Thanks for the suggestions. As for removing the paneling, I guess I would rather not. One reason is because I don’t know what I’ll find beneath it. The other is because this paneling extends to the family room, where it is painted cream and looks really nice. What do you think about keeping the paneling and painting the paneling but not cabinets?

Also, what color would you choose for counters?

Thanks so much!

This is what it looks like in the family room (just off the kitchen past the refrigerator).

Cool! Check out the Retro Renovation site before making changes!

Check out https://retrorenovation.com/ I thought they had a forum but maybe that was somewhere else. Original design intention is always a good place to start, not that you have to live in a museum.

60 yrs later, whats old is new again - the vintage color palettes have a freshness to them missing from the current ubiquitous monotone neutral style Gray + white OK, if you must, but mix it up with a real color - red or yellow.

No need to remove the paneling if you are painting it - why? It keeps a little bit of historical interest in the kitchen You would need correct primer to keep the dark color of the knots from bleeding through. Otherwise, I wouldnt worry about the knots -Its painted knotty pine and not plastic coated mdf from Home Depot - so its going to have some texture and not be perfectly smooth.

Can that upper cabinet dividing kitchen from eating area be moved somewhere else - that's a lot of storage to lose. Maybe you could repurpose doors and wood by making a floor to ceiling storage cabinet out of it (2 doors top, 2 doors bottom)

I love white kitchens but I think your kitchen can look lovely without painting the cabinets.

I agree with pulling off the uppers over the peninsula. It will really open up the kitchen.

The floor is cool but it is a bit overpowering. I'd break it up with some solid rugs.

Which material would you like to use for the counters? Your floor and wood grain are strong elements, I would pick something light and quiet for your counters.

I also think your kitchen is very charming. The floor is awesome. Since the family room paneling is already painted, I think painting the kitchen paneling makes sense, and would lighten up the kitchen.

Having had some experience painting knotty wood, I agree that painting them would probably not get the result you want.

Do you have any insight into the gap next to the range? You didn't post a straight-on pic, but it looks like there's a 30" gap there that you have filled with...something. Filling that and having counter next to the range would be a priority for me, even if it is with something like this in the short term.

I agree that pulling off the uppers over the peninsula would be nice. I will have to see how that works with the ceiling and how to neatly end them on the sink wall.

While I love more expensive countertops, I kind of think that in this kitchen, laminate works. But I am open to other suggestions!

Good eye, cawaps! It is a gap, but it’s the butler’s door to the formal dining room. So no need to fill it! For reference, this is how the house looks from the entry. Living goes into dining here, and there’s a butler’s door from the dining room into the kitchen (that gap between stove and counters by the fridge). The other door to the kitchen is by the fridge and goes into the family room (the painted paneling room with red brick posted above).

IMO to waste money on a new counter is just silly. I would get rid of the wood walls and live with the rest for 6 months and then see how you like the layout before spending any money at all. I know it seems a long time but wasting money for cosmetics is just a waste.. This is a 50,s kitchen I did for a client after I convinced them to wait before tackiling it .It became a much more functional space with a lot better storage

Assuming those are your children in the photo, I recommend quartz for your counters. I find that mine holds up to all manner of spills and wear beautifully. I used to be careful of my “new” counters but now set boxes, my latest craft project, etc. on them with no worry. IF you could match the white in the floor, I think a counter that color that would brighten things up and preclude painting the cabinets.

I like this kitchen with wood cabinets, checkerboard floors and white counters.

White laminate is inexpensive, very durable and easy to clean.

Yes, those are my kids! So durable is very important!

And thanks for the pictures. It helps so much to see ideas!

i'm glad you like the floors, i did mine checkerboard. i went with white and wood cabinetry. i dont have enough floor showing to need to break up the design, but a few mats would surely work.

Patricia—tell me about the countertops in the second kitchen pic you posted. I love that color scheme.

Keep us updated! Love your floor.

Painting the paneling on the walls is the first thing I’d do! Painting knotty wood can be tough because the knots will occasionally bleed through over time. You can touch it up on walls though if that happens. I agree leave the kitchen for a bit before making any permanent and expensive changes like counters. I love the floor by the way!!

I like your floor too! I also think your cabinets are fine once you put in a new countertop and backsplash. For the wood paneling, there is wallpaper liner and grass cloth wallpaper. It comes in natural, all different shades and colors.

to KC that counter top is from a company called abet laminati they make a laminate counter that is llike nothing you have probably seen before it is tones of layers of laminate put together they do custom the material is cut like wood has a huge ability for overhang without additional support . It is amazing and I am going to actully put it in my kitchen. The clients have a B&B so that counter gets alot of use and still looks like new infact if you notice they use the material for a cutting board. We used the leftover material in a double thickness for a fireplace mantel. This stuff is amazing and there is a California distributor we had it shipped to S. BC for this install.

I'd paint the paneling and keep the peninsula cabinets. They're fabulous!

I like the idea of an inexpensive laminate for the countertop for the temporary update, to save money for the big one down the road.

With three kids, don't get rid of any upper cabinets just yet. I'd live in the house for a while, use the kitchen a lot, and after at least a few months see if you can do without the storage from those cabinets.

The Viking range was a nice surprise to me lol.

Thanks, Becky. There are actually four kids...but one stays out of pictures because she is always at my heels!

kcjj, that's one more reason to keep those cabinets : ) .

We're finishing up our new house, and chose Formica for the perimeter countertops. It's held up well in our current house, and the price was right. And it seems to be as bullet-proof as anything else (which is not particularly lol). I also like that it's much more gentle and forgiving than stone for setting down plates and glasses, especially for kids with a bit too much energy!

I agree that living with the upper cabinets for a while before you remove them is the best idea. If you can keep them empty, then you can remove them. I also would not paint them, partly because of the knots, and partly because of the exposed hinges. I think you will want to change all the hardware anyway, but I prefer hidden hinges with painted cabinets.

I would not hesitate to paint the paneled walls - I did that in my parents' house, and it helped a lot.

Last house, I had that cabinets over the peninsula thing and it irked me every. single. day. But I couldn't afford to give up the storage. With your kitchen, I think you can give it up as you have a lot of other storage.

I would paint the paneling. I would not paint the cabinets.

I would change the floor. It's too busy to play nicely with the knotty pine cabinets.

Countertops need to be a light color. And a calm light colored floor that isn't making a statement. New hardware and under cabinet lighting.

Nice kitchen. The house looks like a treasure and I would be looking at preservation vs trend chasing.

ci_lantro (love the name).... wouldnt preservation mean keeping the floors? its trend chasing to think they are busy. a very few years ago it was still 'ok' to have a busy granite counter with a mosaic tile backsplash... now not ok. its amazing how the style glasses we wear change so quickly!

Here is a link to 56 model homes that you can peruse at your leisure. It may help you get ideas. http://tours.stevenjamescollins.com

Just paint the paneling to match the family room or white like the floor (we painted the cheap paneling in our old house Antique White, it made a huge difference!). If you can afford to change the backsplash and counter, do. Or just the backsplash. The floor is classic, love it!

Leave the cabinets alone, at least for now. It's too bad the peninsula uppers are so low. Ours are higher, and much less obtrusive but store all the dinnerware convenient to the dishwasher on one side and the table on the other! The dishwasher really should be on the other side, not next to the range. What an awesome range!

Is that an outlet on the front of the sink? Or maybe the disposal switch? Get a brown plate for it.

On the peninsula, why is there no top drawer above the cabinets, on either side? and the wood seems to be a different color?

If you can afford to change the back splash and bench-tops do, in a lighter surface you can afford. I'd remove the cupboards over the peninsula as they block light and makes the space smaller. Paint the walls in the eating area to match the family room. The floor is a classic leave it.

Paint the paneling but it should be done by a pro and with you not living in the house at the time. It must be primed with BIN, a shellac primer that smells to high heavens. Then the knots are filled and another coat of BIN is applied, then two finish coats. It's really not a DIY project and it is expensive to have done.

Then live with the rest until you decide what you want to do. DO NOT start spending money on cosmetic changes - save it for when you do a BIG change.

Your kitchen is VERY charming. Here are my suggestions.

Paint the paneling white.

Do not paint your cabinets.

Replace the countertops with white laminate or Corian. Replace the backsplash with something white.

Do not use any GRAY in your kitchen.

Use cute, white curtains at the Windows.

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. It has helped me think this through and you’ve actually confirmed some of my gut feelings. I didn’t really want to paint the cabinets, but every time a friend or family member sees the pictures, they ask if I’m painting the cabinets or using gray. I have never really been a gray fan and have no gray anything at the moment, but since that’s what everyone seems to be focused on, I wanted to consider it.
But here are the things I think I can do short-term that will make this a nice space for the foreseeable future.

Pay pros to paint the paneling.
White laminate countertops to match the floor.
Remove window coverings and figure out something else for those.
New ceiling fan.
New cabinet hardware.
Replace switch plate on front of sink (for garbage disposal).

I plan to leave the cabinets over the peninsula for a while and see how that goes.

I think this will lighten and freshen the room while keeping in character of the home and not breaking the bank.

I like the idea of larger floor rugs to help with the busyness of the flooring. Are you thinking black? Or some other color?

I feel like the room needs another color besides wood, black, and white, and most people would probably do red or yellow, but I don’t love those. I like charming, not so much kitschy. Any suggestions there?

I’m also going to post a picture of the laundry room. It is separated from the kitchen by a pocket door. It is very large and I would like it to be kind of our mud room, where the kids can drop backpacks and jackets and I can try to contain the school and mail clutter. The last door on the right is a half bath and the door at the end goes to the garage. Should I go ahead and paint the paneling here too? And any other suggestions for utilizing this space well? To the left there is enough space before those cabinets on the wall for a second fridge, which I may want to put there because the main fridge is kind of small due to the cabinets being low. And the right is where the washer and dryer would be. The scale of the photo seems off a little bit. The picture shows less of the front part of the room than there really is. There is also a broom closet to the right that isn’t shown (but I am really excited about since I’ve never had so much storage before).

Thanks again! Now I am anxious to get back in the house and get some quotes for the work!

I think you’re on the right track. There is absolutely no reason to go with gray anything here. It’s trendy now, but in a few years, it’s going to look just as dated as beige everything looks to us now. As for pops of colour, consider bright blue/turquoise. I can’t quite see what the current backsplash is (or if it’s just painted wall), but make it white and that will go a long way to lightening things up. Get some LED under cabinet lighting too, in a warm white.

i agree that red goes to kitsch very fast. blue, subtle or not, can go nice with black and white.

i was searching for pics same time as paddy was typing, we're on the same page for the blue.

i also think yellow is less problematic than red, esp with blue thrown in, becomes more of portuguese pottery than diner style.

Well, I just have to say that it looks like you have a wonderful house. And whatever you do that makes it "yours" I know will be wonderful, too. (And I love yellow, btw, especially for a kitchen.)

I think your measured approach (the one that starts "pay pros to paint") is very wise. I think you will be surprised how much painting the paneling white helps. While the painters are in the house, I suggest you have them do the paneling in the laundry room as well. Much less expensive than having them return another time. Your idea of using it as an entry space (which I think has a nicer ring than "mud room" Ha. Ha.) is excellent. There are many fairly inexpensive stand-alone hall trees on Houzz. I suspect some are short enough to go on the wall opposite the sink that has the high cabinets. With designated hooks and baskets for each member of the family, this would certainly help with clutter as well as keeping school material, mail, keys in a consistent place. You may need two hall trees for your large family.

When you are ready, I'm sure all of us would love to see other rooms in your new home and provide any assistance we can.

Taking out the floating cabinet would be a must for me. A soft yellow on the paneling walls might be nice with the existing wood cabinets.

Then I’d wait on counters and backsplash until I was sure I loved the wood cabinets.

Sounds like a plan. I would just add.... for the sake of discussion.... that if you are crafty/detail oriented and WANT to diy your own painting, its certainly not impossible, just very time consuming and involves painstaking attention to detail - thorough prep/degreasing, priming as described above, light sanding/vacuuming/wiping between coats, foam roller application etc. Yeah the primer smell is intense (wear vapor mask + have good ventilation) but at least shellac/alcohol base odor clears out faster than some of the nastier solvents that can linger for days/weeks.

Black/white + wood allows you all kinds of accent color options - how bout chartreuse or yellow green? Cant wait to see your progress reports!

I like your plan : ) .

I would go with green or blue. Green might be especially nice with the wood, and you have a range of greens to choose from.

I like your plan as well. It will make for enough changes to make the space more comfortable and brighter until you decide where you want to take it in the future. I couldn't help but notice how much brighter the white countertops in the laundry room looked and I think a white laminate in the kitchen would do the same. You might consider just using a standard 4" backsplash in the kitchen for now. Then you won't be tearing out a backsplash in the future if you decide to make other updates. Good luck with your project and please, if you would, post pictures of updates!

following

I’ve heard that it’s possible to replace just the laminate and keep the plywood underneath resulting in a much less expensive project than a complete tear out and replacement. Is there any way to know whether that would be possible short of having a countertop person come out to look? I know a person I plan to ask about it, but I don’t have access to the house right now to have them look and am curious about the difference in costs.

And thanks for all the interest in the project! I would love to keep you all updated on it, and would also love feedback about other rooms. The living room is kind of a blank slate and I don’t want to use my current living room furniture, so I would especially love help with that. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of that room except the one above of my kids laying on a carpeted floor. But I will be back asking for more help soon, I am sure!

Painting the paneling to match living room will brighten it beautifully. It is a big DIY job but possible if cost is an issue. Likewise there are products to paint countertops, but check with pros who can recover the laminate top layer.
A couple crazy ideas for the cabinets over the peninsula. Could you keep part of them and add lighting under them? Then use the rest on the cabinets to be the base of a built in bench in eating area? It would a job for expert woodworkers but it would open the area to light and keep storage.

You don't even have to remove the old laminate. It can be sanded down and new laminate applied. If you google it, there are numerous articles and videos explaining how it's done. Laminate can be purchased in 4x8 sheets and cut to fit.

See if they still manufacture your cabinets, or your can find a carpenter to fix the doors on the cabinets over the island. You could replace what is there with shorter cabinets, just one square's worth, not two. Open up but still keep some storage. Also might want to get glass inset doors. That's what I have in my upper cabinets in my kitchen.

I had a similar layout with cabinets over the peninsula and ended up removing them. It made such a difference in our space. I also painted the paneling and the cabinets.

I just realized I haven't taken pictures since we replaced the floor and finished putting hardware on the cabinets, but you get the idea.

I painted the knotty pine paneling in my back hall that the previous owner put in back in the 60's and it came out great. So much better than sheetrock. Sand it lightly, do a prime coat and then paint. Mine is vertical on the top and then half way down they went horizontally so we put in a chair rail at that point and painted it 2 colors. I am very pleased. I think your cabinets are going to look great if they are painted!

If you actually want to try to keep some of the feel of the kitchen, here is a retro kitchen we renovated that might interest you. Though we don't think painting over the knotting pine is a great idea, you might look into other ways to redo the kitchen instead.

If you use the correct primer, the dark color of the knots will not bleed through - you might see the texture and outline of the knot which simply adds character - its real wood, its not fakey plastic picture of wood on mdf. Character is good! However if it bothers you then use a good wood fill + sand before priming.

Must use a oil based or shellac based primer - Ive had good results with zinsser Cover Stain (oil base). It stinks but clears out pretty fast with good ventilation. Here is an article that explains more about it: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/discussions/topic/painting-to-cover-knots-wood

I do love your color scheme and retro theme CHi- even if I disagree w your knot advice!

My friends treated and painted their knotty pine wainscot paneling as you describe. Then painted. The knots are not visible. Looks good. Only works with real wood.