You need a new lighting plan, before you do anything. One central light fixture is the worst possible kitchen lighting that exists. No wonder you feel the kitchen is dark! It is. And the only thing that fixes that is lighting.

I second the lighting comment! I have cabinets and counters similar to yours and my Kitchen is far from dark! I have several recessed lights on both sides of my Kitchen AND under-cabinet lights under all the upper cabinets AND pendant lights over my sink for night time AND pendant lights over my peninsula (that's a peninsula you have, not an island).

Lights also need to be located so they (1) provide overall light in the Kitchen and (2) light up your work areas without casting shadows on your workspace.

I would start with under cabinet lights and see how it helps. Additional recessed lights will be more work.

"Dark" Kitchens are usually the result of poor lighting, not the colors of cabinets and counters.

You might consider replacing the dark countertop.

The cabinets are lovely. Consider painting the back that face the living area:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5048501/back-of-upper-kitchen-cabinets-facing-living-room

what is that orange reflection??

if you want to really modify this, you're going to need some money. don't know what your budget is, but rather than do some half-a**, save up until you can do it completely.

Those uppers have to come down if you want more room and sight. Find another place for your stuff, or purge. you seem to have sufficient cabinets elsewhere.

do you have a pantry? have room for one?

without seeing the rest of the house it's hard to say if it's worth redoing the layout.

otherwise, those cabs can be painted, or you can reface them w/something else.

I'd remove the black countertop and get something lighter.

redo all of your ceiling lighting

Celadon and Buehl, I agree that lighting is very important. I have included two pictures that provide a better view of the ceiling in the kitchen and the adjoining family room. The kitchen has a large skylight and 6 ceiling lights. When all the lights are on in the kitchen, it is really bright. I would like to replace the countertops with a lighter color.

Shirlpp, great idea to paint the back of the cabinets that face the family room. What color would you recommend?

BeverlyFLADDeziner, removing the upper cabinets makes sense. We could add pendant lights for more light. There are 3 counter height stools that we use at the counter. Could we still have 12" cabinets for storage below?

what you want to do on the back of that peninsula, is trim it out and then paint. this is an easy DIY

do the math and figure out the size of the stiles and the spread. Here they didn't do a baseboard trim on the bottom, but on others they have

actually, just match the width of the two stiles you already have, but them on either end, and remove that small quarter round at the bottom and replace with something like the pic ^

If you remove those uppers, carefully remove the stiles on that one and transfer it to the lower piece on the ends. super easy.

paint the same as your wall color

another design

you could remove what's there and choose to do smaller stiles.

some people tile, or do a stencil

My first thought was also to remove the uppers and place them back to back with the current peninsula cabinets (that's if the heights would work out).