Knock out that peninsula and put in an island. Either lighten up your floors, or your cabinets or both. Having dark flooring and dark cabinets feels too heavy. Obviously, you will need new lighting. The trend now is gray, gray and more gray. I am almost sick of it. Be original. Try other cool colors like blues and greens. If you live in the Metro Atlanta Area, call us for a consultation of the flooring.

Hallmark Floors

“Obviously it's easiest to move sink to center island and keep everything else but then stove would be in main walkway, etc.”

I don’t see an island, Alicia.

If you don’t have undercabinet lighting—or if you do have it but it’s something other than hard-wired LED—I suggest adding it. :)

Thank you very much.

When we moved in the entire home was a very dark chocolate brown so we had painters just do one color entire home until we could figure out what to do. But we could definitely look at painting kitchen- just not sure how to do that without it looking weird with how open concept it is with living area. Like where would you stop the paint for kitchen? Leave the back of the bar same color as living room and stop at that?
Photo for reference on how close they are.

Sorry Sammy. We were originally looking at moving peninsula into an island. You are correct in that there is no current island. I was saying doing (which we originally planned) proposed some issues that people pointed out on here that I did not realize it would cause. Thanks for your suggestions.

You have a natural divider between your kitchen and family room with that white wall (can't tell, is it shiplap?) Leave the back of the peninsula the same color as the family room.

If you're only going to be there a couple of years, save your money. You have a perfectly fine kitchen as it is. If you feel like you have to do something, I would change the appliances to stainless and some different window treatments. I'm not crazy about the map over the fireplace so I'd get a nice canvas artwork and some candles for that space.

Sophie is a bit crass, but I have to agree about all the magnets on the refrigerator. The space will seem calmer without the distraction of them.

Your kitchen looks functional enough to live with for the next few years. Don’t do a thing and save your money for your dream kitchen.

I think your kitchen looks pretty good. Agree with others, replace appliances with SS. I don't like stuff on refrigerators either. Get a large magnetic board for your office and display them there. I would have put a buffet type piece on the wall with the plants and used it for my coffee area, then placed a nice print/painting over it. As others have said, if you're only going to be there a few years, save your money. Enjoy your home.

When you start it opens a can of worms . I would consider stainless appliances I think in 2 yrs you will recoup the cost and make sure the fridge is counter depth.When you go to sell declutter , clean and thats it.

okay thank you!!

Yes we put shiplap in that dividing wall. we do not have a TV, which is what I assume people would put there, so we hate staring at a blank wall.

My husband and I travel a lot so we pick up a magnet at the places we travel to (that's what is on the fridge). it's a large part of our life. I will try to find another way to display these.

We will definitely do the appliance upgrades. We had a coffee bar there but never used the space so that's why I did the herb wall.

I agree that changing out your appliances to SS will brighten the room a lot......also you have a wall space at the end of your refrigerator run that you might consider making for extra storage aka a wine fridge and open shelving to create a mini bar area or a combo of pantry area and mini bar. New paint.

I would also add more pot lights in the ceiling of the entire kitchen area in a uniform grid that will work with what you already have, find a very beautiful chandelier for over the dining table and make that a focal point to take away from the utility of the kitchen. Also a great sleek fan for the living area.table, and new fun SS knobs for the kitchen. And polished window treatments for the niche by the dining area.

"get stainless appliances so you can’t cover the entire front of the fridge with crapola."

Huh? My stainless steel fridge is covered with a bunch of my personal stuff, which you seem to think is crap.

Alicia - I would get a couple of big magnetic message boards, put them on the wall with the shiplap and display your magnets there.

https://www.containerstore.com/s/office/message-boards-accessories/12

It looks like all you need to do is go for all SS appliance, add some lighter hardware and paint. That should be it.