplash, perhaps subway tile or another unoffensive shape, and I'm pushing for black trim (!) but we'll see how it looks with the cream colored tile. I also want a fridge that is cabinet depth - the closest door next to the fridge is a small pantry. Ultimately we're aiming for chic character, something we love and can live with for the next ~six years, but near-universal appeal.