These are the awful floors I have now! I am open to any opinions about new flooring-

Hi Lori!

I assume you meant easy and not expensive but looks lavish.

Anyway, black while in trend, is something that will go away as fast as it comes, If you are not looking for a total update, painting the cabinets, or re-staining them with a peel-and-stick backsplash is a good temporary solution until you are ready for a proper update.

Based on the flooring you select, the rest will follow suit,

one option could be - marbled tiles, red cedar cabinetry, and terracotta stacked backsplash with black accents.

another option could be - oak flooring, with Navy or emerald base cabinets, and black or cream uppers and gold hardware.

Thanks for pix Miloni. As beautiful as those cabinets look, I’d like to keep things more traditional.

For flooring, the best option for most people is LVP. It comes in a ton of colors and is durable (read: indestructible from kids and dogs). I would look at lighter colors for your floor - ash, light oak, etc. keep away from anything that has hints of gray.

The lighter colors seem to work with any decor. For a black kitchen, it will offset the darkness of your cabinets. Any area rug will look good on them.

I have “reddish” wood floors and they are quite restricting. Take the LVP though the kitchen as well. Make sure to buy a good quality. (Not the cheapest.) The higher quality is thicker, which makes a difference. And have patience. There are a lot of companies and so many colors it’s dizzying.

What do you hate about the floors in the third pic you posted where they are a light blond color, where the semi-circular sofa is. I like them. Could you match them throughout the first floor?

That is great info, @RedRyder! Thank you so much!

The floors in the family room are light gray vinyl type flooring and I don’t think they would go with the traditional dining room…

Are those cherry hardwood floors? You can bleach them to make them lighter/less red or stain them darker. The PO of my house stained our floors dark, and they’re beautiful. The red is very subtle now— doesn’t clash with anything.

We had a couple professionals look at the Cherry floors and both said they’ve bleached but the Cherry eventually pulls through - I really don’t want to go w darker floor - ty

Those cherry floors are gorgeous. I would keep them over vinyl. Bleach them.

If you hate the floors and can afford to change them, change them. Yes, you can bleach them but the expense may not make you happy if the red might bleed through. If you have the funds set aside for new floors, get something you love. There are plenty of other LVP colors that will blend with the ones you have in the other room.

As someone with slightly “too red” floors, I’m voting for new ones. (Those of you who never had this shade of wood, they are hard to find area rugs for. They can visually dominate.)

I mean, oak floors go everywhere, match with everything. But I guess if you want a dark kitchen, then you're free of... any constraints!

floors like a santos mahogany

or brazilian mahogany. (aka brazilian cherry. They aren't an american cherry wood like our cabinets)

can't they be refinished?

and how to they border that portion where the dog is? or does that floor go throughout that area? how much sq feet are we talking about changing?

As for the cabs, they need a very good scrubbing and cleaning, change the hardware, and get a new countertop and backsplash. (have you gotten any quotes on painting? they must sand, prime sand again, and then spray. If all they do is prime and paint, you're in trouble)

Expect to pay more than a few thousand for a pro-paint job.

you have a small countertop area. are you in a town where pre-fabs are avail?

you could get new countertops for less than 1500 (total cost including install) by using prefabs.

Or, maybe look for a remnant or half slab. This is a TajMajal remnant at 100"X26"

easily fabricated for a small area like yours.

If you demo the tile yourself and prep, redoing the splash shouldn't be more than 500-1000, including tile.

Pick your flooring first.

then pick the other. (I'd still do countertop/splash first)

You could put in some glass in a few of the uppers

Before/After

I think you're saying you are going to pull out the vinyl in the family room also, right? Or are you keeping that and replacing only the kitchen and dining room? What's in the living room? I assume it's adjacent to the dining room or at least on the same level. Just trying to get clear on how much square footage you're looking at and what it has to blend with.

I'm not opposed to LVP, I put in on the lower level of my split level home over ceramic tile which is over concrete. It worked as the best option within my price range and looks good but it's in no way as nice as the oak hardwoods in the rest of the house. So I'm trying not to clutch my pearls at the thought of removing a hardwood in good condition and replacing it with LVP.

I understand that straight up bleaching the floor will eventually bleed reddish, but if you add stain to the flooring after sanding you should be able to manipulate the color. But if you want the kitchen and dining area to be the same, that really won't help you.

Long way to say, I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve or your budget. Can you summarize in one comment with more detail about flooring in adjacent rooms?

Super cute dog BTW.

I'm sorry but that black mockup br Paul F is depressing. Painting cabinets is expensive if done properly. Personally I would keep the cabinets as they are and get rid of the black valances and furniture. I would do hardwood floors: natural red oak

Your dog is adorable!

Thanks so much for all this wonderful advice! Maybe I should do a total remodel 😘
Open to any and all continued advice…. Window treatments, furniture, lighting! Thank you!

Agree the black cabs in such a small space with limited natural light would be dark and depressing. Considering how much you want done, clean up and new hardware on current cabs as Beth suggested. Temporary undercabinet lighting. Lose the valances over the windows to allow more natural light. Save money and work with a kitchen designer - not big box store designer- who can help create a story board to reflect your vision and stay in your budget. Be patient, you will get there.

Rather than black, I would paint the cabinets the same color of blue that is in the background and use that color for the seating also. Black is sooo depressing. There are many examples of the shade of blue I am referring to in other photos on Houzz of cabinets, chairs, tables, furniture painted in this shade of blue. They all look beautiful.

Lori, I am NOT a decorator but moved into a home almost 9 years ago that has a medetarranian vibe (stone columns, darker kitchen cabinets, textured walls, etc). If I changed everything to the way I wanted to, it would be very expensive. EMBRACE the style/colors you love and want to live in, and keep the furniture that you want (we kept some beautiful dark wood pieces) and "freshen it up". First, you seem like you have warm AND cool colors in your home. Because you love your dining room and it's a warmer red, stick with warmer colors (use your dogs color as a springboard to match ... lol).But keep the same color tone throughout the house. My suggestion for an update (and cost effective) is to keep your dining floors (maybe lighten) and kitchen cabinets. Change the other floors to a warm tone to tie everything in. Change hardware in kitchen to a more transitional/modern style (maybe a warm polished gold with sleek lines), new window treatments (linen roman shades), backsplash or counter update. In the dining room a transitional rug and updated head chairs. I did tan nuetrals when grey was the rage. I'm glad I stuck with what makes me happy. And keep the dog!!!!

Love this idea! and love my dog “Charlie”! He got a much needed bath but back out rolling around in the grass/dirt today 🤦‍♀️ gotta love him ❤️

Hire an experienced professional interior designer. Let them come see your home and learn your preferences. Together you will create a cohesive plan. The money you pay the designer upfront will save you money and headache later.

When replacing floors think about how silly it is to have hard ceramic/porcelain tile - hard on your legs and glass is 100% going to break where glass could survive being dropped on wood or linoleum. There is no reason to ever put that hard tile in any room or any house. And also how silly it is that some people have plastic that looks like wood on their floors (laminate). Either use REAL WOOD, or real plastic/vinyl!!! As crazy as it may seem, actually VCT that comes in 100 colors can be beautiful and lasts forever. If you do not want to spend the money for real wood - VCT by Armstrong is the 2nd best option. You can make a pattern with a border, or checkerboard, or other designs - put high gloss wax or polish and it looks GREAT. As for the cabinets, they are made of particle board (wood fibers pressed together with LOTS of glue off-gassing toxins for many years) - I would take them out and get solid wood cabinets or even antique metal cabinets. And get rid of all the black - white appliances and white trim ALWAYS looks great. Choose a nice color for the accent - pink, blue, yellow, green or whatever - anything but black or grey.

I think your kitchen is too dark for black cabinets, and probably for any dark color. Your appliances are black/stainless and your furniture is dark. Assuming you want an inexpensive update, I think light painted cabinets and new flooring. Then the dark table and chairs and the black bench will be make black accent color. I would also suggest removing the curtains and the items on top of the cabinets. It makes the room look heavy. I would paint the cabinet in the living room the same color or a darker version of the same color. I also see that you have no hardware on most of your cabinets so that would be another place to add black accent with new hardware.

Cabinet color really dominates a kitchen. As one who lived with dark cabinets in a north-facing kitchen for years, DON'T paint the cabs black! It's like cooking in a cave. I absolutely love my cabinets now that they are painted a warm white. It brightened up the entire room. I went with black appliances and countertops and even that required installing undercounter lighting because those black counters sucked all the light out of the room again. The lighting saved the day and now I love my new lighter, brighter kitchen! Incidentally, I have brazilian cherry floors and they were toned down with the warm white cabinets and look great.

Lots of great advice here. I like your intuition on one single flooring type throughout - currently looks choppy. And I'm pretty sure cabinets should be the same in kitchen And bar/ living room. In any case, the white bar cabinets look too "kitchen-y" and not sophisticated.

I'm not a designer but I've done a fair amount of work on a couple of buildings and a few thoughts that have helped me: Start with any really small things you can do yourself to get rid of the "white noise". Take down the curtains and buy some inexpensive peel and stick for the backsplash and try some things out. Buy a few cabinet pulls to see how they look. I realize its way too early to actually pick out cabinet pulls - this is to get the ideas going. I found this really helped me think things through rather than feeling overwhelmed.

Change out the fridge to counter depth! You can even pick up a scratch and dent (with warranty) so long as the dings are on the sides (your sides are covered by paneling, i think). The new fridge will be a revelation. When you can/ when its time, change out the stove to a flat top with controls on the front rather than protruding up at the back. Better designed appliance make a HUGE difference, often for a few hundred extra.

IMO not LVT. I don't get LVT unless you're putting it in a basement/ someplace that might get wet. It doesn't look lux, it looks like it shoulda been wood. Grab a box of the best stuff you can find and lay it out in your room and see what you think (and then return it - not damaged/ use so no harm).

I would add glass to a few of the cabinet fronts. I did this and its amazing the difference. I am not a fan of ripping out perfectly usable cabinets, but I do think painting if done right is going to be expensive. Otherwise the paint just chips off pretty quickly.

Good luck!

I also have Brazilian cherry floors installed by previous owner about 15 years ago. Decorating is about using and enhancing what you have, especially if it is good quality. I recently bought a new rug to freshen up the look. Use this principle and you will have a lovely home without major expensive costs.
Painting nice wood or covering up good floors with vinyl, spending money on elaborate window dressings when you have nice views doesn’t make sense. Declutter. Why replace back splash when you can’t even see the existing one? Take stuff off upper cabinets and the refrigerator. You have a lovely dining room, but the table cloth detracts from it. Create a focal point and remove anything that distracts the eye.

I want to comment on what gurukaram said about LVP flooring. I've had laminate and LVP and there is no comparison. Laminate DOES feel and sound like plastic, but LVP does not. As long as you buy a high-quality name-brand and have it professionally installed, it's excellent. It's warm and durable.

Regarding your kitchen, if you are redoing the floors, I would extend the flooring you already have into the kitchen, or use a completely different-looking tile. Do not try to match your existing floors with a different LVP, laminate, or wood-look tile. For your cabinets, I would paint the uppers white, sand the lowers down to their natural finish, and add a matte non-yellowing poly. I would also update your backsplash and remove everything on top of the upper cabinets. If your cabinets do not reach the ceiling, you don't want to draw the eye up there with knick-knacks (especially word signs.)

I would also get different window treatments. With the Roman shades pulled up, the windows are still partially covered and they look like they have eyebrows. Lastly, get a counter-depth fridge. I hope that helped! Good luck.

I‘m not a good decorator but I love the dog!

All elements of your design should coordinate with Charlie. Just kidding, sort of… You have a lovely home that requires absolutely no alteration. But if change would make you happy, please follow the advice of the commenter who suggested hiring a local designer to help you invest your funds in the choices most likely to combine in a way that makes you happy. There are sooooo many elements involved, it’s tough for most earthlings to try to picture the outcome without professional advice. Considering the cost of some elements, it will save you money…. Then, go to your local shelter and get Charlie a friend to run around your updated kitchen together.

Take a look at this thread. A beautiful transformation with the existing Brazilian cherry floors restained to a beautiful color. Classic and on-trend.

Floors - Brazilian Cherry; sanded and stained DuraSeal Ebony; Bona Traffic HD, satin finish

We kept the Brazilian cherry floors though sanded them down and stained them a rich walnut color. (I got a lot of info on how to go about that here on Houzz.) We are thrilled with the results - no more orange/red flooring. We had the new island stained to match the new floor color. So my husband’s desire for wood has been met with the flooring and island.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6035318/i-m-in-love-again-my-2020-reveal#n=367

If you can deal,with sanding and restraining your floors to a color like the article Anna posted above, then keep your floors but do them first. Only then can you assess what color the kitchen could/should be to lighten the house and make you happy.

It would be worth your time and money to get referred to a kitchen person, designer or color specialist to help you figure out what to keep and how to coordinate a new look. My designer is a “color savant” and has been enormously helpful in making my house feel cohesive while reflecting my taste.

I’ve not had very good connections with the interior decorators I’ve had consultations with :/
I wish I could find one w similar tastes ;)

Black is not depressing. Black can be classic, modern, down to earth, firm foundation, secure.

Paul gave a wonderful rendering of the possibilities. I liked it with what is already there. But if one is able to get what they really dream, do that.

I have a small kitchen in an open concept home. You CAN have black cabinets even with north or shady west windows nearby! The trick is keeping stark contrast! I have white countertops and SW Alabaster white walls/ extra white moldings and trim and very dark LVP floors. You will get a lot of 🤩

PS My cabinets are the darkest wood i could find. They look black. We built this home 3 yrs ago and wood cabinets are way cheaper than painted🙃So paint away on your real wood👍🏻Black is classic & always cool!

Just an anecdote. We lived in our walkout lower level during the summer while kitchen and bath were being renovated. Upstairs is light bright and full of windows. Lower level is dark and cozy with a few windows and sliding patio door, rust color carpet, big sectional that dominates one end of the room, dark rust colored pool table dominates middle of room, Cherry cabinets and dark granite and rust sheet vinyl flooring in the wet bar area. Walls are mostly SW China Doll. A beam of morning light came through one morning and hit my DH’s white polo shirt and the whole room lit up like he was an angel from heaven. It was an incredible illustration of the power of sunlight on a light color surface even in the midst of so much darkness.

NONE of that is a "small" update. Or inexpensive.

You might want to keep the floors. They are what will be trending in just a few short years as people tire of the whitewashed oak look that is not very affordable to have done well. Same with the cabinets. Wood cabinets are already the #1 choice for remodels and new builds both.

What will work WITH those elements is better lighting. Much better lighting. Gimbal lights to wash down the front of the cabinets and highlight the beautiful grain. Undercabinets lights, to put light on the work surface, and give the room a glow.

Or, save the 50K for the all new floors and cabinet paint and all the rest, and add that to a MUCH bigger budget for a whole home redo. Just in time for all of those selections to be out of style, and what you took out, to be right back in style.

Yourenottheclotimlougjlin areyou full house etc college scsnfsl

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You could change everything by painting and new flooring, but your wood cabinets are beautiful. I’ve painted cabinets before and the Benjamin Moore Advance paint makes it super easy to diy. Such a pretty and hard finish when fully cured. But for your cabinets I’d change out the hardware instead of painting. Your flooring looks good but I do like a home where the main areas have all one flooring, so I’d go for that if your budget allows.

@kathyfurt Haha noooo - my kids paid their own way with some help from their hard working parents ;)

So I think we’re going w sanding the Brazilian Cherry in dining room - maybe get some
upholsterer chairs! Try to match wood color into kitchen and fam room - change knobs to black and I’d love a black hanging light over table and get new dining set there-
Any suggestions for window treatments for kitchen and fam room sliders to patio?!
Love @houzz and everyone’s advise! ❤️ thank you all so much!

Post photos and keep us in the loop.

Absolutely! I’m not leaving here till my job is done!

Take down curtains, clean up the kotchkes, clear off tops of cabinets and windowsill, keep cabinets as they are, add clean lined hardware, new counter depth refrigerator, new table with upholstered chairs and coordinating pillows and rug by sink. Add a plant or two. 😉
See where that takes you before painting.

As far as bar, paint that your favorite yummy color. It does not need to match kitchen cabinets.

I think you need a ceiling fan in your kitchen and table. You need it in summer.

A smart ceiling fan will be greater!

I purchased and installed a smart ceiling fan few months ago. Looks well and it works great now.

I bought it here. I can see they are on black fridays sales. Maybe it is a good choice for you.

https://smafan.com/pages/black-friday-deals

I’m thinking some type of hanging fixture over the table. I think the kitchen may be too small for the fan but that is a really nice idea!