To answer your questions

1- I would do nothing. Those cabinets are past their prime and a coat of paint won't update them. The trim is also cheap, painting it is an option, but I wouldn't keep it the same.

2- Painting those cabinets isn't worth the time or money

3-We would need to see the living room

4- If everything HAD to stay as is, look for a wood or LVP that is slightly darker or lighter than the wood trim in a natural color

I think you really need to evaluate your budget and what you want to do. IMO either keep everything the same, or you do a full remodel. New cabinets, new flooring, painted trim. It's really about how much you can and are willing to spend.

Replacing the cabinets...yikes. I don't think that would be in our budget.

Thank you for your ideas.

What about refacing the cabinets? I don't know what the cost would be, but it might be worth checking out..

Wih an Ikea sale, $1000-$2,000 without seeing the rest of the kitchen. I would at least color match a door and paint the cabinet wood(?). If the cabs are all laminate, research painting laminate cabs. Painting the trim BEFORE new flooring will update the look.

I'm not familiar with cabinet refacing. I'll look into it. Thanks!

Are you willing to diy? I think IKEA cabinets could be a great solution for your kitchen. LVP throughout would work for the floors. If you're willing and able to do it yourself, you could work on replacing the trim over time.

Honestly...DIY scares us. I don't think I could mess up painting trim, but I'm not sure. My husband thought he would be able to replace the flooring himself but he was looking at laminate. Is the process different or more difficult with LVP?

Watch some YouTube videos. I bet you can do more than you think. And assembling IKEA cabinets can be tedious, but not too hard, and it doesn't look like you'd have a huge quantity of cabinets, which would help a lot.

I've not installed it, but LVP comes in versions that are click-together and supposed to be very easy.

Refacing will cost more than an Ikea kitchen. There are installers who specialize in Ikea kitchens in metro areas especially. Cabs are meant to be DIY assembly and even hanging/instalation (YouTube is your friend), but any handyman/carpenter should be able to install.

I would leave that kitchen alone. If you had money to throw at it, sure you could redo the whole thing in the latest style. Since that is not the case, here is my kitchen philosophy- the kitchen is a workroom. Yours is perfectly nice. It is not ugly, worn out, or dirty. Spend your money on furniture, textiles and accessories. Improve the interior decoration and comfort of the rooms you use for living- for me the most important rooms are my dining room and library or living room. Kitchens and baths just need to be good enough in my book.

What is your current budget range for flooring, including installation if not DIY? And the square footage?

We were hoping to spend less than $5,000. The square footage is about 800.

I love your philosophy Rita. Thank you

if replacing the cabinets isn't an option, I have seen some people have decent results painting them. I think it's the oak strip that makes them look so "dated."

Once they are all painted the same color, they do look a bit better - at least to my eye.

I've seen examples of your style cabinets where the wood trim is painted to match the cabinet door and then hardware is added. Really improves the look in a very budget friendly way. It's a DIY that you could probably manage.

A fresh coat of paint on your cabinets and door will give them new lease on life!

Do one solid color, something like this. Add some hardware. And BOOM! New kitchen!

My husband and I installed some snap-in-place vinyl flooring. It was easy to do. We are not major DIYers. There are videos on youTube for everything DIY, so you can watch the process and decide if it is for you. If you go the snap-in-place DIY route, the trick is to have baseboards and think about what your other transitions are. Because the hardest thing is getting the edges right. When your less than perfect cut is covered by a baseboard, no one will know it wasn't done by a pro. When you watch the videos, pay attention to the actual work involved (the cutting, the removal of the baseboards) and think about how well your skills match. Tools and jigs to make clean, straight cuts tend to be fairly inexpensive.

In a previous house, my husband and I had cheap laminate. It didn't hold up well. Also, by the kitchen sink, where there was frequently water spilled and at least one plumbing disaster, the water seeped into the cracks (this is why they recommend you seal it) and warped a bit. If you do go with laminate, make sure you pay attention to the quality. Some laminate is basically MDF with paper printed with a wood grain pattern covered with a clear coating. In short, what you see is very thin and with a little normal wear and tear is gone fast.

If you are paying someone to install it, pay a lot of attention to price/quality, because you will be paying a lot for installation and the difference in price of the flooring may not be that great compared to the overall price tag.

The great thing about the snap-in-place is that we could stick it right over the existing flooring, which was not in good shape. This meant we didn't have to get the old, glued-on flooring off or worry about underlayments.

Books are helpful, too. Places like Home Depot have books on DIY floors. Your library might, too.

Research prep steps and proper paint for painting laminate if you plan to paInt the whole doors. Google and YouTube are your friends.

Look at something either lighter or darker than trim....the tones are wrong in the sample.

I agree with Rita - for the amount of your budget, you are NOT going to make any changes to this kitchen beyond basic cosmetics.

Even an IKEA kitchen would cost more than that because by the time you finish demo; replace counter; replace sink and faucet and whatever else is uncovered, you will have more than blown your budget.

And if you have no DIY I don't think hanging kitchen cabinets it the place to start - putting together IKEA furniture is completely different than hanging cabinets.

Also put me in a category that would put my disposable income into something other than making expensive changes to a kitchen for purely cosmetic issues. I just finished an ungodly expensive gut remodel which included kitchen and bath but I lived with my fugly kitchen for many years and cooked a LOT in it - everything worked but it was "dated" and ugly and original builder grade from 1965.

Change the flooring to something nice - I agree that wood laminate is not the best choice for either kitchens or bathrooms. Bathrooms don't have to match flooring so I would go with something different there as I am not a huge fan of fake wood in bathrooms anyway.

Paint is obviously a relatively inexpensive fix if you are painting yourself. Otherwise a good paint job isn't cheap.

Cost out flooring that you like and paint and see what is left of your budget at that point and then consider how you want to spend that money.

Here is a googled picture with similar trim and the flooring we are looking at

With a budget of $5k, I'd do the floor in the bathroom and LR/DR.

For the LR/DR, I'd choose a good grade laminate plank and do it myself. Laying click-flooring is pretty easy. Just read the directions and watch some videos. If you have a friend who has done it before, that can help too. We did our basement in a day. Choose a mid-dark brown that you like and that doesn't argue with your trim. You may decide to paint or replace the trim later, but you won't have to now.

For the bathroom, I'd buy plain porcelain mosaic tile-- 2" white squares for example. Again, as long as you prep the floor carefully (prep is the key to any good job and it's where a lot of DIYers skimp), this is a job you can do yourself. Note: I would not recommend DIYing a shower floor. But a small bathroom floor is pretty straightforward.

The most dated part of what you've shown are those kitchen cabinets. So if you can stand to wait, save your cash and do the whole kitchen -- cabs, floor, counters -- at the same time. Laying floor around cabinets that are going to come out in a couple years is an exercise in futility. The new floor will just make the cabinets look worse. And there's no cost-effective bandage for them-- paint won't do it and refacing builders-grade cabs is a waste of cash.

With a budget of $4 per square foot including installation, ($5000/800 square feet), I'd go to a local flooring shop and ask them to show you what fits the budget range. Take a sample door or trim piece with you.

LVT planks....better for wet areas than laminate. If LVT tile has a matt finish, it looks very close to porcelin tike if it is grouted. That may be worth considering in bathroom and using planks elsewhere. Based on what I see on my monitor, the tones are still wrong. You need to bring samples into your space and lighting to properly choose to get the right choice for your trim.

Just paint that trim! why try and match flooring to it? Do a little everyday, and within a month it will be done. seriously. paint for like, an hour a day. It's not a big deal. (make sure you clean them and prime them if necessary. I don't know if they're that 'plastic-wood type of molding or real wood)

you only have 800 sq ft. not that much to do. leave the bedrooms if you want.

You said you wanted an update. just throwing down LVP isn't really an update. So paint the trim! leave the doors if you want, as it looks fine w/white trim work.

those melamine cabs can be painted, but why bother? check Craigslist for people practically giving away these solid oak cabinets and paint those. or try the Ikea.

I've see people on craigslist sell an entire oak kitchen with granite and appliances for under 1K.

You will never match the trim and floor...never! It will always look like you tried and missed. People who build new with site finished wood floors do not match floor and trim. There needs to be contrast...go way lighter or darker with the right tones....NO pink.

This is so stressful haha

hi I've been researching vinyl plank flooring for our basement. I've discovered a highly rated company Flooret and their LVP is Modin Vinyl Rigid Planks, they sell direct to consumer spending , no middle man, no unhealthy emissions to worry about, 40 mil wear later, water proof. price 3.95 sq ft. check it out online

So I’m having someone come in for a quote about patient the cabinets. What color would you do? The flooring would stay the same for a while. Any ideas on backsplash? Hardware?

Be very careful and do not sign until you have done some research on your own. The prep process and paint used has to done correctly or it will peel and chip...a waste of your hard earned money. Make him/her explain in detail the prep process and paint used. Do not waste your $ On an inadequate job that will eventually look worse. In fact, YOU could and should really do this and then get those new floors. YouTube and the internet are your friend: “how to paint 1980s wood and laminate cabinets.”

https://www.thehandymansdaughter.com/tips-for-updating-80s-kitchen-cabinets/

I would not invest too much in painting those cabinets.

However if you have time, you could sand, prime & paint just the wood parts similar to the color of melamine yourself.

Worse case scenario, get new cabinets later when you can. It's time to change them anyway. Besides if it does work out, you bought your kitchen some more time to save up & treat yourself to an updated kitchen.

Besides, it will be a good investment to do a good remodel 4- 5 years before selling. Trying to sell as is, lower offers to be anticipated.

Hope that helps :)

A link for more information

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/542965298819501730/

why are you wasting money painting those laminate cabinets? they're already white. you could paint the wood portion white, yourself, to match the cabinet.

A really good, pro cabinet painter would charge 3-5K to paint regular oak kitchen cabinets. For that money you could get all new doors and drawers made for your shell. OR, look into Ikea cabinets.