We had the same wood look all through our house, and our bathroom looked like a sauna! We painted and its amazing how just a coat of paint changed the whole look. We went with an antique white and it really looks great. I can certainly see what some people say that fashion styles go around and come back again, but for us the paint job gave our place such a fantastic lift. Replace the handles along with it and I think it will look the business lakegirl :) I think khillens idea of a couple of glass cabinets are a great idea too. All the best!!

Thank you for your comments. We are a bit skeptical of painting the walls. I think we will put up a wainscot and drywall the top half down the hall. If we hate it, we can take it down. :)

I would paint it white or cream

Sounds like a good plan lake girl. Hope you don't paint the cabinets. Even if you do paint the walls.

Whatever you do, please don't cover the t&g with drywall: good heavens! I would suggest painting the cabinets first. Search HOUZZ under the topic "green cabinets." Any green goes with any wood; a rule that has worked for me over and over. You will find a green you like whether saturated or greyed out. The cooler green and warmer pine are a great combination. I suspect that you may be considering new cabinets as part of you thinking process. So, perhaps little to lose. After that, if the walls are too much, you can paint them.

Here's a shot of our kitchen. We have t&g pine on the vaulted ceiling and knotty pine wrapped beams. The cabinets are a sage green; but I think even an apple green would have worked nicely too. BTW: the butcher block counter on the island would work for your counter too I think.

For example; check out the kitchen in this "very pine" lake home in Maine.

i would change the cabnet and wall color like a grey and a back splash

@DanH, thank you for the pictures! Great help. We love all the knotty pine in the summer, but it all closes in on us in the dreary winter days in northern Michigan. I think we'll get a new countertop and put up a neutral backsplash and see how that looks and feels. Thanks to everyone for all the comments :)

Here's another example of knotty pine paired with green cabinets.

We have a lot of of knotty pine in our place too (Northern Wisconsin). The pine is very warm and (I submit) the cool green provides relief and interest. Note that you have neutral colors on the floor, countertop and backsplash now. It looks like a cream/light beige? I would suggest a darker neutral on those surfaces. Note the Maine cottage has slate (dark charcoal color) for countertop and backsplash and we have slate (same dark charcoal color) on the floor.

I've never been a fan of knotty pine but after seeing the last photo Dan posted I like it! Just goes to show everything has a place in design. _ that's beautiful

It is a bit overwhelming. But honestly I wouldn't paint. I would however remove some or all of the upper cabinet doors. This would add some needed break to the miles of pine without taking away from the nature of the beast. Another thought would be to have the upper doors retooled and put an leaded glass inserts.

Update for those interested... I took out the soffit above the sink, and we installed a new light fixture from our old house. We shortened the cabinets by two inches. They are still closer to the counter than most kitchens, but it really helps. We have ordered new appliances and countertop, and we are planning on painting the cabinets a sage green. You can see the color chip taped to the side. Thanks for all your suggestions. :)

Very pretty color choice. It will look so much brighter. What type of countertop did ypu choose?

There you are! !! Well, hello! Going to go for it, huh? Have you considered a colored "wash"? It's a beautiful subtle wash of color that doesn't look like you are trying to fight those pine knots. Let's the beauty of the wood come through. Yes, I'm curious about your counters. Thanks for the update. I am interested and often wonder "whatever happened to this or that". It's important that you be happy. You have the sweetest place you call home : )

instead of painting could you sand them down and re-stain them a weathered gray ?

We chose Silestone Sienna Ridge. I am still looking for the perfect backsplash. I will have to leave the laminate on the wall. I don't think I can get it off. I have used a product called Simple Mat to stick tiles to the wall with great success. I think it will stick to the old laminate without any problem. The cabinet doors are not in great shape. We are not big fans of the weathered look. We will not be lacking for knotty pine. It is on the ceiling, and walls of the entire cottage :)

or perhaps a weathered white wash , uppers one color base another, there are some good pictures here on houzz 'knotty pine' kitchen. I forget how to get pictures here. I'll have to practice that.
Are you trying to dress up the cottage? Or keep the cottage look ?

oops our posts crossed here....... OK... no weathered look, are you adding touches of modern to the over all look or cottage vibe ?

Ohhhh you are gonna make the wood lovers mad! Great thoughts and I love your choices!! Turn the cabinet doors around and paint the back sides only. If you or someone wants to alter the look in the future it will be easier to change them back.

Hmmm. Another cool trick. Yes, I tried to talk her into drywall over wood to preserve for later but I think she's feeling a bit knotted up! Now, about that colour washing.. .. : )

I like the green for the cabinets. I would paint the Ceiling white (to reflect more light) and the trim white as well.

I'm impressed that you were able to shorten the cabinets..Kudos to you. You can always remove and preserve the doors and make new ones. But where to put 1000 pounds of knotty pine doors?

Excellent choice--but then you knew that I was biased. Please keep us informed as you progress.

Go in stages. Paint the lower cabs, then live with it. Paint the uppers next. Live with it. If still not happy, paint the ceiling next.

Not that it's any of my business, but I have to ask: why two coffee makers? Just wondering. Feel free to tell me to shut up and mind my own business.

In our place she likes that flavored coffee, and i like the boring kind. Not fond of ciny-num.

Regarding whatever pine you've got left, consider stripping it - the current/old varnish is giving an icky yellow-ish tone - and sealing it a more natural tone. I think that's half the problem with old knotty pine. See the difference in Dan H's photos above. I'm not a fan of it either, but I have to admit, it is authentic, historic, and does give that cabin in the woods feel

We cannot flip the doors. There are cleats on the inside to hold the panels together. If we painted the ceiling, we would have to paint the whole living and dining room. There is plenty of pine left. The walls are 2x4 solid knotty pine. The only relief from the pine is a brick wall. I will post pics as we proceed.

Ahhh TRUE T&G unless you wanted the cleats outside but your trying to minimize the rustic features.

The Silestone counter is certainly a commitment to the original cabinets. If you are thinking of going over the laminate backsplash because it is tough to remove, consider a painted beadboard rather than tile. It may be easier to work with, and less expensive. I suspect, because of the old walls, the installer will want to put in a 4 inch backsplash of Silestone to hide the imperfections in the walls. You could put the beadboard above that like this.

Update for those interested. I finished painting the cabinets! I love the color. We built new cabinets over the fridge, and I found a chrome rolling rack for next to the fridge. It works great. Countertops were installed this week. Love them! We are shopping for backsplash tile. Our favorite is a natural stone subway tile. What do you think? Thank you to everyone for your input, especially Dan H. :) I am exceedingly happy with the result. Just by painting the cabinets, the rest of the knotty pine throughout the cottage is no longer closing in so much. So happy!

Wow - great transformation: you should be proud of yourselves!

Those tiles look like they'll work really well - what are they? And I'm not even a fan of backsplash tiles. :)

If they're a natural stone, it's probably a good idea to seal them first - cheap and easy to do before installation, and you can seal the grout afterwards too: all goes towards making them easier to keep clean.

Natural stone travertine. Yes, must seal first and after grouting. Thanks.

Wow!! Looks beautiful! Great job!!

Yes, I'm interested! Good for you! I'm glad you like them. I like the colour and how you kept the original hardware(?) It's in keeping with the cabinet and cabin style. How very nice. Did you do them yourselves? Was it a huge pain? Oh, MAN!!! I just can't stand all the reno mess. I think I've had my fill for a while anyway. CONGRATS! I know you really gave this some thought and I can appreciate the angst in deciding.

We recently installed tumbled travertine tiles, and I LOVE it. I did spray-seal them before installation, but they seem determined not to show the dirt - my kind of floor!

The tumbled travertine has a very nice edge profile, and I was in a house recently with smaller tumbled travertine tiles as countertop. Sounds impractical, but honestly they were so pretty, I think they'd be worth the extra tlc.

Not mine, just to show the effect of the tumbled edging:

Kudos!

What a wonderful change!! Nicely done!!! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

Beautiful work, Lakegirl! As a side note, consider replacing the fluorescent light in the kitchen with LED or incandescent. Fluorescent light will make the remaining knotty pine pop, while LED or incandescent light will soften the yellow tones.

Very nice!

Lake girl--you hit a home run! I think your choice of subway tiles is great. So glad you showed us the result.

I like the new look very much- great choices! I really like the part above the window painted and the addition of the sign. Just curious...how did you shorten the cabinets?

The cabinets were custom made in place. We took the door off, cut off the bottom of the doors and the cabinet box, took the bottom shelf and reinstalled it. As you can see from the pictures, the doors are just knotty pine tongue and groove with no frame, so easy to shorten. Thanks!

I used TSP, rinsed, sanded, two coats of Kilz Premium primer tinted to green, patched major holes and caulked seams. One coat of Behr Premium Semi-Gloss mixed with a flow enhancer which helped spread it out and not show brush or roller marks and took the sheen down just a little. Very happy with the result. :)

So you DID do it yourself! Braver still! I've gone back several times and noticed differences each time. So glad you did a color other than white. So pretty. Still dont get the part about shortening uppers. So you just sawed off the bottom of the box?!? Then you lowered a used shelf as the new bottom? So you lost a shelf? Should have made an instructional DIY You Tube! Lol!

We are painting our pine cabinets a sage green. Can you tell me what brand of paint you used? Thank you! They came out great!

I used Behr Premium Paint. I used semi-gloss paint with a flo enhancer that I added. It took the sheen down and extended the flo for a nice finish. I used a microfiber roller. The primer is most important. Use a high quality stain block if you are painting over knotty pine.

lakegirl, your kitchen looks remarkably like mine! very nice work :D

It's beautiful. We also moved to our cottage and people don't realize how different all that wood looks in winter light. We eventually painted everything white but I love your look.