My kitchen is fugly and I need help! Ideas for countertops and tile floor with honey-colored cabine

[Anonymous]

I need some help! My kitchen is fugly, but we don't have the budget to redo it completely. The countertop is dark and I want to lighten things up in the kitchen. The room gets indirect light but it's not a super bright space. It's open to the family room, which has lots of windows, but both rooms face north. We aren't going to replace the cabinets or paint them, and we're going with tile instead of wood for the kitchen floor. So, given that the cabinets are staying the same, I'm looking for ideas for the countertops and the tile. I'm afraid that going with white countertops will give it the look of a laundry room, so I'm thinking that's out.

I have light/honey-colored maple cabinets in the Shaker style. They aren't anything special in the least; they look sort of like this:


The countertop is dark and looks like this, and there's a lot of it. I dislike it but other people don't seem to have as strong a negative reaction as I do:


The tile looks like what you'd find on the floors of a hospital. It's what I hate the most about the kitchen. It's the same as in this picture:


The color of the walls of the kitchen and family room are like this:


Help me, DCUM! How can I bring this space forward 20 years and make it look fresh and updated?

[Anonymous]

White walls. Colored recycled glass counters. Area rugs,
- leave the tile for now.

[Anonymous]

I would either paint cabinets white or replace the counter top with something cream.

[Anonymous]

I would paint the cabinets Alabaster White and leave the counter top. Add some hardware and change the floor tile

/renovated 3 kids on budgets

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:White walls. Colored recycled glass counters. Area rugs,
- leave the tile for now.

This. TThise are fine cabinets. They're shaker and not the traditional kind with arches. Think a little mcm and modern materials. I'd do the recycled glass counters. Teal and sea foam tints.
I'd paint as well and not a warm color. Bright something. Try the blue family.
For floors do non square tile. Grey or weathered grey wood look which will allow for a dirt colored grout which doesn't show dirt and that's nice.

[Anonymous]

My kitchen was very, very similar, except possibly worse. We had brown walls, the exact same counters as OP, black appliances, and wood floor. It looked like poo.

Here is what I did:
We replaced the appliances (we needed to anyway)
I painted the walls a soft green.
I painted the island cream and added attractive molding.
I installed cream colored travertine backsplash.

I added lights and a focal point light over the island.

I left everything else alone, and it made a big improvement. I am so happy with it I think it bought us 20 more years with a builder grade kitchen, and it was all DIY.

[Anonymous]

We have similar cabinets and did the following:
-Thassos marble subway tile backsplash
-Marble-look quartz counters with very minimal streaking
-VERY light gray walls (BM grey owl 50% lighter)
-Chilewich runners/mats
-multi-bulb pendants

Our cabinets are definitely not on-trend but altogether it’s a nice medcentury look.

[Anonymous]

We painted the cabinets and walls. Dealt with the rest.

[Anonymous]

Google emilyaclark updating maple cabinets. I have the same granite and cab color—I followed Clark’s advice and switched my cab hardware from silver to black, I painted the walls BM silver strand and then picked a fabric for window treatments that had aqua,dark blues and charcoal grays. I was shocked at what a difference it made for like 600 bucks including paying a painter to paint the room.

Emily has a few different color schemes to consider depending on your look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would paint the cabinets Alabaster White and leave the counter top. Add some hardware and change the floor tile

/renovated 3 kids on budgets

[Anonymous]

Don't paint maple shaker cabinets. The counter top looks fine. I would go with an arts and crafts style and paint the walls an olive color. You could also go warm with rose color. If you paint the walls walls then maybe use red as accent with a rug and red Creuset or something similar.

[Anonymous]

Here's another blog with ideas... Definitely would do dark hardware, update light fixtures and agree with a grayish green paint (perhaps Sherwin Williams sea salt or something even more gray). I think countertops could stay dark or else be an off white.

[Anonymous]

Oops meant to post the link

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

[Anonymous]

I am in a #honeycabinetsteam! I would replace the counters - that granite is fugly.

[Anonymous]

cambria counter or with blue glass backsplash