HI -- The cabinet style is kind of old country for young people like yourselves . That style of door is very dated . If the boxes are good and well made ,then you could just get some new doors . Painting is a lot of work ,which I don't think this style is worth the expense or time involved doing . Also remove that frilly wood valance and the wallpaper. Have you priced out getting a new kitchen , looks like that is what is needed . Is that carpet on the floor ? That was a popular thing to do in the 70's which I think is the age of this kitchen.

I have to agree.....see what it all looks like after the carpet and wallpaper are gone. THAT will be a huge transformation right there.

Work always depends on budget.....
-start with floors and walls.
-stage 2 is appliances.
-stage 3 is countertops and backsplash.
-white kitchen paint is a lot of work. Take everything off (hinges, doors), sand frames, doors, prime, 2 coats of paint, 4+ coats of poly. Maybe do the other things first.

Yes, that is pretty dated. Wallpaper, flooring and curtain definitely have to go. If your happy with the cabinets then, sure, have them painted white, but shaker style cabinets and a taller upper cabinets would make a world of difference in this room!

One more thing. The wood balance above the window should go, too.

The below counter doors and drawer look really solid and in good condition. I suggest retaining and painting these.
Removing upper doors and replacing with glass fronted white.
Install cabinet lighting ( in and under) to highlight beautiful tiled splash back.
The benchtop looks fine. Save what you can to spend on a recycled wooden kitchen floor.

The carpet is hilarious at first glance I thought it was linoleum. Yes, I agree the kitchen hasn't been touched since the 70,s. The dishwasher was never used! A brand new 30 year old dishwasher!! Crazy. I love the ideas listed. Thanks everyone. Should be able to start work in 4 weeks when we move in.

Enjoy the anticipation!!! And seriously, a never used dishwasher!!!! Wonder what other little goodies this home has!!!

Hopefully no band surprises but I've done this before so I expect the unexpected. The whole house is clean and well taken care of, just never touched since the 70's. Lol. Some pretty interesting color choices that's for sure!!

My husband and I did a kitchen renovation two years ago. We took measurements of the walls where the cabinet were at present. We measured where the appliances were presently located. We made an appointment with lowes to look and do a cabinet layout. It was free. They really helped maximize the space, give it a better flow, updated our look and gave us an estimate for the cabinets that would be good for thirty days. Sometimes they run special financing too. Everything turned out well. We relocated some appliances to alleviate the congestion in the corner where most everything was located.

The first photo is of a large cabinet over our fridge. It is most useful for large Tupperware or storage container that are not used often. We also moved the microwave from over the stove to free up the busy corner by dishwasher. We chose a simple wood hood over the range to give the kitchen a finished look.

Just checking to see if you have made some progress in your kitchen renovation

No, not yet. Radon mitigation needs installed first and a few other things. Thanks for asking.

Make sure you like the layout of the existing kitchen before you replace your flooring & before you choose the size of new appliances. Having Lowe's, Home Depot or Ikea draw up some layouts for free would help you decide. In the meantime, you could take down the wallpaper, curtain & valance. Heck, remove the carpet & clear coat the plywood floor for the short term. Paint the walls, hold off on a new backsplash & counter. Give yourself some time living there to figure out what will work for you. Who knows, maybe you will be removing a wall, you don't want to already have new floors down in that situation. I do agree a shaker style cupboard does not seem to date, the arch in the doors do seem to date it. You could certainly leave them as is, they are clean & solid, function well. What is on the other side of the room?

Great advice B Paton-be sure about layout first-think functionality before aesthetics.
Then consider the lighting layout as that too will play a big role in the ambiance and comfort and functionality of the kitchen(natural lighting, pot lights, pendant lighting or chandilier or even semi flush lighting and undercounter lighting(which will go hand in hand with the choice of your backsplash).
Flooring first then walls. What is the material of the countertop?-looks decent.
You might want to stain the cabinet doors to add a nice contrast to the floors and countertop.
The carcus of the cabinets maybe in good enough condition to keep.
Your balance will also be in the choice of appliances and hardware.
Try and think what you really want as a product and slowly incorporate that into the feel of the space.
Don't be taken by a complete renovation especially if the budget is fixed. Ideally we adore complete renovations but is not always the case when we need to work with calculated budgets.
You will do well Michelle.
Always try to firstly visualize what you want and from there deconstruct what that means and translate in to the materials and the color palette.
From Pro to you...you will do it and contact us if you have any questions.

Do you know if the bulk head over your cabinets are removable? If so you could get 36" cabinets up top. This would give you an extra. Shelf for storage in the top cabinets.

Three walls ate outside wAlls. The other wall is the basement steps.

If I decide to keep the cabinets , should they be removed completely to add to hardwood floors?

Thank you everyone for you time:)

First select a color scheme for the kitchen. If you wish to save money, the cabinets can be sanded and painted any color of your choice. On the cabinet doors change the hardware. Remove the wallpaper and paint. Add a backsplash, and change the flooring. First decide on the color scheme for the kitchen and decide on what style you desire for the kitchen, (ex: county chic, traditional). This will help you to decide on colors, flooring, etc.

Looks like a fun renovation project - I agree that removing wallpaper carpet & valance/curtain will do wonders. From what I can see the layout of existing appliances looks functional - can oven & dishwasher be opened at same time? If kitchen triangle works then just paint or have new cabinet doors installed. Our upper cabinets had glass inserts put into existing doors & that has lightened/updated look

No, you don't have to remove the entire lower cabinets to install hardwood floors, the installers might remove the kickplate board only to make adjustments for the install. Make sure your water hoses on the dishwasher and fridge icemaker are good, no leaking taps at the sink etc, you don't want water damaging a wood floor.

If you are keeping the cabinets, and want to change the colour and refresh it, it can be as simple as tinting the varnish. Great project.

The cabinets look great- keeping them will allow you to make higher end choices on other things like appliances, counters, etc. Paint them if you want hardwood floors. I'd also go wall to wall on the hardwood flooring if you plan on changing cabinets down the line. Without knowing your overall style it's hard to give suggestions.

i think the kitchen looks dated because of the frilly curtain and the wallpaper,once you have updated that and possibly a darker worktop,this will really be a goodlooking quality kitchen,so my advise is hold of painting untill you made these changes

Forgot about this...I went to a friend's house, she did not like the look of her doors on her kitchen, she liked the BACKSIDE of the door, which looked just like a shaker door. So she had them installed backwards. Maybe this would work for you?

Horrocks & co. How do you tint the varnish? Great idea! Thx

Minwax Polyshades is the product that stains and "varnishes" with a durable poly urethane finish in one step. Actually a couple coats on raw wood or just one coat if you are darkening cabinets like yours. This is a picture of my experiment inside my laundry room cabinets with mahogany over the 70's oak. So you could do that or paint them white depending on what colors you want.
Better yet live with them for a while and collect ideas. Each color choice will hinge on the others and cabinets are harder to change than wall paint.
The carpet would be my first thing to replace for ease of cleaning if nothing else. If you aren't ready for real tile commitment, those peel and stick vinyl are ease and cheap DIY. Stripping wall paper is a pain but so worth it. I can live with my old oak cabinets now that the granny wall paper is replaced with light paint.
Living with it a while will let you see how the light changes colors through the days and even seasonal changes. These might make you favor darker or lighter countertops or flooring. Good luck with the new home.

I had oak arched panel cabinets in my kitchen and wanted to update my kitchen without spending too much money, so I painted them. I used a gripper primer and a foam roller for a smooth finish. I also used a peel and stick gel tile backsplash that I got at Lowes. I've gotten tons of compliments on my kitchen makeover and nobody can tell that I painted the cabinets and that the backsplash tile is peel-n-stick! They are shocked when I tell them!! I attached a pic of the kitchen cabinets before and a pics of them after.

Also that Polyshades stuff could touch up the finish where you remove the scallop edging. Maybe you could hide it with crown molding.
It looks like your appliances are almond or biscuit color so I would look for paint and flooring to work with those warm colors.

Great job, ajbella!

Hello Michelle, we do this all the time, but we tint it ourself. You need to wash the cabinets to make sure all the dirt and grease is removed. Just go to paint store and ask to tint the varnish, if you want to loose the gold make sure they put some magenta in your varnish. You will be doing two things at the same time protecting and refreshing your cabinets. Win win situation. Good luck. This is easy solution. Minwax will work.

Thanks handymam!!

Ajbella05, love ur cabinets! Great job. And the backsplash is awesome. Did you sand the cabinets first? And how many coats of paint? Did you sand between each coat? What's the color? Thx

All the appliances, floor, wallpaper, curtain and counter are being replaced. These pics are from the women that owned the house previously. Thx everyone

Michelle, we used Antique Tin Behr paint primer combo. We didn't sand the cabinets but used a gripper primer instead. We made sure that the cabinets were clean first so the paint would have a smooth finish. Also, I used a small brush to cut in the arches first then used a foam roller with rounded edges to paint the rest of the cabinets. I think we used one coat of the primer and 2 coats of the Antique Tin and touched up areas that we thought needed a 3rd coat. It was definitely time consuming but well worth it in our opinion! Good luck!!

Work in progress. Black cabinets. :) new hardwood next. Wallpaper gone. Sliding glass door Friday. Yah!!

you could also just leave the doors off a few uppers and display some white/light dishes. would look great with the black. looks good. please don't put fake plant on top.

Work in progress

Waiting on a couple doors and moulding :)

You have given me hope. I think our new kitchen is almost identical to yours.

Is ordering new doors a possibility? There are some inexpensive online co's that sell doors, like a simple shaker style? Then paint everything out white.
Pop off any of that wavy gingerbread trim and add crown molding. Good luck!

It looks AWESOME!

Michelle, what a fantastic job! I have similar cabinets in a rental we own, and now I will be painting the cabinets for sure! Thanks for the inspiration! What kind of countertop is that? It looks great!

We had the original cabinets painted and added new hardware. The countertops are granite. We are adding a tin backsplash soon. Love the results.

I love the results too! So are you happy with keeping the cabinets? I know a lot of people would have just ripped them out. I really think if they are sound that it is a shame people don't try paint first. Like you did.

what a transformation,love the black! fab job !!!

Fabulous job Michelle. I agree with handymam.

Beautiful kitchen!!! Great job! What kind of wood floor did you install?

You must be sooooo happy! All your work paid off big time! Enjoy it now!