i think light coloured wood flooring (white ash?) would look lovely and if you can paint the doorframe white I think it will be an improvement. I would take away the black barchair and replace with contemporary metal barstools or such.

Thank you scarsmum for the tips, I'm afraid the white hardwood floor wouldn't work with our living room hardwood colors. We were thinking of ceramic or marble floors in the kitchen. The furniture is not ours because our house is being rented right now, looking at having a contemporary feel to our house.

Anyone else able to offer some advice? We'd love to hear from you.

Lighten up with a new backsplash, lighter tile floor not in solid color, you can paint the bar chairs.

The current colours make the kitchen feel small and dark it may be an idea to look into replacing the doors and drawer fronts with a white and use a cupboard paint in white to match the end boards etc. Great idea to have ceramic or marble tiles nice and easy to clean :-) and the light will reflect from them too improving the feel of what should be the heart of any home. Also good idea to paint the bar chairs to match in the kitchen as suggested by justnesting but go one further and recover the seat pad in a red leather look fabric.

Thanks for the tips, thinking dark ceramic or marble is a great idea. Any idea about a color for the walls?

Maybe black and white marble looking floors. Maybe paint the walls a cool tone of blue or green. I would paint the island cabinet off white as in a tile or marble.

Will you do an all new kitchen? Appliances and countertop too?

What style(s) do you prefer? What color and style is your furniture?

What are your thoughts on this? Offwhite cabinets, light countertop, slate-ish floor.
See how it matches with the dark wood?
I'm showing you this, because I think an open kitchen should be fun yet neutral, because it'll be there all the time when you are at home. White cabinets keep it airy, so you can add some drama with wall color and/or decoration. It's easier to paint a wall than your cabinets.

Hi and thank you for your interest in our question. Yes, we would like to change everything as you see it and put stainless steel appliances. We like the idea of painting the walls a cool tone of blue.
I think our style is contemporary. with the color of the cabinets we thought we would probably get red or black bar stool
I really like the picture of the kitchen you've attached, I like the idea of contrasting colors.

These are pictures of styles we are going after.

Bethwray hit it right with her idea of matte gray linen-look floor tile. The granite seems mostly gold and black with some gray. Run the linen pattern perpendicular to the living room floor. Adding brushed stainless barstools and countertop appliances will pick up on the floor tile. If that is a black-painted soffit I see, I would paint it and the walls in a soft silvery gray, and the door and frame in the same color so you notice the glass first.

When changing the floor and complete kitchen, I'd also see if you can reconfigure it's layout. From what I can see in the pictures it would be nice to rotate the island, so you won't look into the kitchen from the living area. Try an online kitchen planner (such as IKEA's) to play with the layout.

Hi, I agree with a lot that was said. changing the appliances to Stainless will make a huge difference.
I just had a client that wanted mirrored backsplash for a small kitchen area and we did 12X12 square mirrored tiles and it really looks great and lightens up a dark kitchen.
Good luck

Hi, after you change out the appliances to SS and change your barstools - check out Holland - SS with wooden seat. If you want to go green, you can do a bamboo floor right over the tile or there are great wooden look tiles that are porcelain ceramic. Truly what darkens this kitchen is the applicances. I love the cabinet and the pulls... Good luck

Awesome ideas! thank you so much for all your input :) I agree with you (Organize with Design, LLC) I think the black on black right now is just too much (we blame the previous owners haha!)
the color of our cabinets also is one of our major concerns. We thought of black floors (marble or ceramic) for 2 reasons: 1) to match our backsplash. 2) Because we think other colors might not work with our redish cabinets. but now are concerned it would make the kitchen too dark? Would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Thanks.

you knoq, you have a lot of dark going on, bamboo flooring comes in many shades , maybe pick one that is a bit lighter than your carbinets. You can always change your hardware to a polished chrome or nickel to also brighten things up.... Bar pulls in 5" and 7" are great looking. Your backsplash is a bit dark but this is what you have to live with........ so enhance the things you can change.