IMO the travertine is light and I think you need to address the lighting first . All bulbs should be LED 4000K and I do not think vinyl plank unless it is white will make the space feel lighter. Make sure when choosing the cabinet color it is awarm white to work with the floors I would not do the dark island keep everything light. Trade the dark furniture for something lighter like the stools for instance.Fix the lighting then see how it looks. BTW I never think overlaying tile with any flooring is a good idea the difference in the height of the new flooring will affect everything like doors , appliance fit and stairs just a no from me.

You're in Florida. Embrace the travertine and work with the color which is also in your backsplash. If you're determined to paint your cabinets, choose a white from the lightest color in the current flooring so they "talk" with each other.

I'm not sure why you wouldn't consider a much more budget friendly way of lightening your space. Your furnishings seem so dark and heavy for Florida--counter stools, dining set. Sofa color doesn't work with the travertine. You could hire an interior designer or color consultant to choose a few pieces that might make you reconsider painting the cabinets altogether. For one thing, your wall paint doesn't work with your floors, which are warmer than the color of your walls. Honestly, there are other, better solutions than laying on inferior materials to an expensive floor.

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Here's a very warm looking kitchen with travertine flooring. Notice how a couple glass-fronted cabinets break up the cherry cabinets. Consider something like that--a couple cabinet doors in glass, paint cabinet backs to match walls, and display beautiful dishes and glassware. That, with new wall paint and changing out some furnishings to work with floors (and lighting as Patricia suggests) could upgrade your open space, not cheapen it.

Agree 100% with housegal200. It's not your floors that are the issue. Her examples are perfect. Please reconsider painting your cabinets and covering your floors.

Please do not paint those awesome cherry cabinets. Different, lighting, Light fixtures, knobs/pulls, paint will all help.

You are right about paint the cabinets and travertine looks like the lobby of an office building most of the time but yours might look good with lighter cabinets .
But I think wood or wood look floor would look much better.

You’ll have to retile the back splash if you paint . The upper cabinets are one long row of doors. It needs to be broken up with some glass doors , open shelves or remove the upper cabinets all together .

That floor is beautiful and $$$. I agree with above -- lighten up in other ways, leave the floor alone.

Travertine is classic, while LVF is a material pretending to be wood. If history has taught us anything, it's that fake flooring have their moment for a little while, and then they are out. LVF would definitely cheapen your home. Take the advice of others here, and address some less invasive ways to brighten your home. Personally, I love your dark cabinets, but white cabinetry is a classic coastal look. Changing your lighting like Patricia suggested will help with the orange glow you're feeling is there.

Those floors are beautiful and tile is the perfect Florida beach floor. Much more practical with sand and water than even LVP (which is a great product in the right application). I would take the advice here and lighten up your furnishings (think light wood, wicker, beachy colored fabrics), paint the walls a pale aqua or other pastel that would compliment the cabinets and floor, maybe even replace the backsplash, but please don't paint the cabinets or cover up that beautiful floor!

I love your floors. Embrace them and work the other items around them. New wall paint, new counter + backsplash, some glass front cabinets, light colored furniture and then decide if you really still need to paint the cabinets. Good luck!

This is not specifically directed at the original poster here, but I'm going to go on a bit of a rant, I'm afraid. Why oh why are people in general so afraid of color on the walls? In the bazillion video calls I've been on in the last few months, I'm always amused and a little saddened by the beige walls, grey walls, sometimes white (wow, that seems like a risky choice, lol), but hardly ever any color on the walls. We have people here contemplating putting thousands of dollars into painting cabinets (nearly irreversible), replacing countertops and floors ($$$ and a P.I.T.A.), but painting the walls... only some variation of beige, grey or sometimes white. Now, if I lived in NYC or SF, I might do the same, but in Florida?? Go crazy! It's just paint - a few hundred bucks and easily changeable!

In this specific case, I'd avoid anything yellow, peachy, pinkish and stay on the blue-green side of the color wheel, which would compliment the brown/orange leaning cabinets and floors. Think spa colors.

crcollins: I totally get what you're saying. I've seen many a Design Dilemma poster ask about very expensive, disruptive changes, but repainting a wall (or replacing a honking TV, black leather manatee sectional) seems out of the question. I hope this poster considers getting at least a color consultant to help choose different wall paint and some furnishings that harmonize with her "givens" -- the current floors, backsplash, and cabinets. For a third the $$$ she could have an upgraded space.

It's a nice space but I agree that it looks a bit like a hotel and doesn't have a lot of personality.

As mentioned above, IMO the long bank of unbroken upper cabinets is the most problematic part of the kitchen. It makes the whole space look heavy and dark.

Painting the cabinets will visually lighten the space but the cabinet configuration with the soffits will still look generic and not fresh.

I agree with the advice above to not paint, rework some of the cabinet doors, upgrade your lighting and replace the heavy chairs and bar stools.

I would also consider replacing the microhood with a more modern hood. That will also help break up the long bank of cabinets. You can install a built in microwave in one of the reworked upper cabinets.

I would get some larger, natural sisal look rugs and runners to soften the travertine and leave it alone.

@housegal200 I am *dying* at manatee leather sectional. LOL

I agree with crcollins when it comes to paint, and especially so when there is dark woodwork (whether it be trim or cabinetry) in the room. Homeowners could look back at history, even if their home is not historical, and see that architects most often painted colors in rooms that featured dark stained wood. White walls especially, but even lighter versions of beige and gray, will only make the wood (and the room) appear darker. Instead, pick a color that compliments the wood, mutes the tones you don't like, like the orange, and see your room come alive.

I like your floors.

Can you put in a new backsplash--maybe something like shimmery sea glass color or even white. Get lighter furniture, and go with a toned down pale aqua walls. Then add a few accent pieces of the darker wood so you don't have the cherry kitchen contrasting with light, white everything else. Put a few glass doors in the kitchen, paint the cabinets a matching color inside and have lighting installed within the glass cabinets.

htduban: I'd like to take credit for the "manatee" comparison for overstuffed black and brown leather sofas--a sacred item that bedevils so many Design Dilemma posters who wonder what's wrong with their room. However, some other Houzz Commentor used it before I did. It cracked me, so I use it, too. There are lots of other comfortable leather options and colors, like camel or ivory that are a good compromise. I created a whole black/brown leather sofa Ideabook for people with the manatee problem if they have to keep one in their house.

Back to this thread. I do hope this Design Dilemma poster takes up a few of these suggestions, especially getting a pro in for a consult. If she looks at the photo (the one showing her feet :) you can see the color problem right there--wrong wall paint, wrong sofa color, wrong seat cover on stools that in no way work with the "givens." That's probably why the space feels off to her. Also, the style of the furnishings shown are too heavy for coastal feel--bars on chairs, for example. Well, I'm outta here. I hope we saved her some $$$ and headaches.

Painting those gorgeous cabinets will definitely cheapen the look as will putting cheap vinyl flooring over travertine. I live in Fl too and sold my condo for top dollar in 2016 with dark floors and dark cherry cabinets. But I had great lighting, light walls and light furniture including cream leather sofas and no dark heavy furniture.

Please don't paint those beautiful cabinets.

Thank you all for your terrific ideas & suggestions. I plan to take all of your suggestions seriously.

Let me address a couple comments:

• first, I realize my color choices do not coordinate well.
• I just recently started working with an interior designer to rework my space...we are still in the design phase
• initially, I wanted to just repaint the walls, update kitchen hardware, change all lights ( picked out in 30 minutes 😔), add more high hats, and buy new dining chairs, bar stools, all living room furniture.
• the more thought that we gave into listing all updates, added changing the 2 step bar to a large rectangle island. Once we change the island floor plan, we will need to either find similar travertine to fill those spots. That cost, along with the fact that we are tired of the dark floor led us on the path of a floor update.
• because we are adding a new island, we expect to be updating the countertop & backsplash too. We are looking into granite, however, most are dark & heavy...so we are now leaning toward quartzite. I don’t like the newer quartz countertops. This led us to considering painting our cabinets white.

All that said, your feedback will be an excellent starting point for me & my new designer to use going forward .

Those floors are beautiful and I would not cover them up. I would also not paint the cabinets.

Since you are wanting to lighten the space, have you considered doing a white island instead? I would also change/update the backsplash to a white tile to match the island cabinets. I would start there and then reevaluate for additional updates if needed.

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Quick question even though I thought I signed off: Is having the rectangular island a top priority? Also, your floor doesn't seem dark to most of us who posted. Well, anyway, good luck.

I don't suppose you have any leftover tile, or is there another area like a closet or pantry where maybe you could steal some tiles? That may not be practical depending on how well stuck they are, lol. Have you tried sourcing it lately? How many do you think you'd need? I don't think your floors are all that dark. I'd take travertine anytime over LVP, and I'm a big fan of LVP. We put it in our prior basement and I loved it but even though we went with a high end product and specifically said we were concerned about the sound, it still had that hollow sound when walked on that was not really satisfactory.

I've seen this a million times. When you come from the North, first you bring down too much northern furniture and ideas, and then you overreact and swing too far the other way. You find you never wear pantyhose again and you're dressed in shorts and sandals 90% of the time.

I'm in Florida..........do not place those cheap vinyl tiles over those artistic floors. Here are some kitchens with Travertine floors. White may not be the right color for those cabinets. Address the space as a whole and not just a bite at a time.

I'd consult with a marble flooring guy and find out if there is a sealer that can be applied over the floors or a pad that can be used on a buffer to dull down the shine on your floors. It's a bit fancy, and a flatter sheen would make them more casual.

Replacing the lightbulbs is not going to change much of anything in that room. Is there anyway you can change the shape of your island? Those angles from 10 years ago keep the homes in a time warp.

Do you have the floor plan from when you purchased your home? We can work from that.

Is it possible to make that a curved island? Perhaps that way you could work around the fact that you would need some more tile.

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Travertine is a classic material. Much like carrara marble will always be available, I don't imagine it would be too difficult to find a few filler tiles if you replace your kitchen island. Do you really feel your floor is too dark, or do you feel it is just too brown? I had a similar situation when I moved into my house. Tan flooring, beige walls, dark cabinets, yellow pot lights. The flooring, especially since yours is such high shine, will reflect the colors around the room. Once I painted my walls a light blue and swapped the lights for cool white bulbs, it totally changed the appearance of my floors, and I liked my dark cabinets much better.

@BeverlyFLADeziner - North or South - I don't think people wear pantyhose anymore :)

While neither the color nor the style of your cabinets would be my first choice, they look like they are of good quality and in great shape. I think you can work with them and your floors by adding some color in the backsplash and paint, and lighten the whole look with a lighter countertop (with a more modern edge). Swapping in a few glass doors on some of the uppers, adding under cabinet lighting, maybe changing out the hood - all much better ideas than covering the lovely floors.

I think you should work with your floors. Vinyl would cheapen your home. I think you should consider the suggestion about about a white island, and also about bringing in some colours on the walls. What is your personal style? Minimalist? French Country? You can swing your home in many different directions, as it is a bit of a blank slate at the moment.

Please do not desecrate those gorgeous floors and cabs. Please. I am not even a travertine fan, but your counters and even the backsplash look good. Replace the stools. Redo the island for a sleeker look. Tweak gently. You have a gorgeous home with great potential.

I would never ever cover over a real surface with a fake surface. Never.

Of the $700-$800K your house is worth, your floors are worth almost $100K. If it costs $30-$50K to REMOVE you can DOUBLE or TRIPPLE the price to install. Yes.

In order of operation, I would:

1. Change ALL lighting to lighten and update the entire home

2. Paint the beige walls WHITE (or at least primer them white)

3. Leave EVERYTHING alone for 1-2 months (yes...MONTHS)

4. Leave the SIZE of the island in tact...just drop the raised bar (chop it off and put down a large slab)

5. Pick a colour of your counters for a BRIGHTER colour as in BRIGHT WHITE (your kitchen is brown on brown with brown and this is a perfect example of the Brown Blahs). You can leave the cabinets dark brown but you REALLY need to update/brighten the counters. White counters reflect light UPWARDS....cool.

6. If you want a different colour for the island do NOT go dark...do NOT. You are getting RID of dark...not adding more.

7. Reassess your decisions before purchasing new furniture.

8. Realize the floors are NOT dark. In fact, they are as light as any PALE HARDWOOD will ever get. Even the lime-washed European Oak floors will be ROUGHTLY this colour. There would be NO POINT in covering up pale blonde STONE with pale blonde wood-look fakery.