Are you talking about painting your cabinetry or just painting the walls? I think you have a lovely kitchen, by the way, but I would definitely understand if you wanted to add some in-kitchen seating. One of the first issues I see with your current layout is a range top without a lot of safety space around it and no ventilation system in place. If you are thinking about adding or rearranging cabinetry, this is something you should at least talk about doing, moving the range top to a safer wall location and adding ducted ventilation if you can. That would be a huge step toward making your kitchen work harder for you. As to the island, It's perfectly possible with the proper bracing to add a full 15" overhang to allow for seating without needing to add cabinetry. In fact, you'll need to be careful to maintain a 42"-wide walkway between any overhang and surrounding cabinetry if you go this direction, possibly more depending on the type of seating you have and where it is located. If you are looking at solid surface, are you talking about quartz, Corian, or something else? If you're looking at quartz, if you have a ProSource in your area, they have good pricing on Cambria which is one of the best qualities available.