We did it to give ourselves time to save up for a major kitchen reno. Seven years later we did the whole kitchen.

We bought the cheapest granite and did the backsplash ourselves. It was so nice just to have fresh new surfaces.

I'd probably look into Ikea cabinets, but I really don't care
for that color wood. Or I'd check into having them painted if the cabinets are high quality.

The previous owners of our last house did this and I hated it. They spent $6K on quartz counters atop the old oak Merillat cabinets that were in just okay condition. The crappy cabinets cheapened the look of the new counters. Replacing the cabinets would have destroyed the counter (seemed wasteful to do that on a house we weren't keeping for the long haul) and refacing the cabinets wasn't any cheaper than full replacement. We ended up having furniture medic darken the stain. No idea how it will wear, but it looked decent aesthetically, though my husband wasn't overly fond of the texture from the paint spray (only visible in certain light when closely examining the finish). If we had planned to stay in that house long term we would have gutted the kitchen and replaced everything.

Don't paint, for sure. Go to Gardenweb's kitchen forum; there are at least a few nice examples of how people have updated honey oak kitchens.

Here's a couple of examples (check out the remodelista link in the first one) but there are many others if you hunt on GW or elsewhere on the blogosphere:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3045508/kitchen-remodel-with-golden-honey-cabinets
http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2668953/update-of-80s-country-kitchen-finally-complete
http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3186740/please-advise-on-kitchen-update-keeping-cabinets-and-floor-unchanged

Fwiw, I would not add the granite/quartz if it is for resale purposes (looks cheap) or if the cabinets or layout are bad enough that you would be considering remodeling in the next 5 years.

Wait it out until you can change the cabinets.

Good move on not painting - our cabinets are painted white (previous owner) and they are in terrible condition.

Anonymous wrote:We did almost exactly this last year (except we already had hardwood in the kitchen) for the same reasons. I'm really happy we did because the kitchen looks SO much better with new counters, backsplash, and hardware. The honey oak doesn't even bother me any more, but I do still want to replace the black appliances in the next year or two. In our case, I knew we wouldn't have the money to do a full kitchen renovation for a long time (other renovations are a higher priority) so the cost was worth it to me to have a kitchen I enjoy for the foreseeable future.

We did much the same thing for the same reasons and are equally happy.

New counter and backsplash and hardware really made a difference!

Anonymous wrote:Looks terrible. Wait and do everything. If the counters are terrible, tear them out and replace with a cheap laminate.

+1

You'd be throwing good money after bad.

Anonymous wrote:No! Don't do this. It will look ridiculous to have those oak cabinets and nice counters.

it would look ridiculous if you did a fancy granite but I think a subdued solid-surface in something like ivory would look very nice.

No! Don't do this. It will look ridiculous to have those oak cabinets and nice counters.

Friends had their oak cabinets painted with a color (olive sort of) by a painter that specializes in oak and letting the grain show. They look amazing. Don't know cost, but I'm sure it was cheaper than new.

Looks terrible. Wait and do everything. If the counters are terrible, tear them out and replace with a cheap laminate.

How about gel stain the cabinets to make them darker?
http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2015/01/how-to-stain-oak-cabinets-the-simple-method-without-sanding.html

New pulls and granite and it will look great.

We did almost exactly this last year (except we already had hardwood in the kitchen) for the same reasons. I'm really happy we did because the kitchen looks SO much better with new counters, backsplash, and hardware. The honey oak doesn't even bother me any more, but I do still want to replace the black appliances in the next year or two. In our case, I knew we wouldn't have the money to do a full kitchen renovation for a long time (other renovations are a higher priority) so the cost was worth it to me to have a kitchen I enjoy for the foreseeable future.

We recently bought a house with honey oak cabinets, tile counters, and tile floors. We don't have enough money to change the cabinets. We had 2 painters come and tell us that wouldn't paint the oak cabinets white because the end result would not look good- too much grain would show and too many grooves that would not hold up overtime. Both painters said I could keep looking and someone would be willing to paint the cabinets white but that they didn't want their names associated with work that wouldn't look good over time. So we are thinking we will keep the cabinets and get new granite/quartz counters . We have two quotes to remove the tile counters and install granite - one is $3800 one is $4,000. My husband can install the backsplash. New hardwood floors to match the rest of the house will be 5400. So us it worth it to spend 10,000 on the kitchen right now or is it better to wait when we can afford to change cabinets? The appliance are black so we also need to change those eventually to stainless steel.