I would keep the wood top and bottom. That is a timeless look. You could have them stripped and sanded and repoly, the orange would tone down. You could darken the stain once the poly is off. The two tone is here today gone tomorrow , already on its way out.

Change your floor, counters, and walls.

No paint on the wood caninets. Sand and refinish.

A quality paint job will cost almost as much as the new tops. I would save for tops before painting those cabinets as I think they look good.

IMO what you have is far better then either AI . Waht you need is good lighting , lesss clutter and the cabinet color you have is perfect with the counters. If you cannot afford better lighting then at least a LED track with 5 heads in 4000K to light the space , Nothing on top of the fridge and remove the busy tile backsplash . Those things a heck of alot cheaper than painting cabinets for sure

I agree with much of what the other posters have said. The current wood cabinets seem to be in good condition. Having them stripped, sanded, restained and sealed won't be cheap. Painting will probably be cheaper. If you make this a d.i.y. project that will be the cheapest of all but it is a big undertaking.

A quality cabinet finisher will charge MORE than what new counters will cost you. The wood is a far better choice. Add an electrician to create better lighting, as that is what you really need. Then rethink wall colors, countertops, and backsplash. Those changes will cost less than having the cabinets done by someone professional enough to make them last, and not some spray and go guy with house paint.

Get some COLOR and fun in there!

A regular interior houspainter needs skills, experience and a lot of prep time with disassembling to produce a paint refinish of your cabinets. BM Advance is a specific cabinet paint. When you get quotes, ask what paint he prefers, what disassembly and cleaning/surface prep he does. You need to know what it takes to create a finish that won't chip off is a few months.

Recessed 4" leds over the peninsula and two over the counter next to the frig or some undercabinet led strip lights can help. 450 lumens/70-80 footcandles at the counter is recommendedas a minimum for task lighting. For the counter next to the grig they can be 3-6" in from the counter edge to avoid shadows.

After you get painting prices consider comparing those with IKEA prices. They have Vedhamn light European Oak wood faces. You could gain a lot of function with wide all drawer base cabinets over the door cabinets shown. All drawers are soft close.

Thank you for all the comments. i should have mentioned. I will be doing the work myself with help from my husband who is a contractor. so that would cost less then changing the counter tops. I agree that painting would not last long. I was planning on using minwax stain to darken the color wood at the bottom. Was thinking of only making the upper white This is my parents kitchen and mom wishes for all white. so the white upper and darker wood lower was a middle ground.

Any suggestions for wood stain colors that is light and will not show yellow/orange?

Still need to strip the finish off before you stain. You cannot just apply stain. Almost as much prep for the new stained finish as painting.

Re-staining successfully is 10x more work than painting. The existing finish, and the stain penetrated wood, have to be sanded down, to raw wood. The existing stain goes deep into that wood and the crevices, and the veneers are THIN. Most people will burn through the veneers, ruining the cabinets. Then, if you are even successful at removal, you still need to get a nee stain to be non blotchy snd ewual. Stsin idnt paint. Each wood piece will take it differenyly. It will not be sn even color. After that hurdle, you need to spray a professional grade clear on top of yhr stain, which changes ehat it looks like yet again. No Minwax horrible quality anything. No brushed anything. Professional sprayed coatings only.

I would paint the cabinets, top and bottom SW Stone Hearth

High Adhesive Primer KILZ® and Satin finish SW Stone Hearth. will look great with the countertop and backsplash and the existing floor.

Don’t buy trouble. Leave the cabinets slone. Change the lighting as a start. The lighting is terrible, and you can’t even see colors in there.

Agree to leave them wood - I don’t think your mom would he happy with white cabs, they will make the floor look dingy :(

the cabinets are oak wood. not veneer. I did sand down the back side of one door to see what would happen. Did not take much sanding to remove the current clear coat. I agree white lower cabinet will make the floors dingy

The white looks very stark. Perhaps you can consider a cream colour.