what's "cheap" to you?

$100?

$500?

$1000?

I'd paint all that wood trim a bright white, and prob pick another wall color.

Find a lighter piece of art for that wall by the table.

remove that plastic tin-look backsplash and redo it yourself w/a subway tile, or cheaper, do a painted beadboard backsplash. (google how to do it).

here is the tile w/a matte black hardware.

what is this peninsula and why is it solid on the kitchen side? this is a horrible waste of space.

What's happening on the other side? This appears to be pieced in on your space and really doesn't work as a peninsula.

I'd look on craigslist for something selling their old oak cabinets (you can find entire kitchens for $300) and replace what you have.

look for a second-hand ceiling fan while youre at it.

This is what you want a peninsula area to look like. you want drawers/doors on the kitchen side.

If you'd like to read how she did it on a budget, here

https://inbetweenchaos.com/2017/09/29/updating-a-90s-kitchen-without-painting-cabinets/

on the outer size, cover the panel portion w/shiplap or some type of trim molding and paint.

this owner put shelves to the right of the sink and tiled w/a white subway tile.

Hardware is a matte black knob and bin pull on the drawers. Pendant lights over the sink.

(as a side note to the owners w/that kitchen, they also did their bathroom. heres a before and after to look at, and you can read about it on that other link above

OK, back to your kitchen,,,,

for the center light, I'd do something like this one

use LED bulbs in 4000K temp.

Maybe instead of adding on that peninsula, do an island

This is what your style of cabinets would look like when painted and nickel hardware added. Ignore this backsplash.

what major city do you live near? let me try and find something

I’m in Columbus Ohio. And cheap is below $500 for me. And to answer your question, behind the bar is just chair space. Originally there was a washer and dryer set left there from the previous owner so that’s why there’s no cabinets on the other side.

I added more pics and ideas to my above comment. don't know if you read it before I edited.

so is that bar space staying? (I hope not. it really doesn't work the way it is. You can make it better and give yourself more storage.) some other itdeas, how about if you removed and did an island?

The placement could be this way, or the other way,,

You can easily do this on your own if you have some basic DIY skills.

Make this w/plywood for your fridge surround, paint, and get storage above

you could do it plywood for the sides, and find a used oak upper cabinet to attach on top, paint.

Yes I saw. Hesitant to remove the space as it can be out of budget. There’s electric and plumbing still through part of it. Towards the back. Maybe that part down the road.

So matte black hardware any not silver?

I would focus on upgrading the lighting, replacing the boob light with a track system that you can focus on the cabinet fronts & adding some LED's under the upper cabs. Then replace the backsplash and make the peninsula useful and attractive. If you can't afford to install drawers or shelves in the peninsula, at least cover over the gaping hole where the W/D was with some beadboard to match the new backsplash as suggested above.

Definitely paint the walls and trim lighter colors. That's $100+ right there for oil base primer for the trim and good latex paint and primer for the walls. If you need to buy painting tools, i.e. brushes, rollers, paint pans, add $50.

So we have $350 left if you got the paint at a good price. Change out the lights. Change the one in the kitchen to something sleeker. You probably don't have the budget to change the fan so, take it down, clean it well and get a couple of cans of spray paint and paint the blades a creamy color and get a can of metal paint that coordinates with the color of the glass, and spray paint the metal after removing the glass.

Lights: $65, spray paint $30.

So we have around $250 left. Paint the back splash a color that will work well with the new color of the walls. If it can be removed without damaging the wall, do that and then paint the wall. If not, paint the backsplash.

Just realized you have wood doors too, so you'll need to add to your paint budget, probably another $40 for more oil base primer and paint.

So you probably have around $200 left. Do those things then reassess what needs to be done. The rug will probably work once you've brightened the room. Love your midcentury fireplace, please don't paint that.

Tell the doggo to get a part-time job, he probably eats you out of house and home! Very cute though.

Yes he does eat us out of house and home!! Thank you. Thank you everyone for your suggestions so far

mallorie, this is what I meant by looking on Craigslist.

check the surrounding cities and look for kitchen cabinets, by owner.

$500 for all of these cabinets. these are nice oak too. granite is for sale, but i'm sure you could bargain to get it included. no one is going to buy this granite w/o the cabinets!

https://columbus.craigslist.org/fuo/d/westerville-kitchen-cabinets/7496231062.html

I found these, and they're all under $250

This one is selling the entire kitchen w/the granite (if you can get it off w/o breaking) for a best offer of 2K. (I'm sure they'd take a lot less. no one is going to come in and pay them full price for this. Get some friends and tell them you'll do all the demo and offer cash)

https://columbus.craigslist.org/mat/d/milford-center-haas-kitchen-cabinets/7496201874.html

Then, learn how to paint them.

you'd have to measure and see what would fit with what you have. then you would prime them and paint them.

learn how to DIY. remove the center panel and put in glass. make some shelving. The info is out there if you want to learn.

Great way to get what you want on a small budget.

Have a little bit of a tidy up first before you ditch the rug. Often times it's the clutter of life which gets in the way for our daydreams ! The green of it isn't jarring but I'm struggling to see that sort of green in your kitchen accessories. Maybe a fruit bowl or utensil holder would share the green around.