I like the basics of this kitchen..that said, these are my ideas:
1. Add a chair rail to the walls, it really adds depth and breaks up a plain wall.
2. I would not paint the cabinets, they look like they're in good shape.
3. I don't have hardware on my cabinets...I don't miss it.
4. A nice roman shade above the kitchen window (in a darker color; red or brown or green depending on which way you go) ..I love roman shades!
5. Is that wall where the table is removable? I took down our wall, and we eat in the old "dining room" now and added an island. Most people have a dining room they never use and a small kitchen....if the wall can come down, and it is not a supporting wall of the house, you could do it yourself..our handyman did it in about 1 hour from start to finish.

My girlfriend had a very similar kitchen...she got rid of her kitchen table and used that wall for a wall of open cabinet/shelving and island area. She added mini lights under the cabinets for light (that looks great); she added a beautiful light fixture; a nice big rug; and 2 of her cabinets had glass inserts put in...that opened them up. Better homes & gardens has great kitchen ideas. Good luck!

If your husband doesn't like yellows, what kind of colors does he like? I guess a taupe color would also be out since it is kinda brown? Give us some ideas on base colors that you would think he would be agreeable to & we can try to give you some accent colors. For example, I know yellow is out, but a warm yellow with deep red accents is really pretty together. I also like sage greens with brown or tan accents. Here are a couple of pics of our recently gutted & re-done kitchen. It is open to our living room, so I also show a pic from the living area so you can see the sage color I'm referring to. We painted the kitchen a taupe, but we have dark green acrylic countertops. But you can see how the sage & taupe coordinate pretty well together. I've got to say if I had less wall space in this house - I would have gone with a deep red on the wall. I LOVE reds, but since I'm a little chicken, I chose to accent with red in my bedroom & bath instead of painting the kitchen/dining area red.

Attached Images

	Kitchen.jpg (34.8 KB, 15 views)
	Living Rm 2.jpg (32.8 KB, 14 views)

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If you want to try different colors, use any paint program's fill tool to change the colors in the photo. It's not perfect, but will give you a good idea what your kitchen will look like in as many colors as you like. I've changed the yellow to mint green below.

I don't think that yellow would look great in your kitchen because of the counter top color. However, I do think that a light sage green would go well with the cabinets and the countertop! How does your DH feel about a light sage green?? The color of my dining area was called Crocodile Tears (I think from Home Depot?

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OK - jumping in here a bit late, but my first impression of your kitchen pictures is that it's not that bad. I opened the pictures thinking I'd find a color for you looking at the color ques in your kitchen pics. But you don't have any color in the kitchen other than brown, black & white. I'd say the floor, cabinets & appliances are fine. The backsplash is not my favorite and if it were my house I'd try taking it down, or if it's glued to the wall then maybe cover it up. I like the beadboard idea. It would look nice white or painted a color to go with the rest of the room.

As for wall color I'd suggest looking for a rug or curtain you like first. Pick that and find a color you and your DH can agree on there. It doesn't have to be theme-y, just have some color in it. Once you find a rug or curtains you like you will know what colors you both are ok with and from there you can decide. I found some paint sample packages once at Home Depot, I think. It's just enough paint to paint a 2ft x 2ft sample on a wall. I'd try that route and paint it next to your cabinets to see what you think.

I would suggest you stay away from toupes. I think that color doesn't compliment the cabinets at all. The main areas (living room, formal living area & kitchen) of our house are all open to each other and have the same color scheme. I like the red, brown & tan colors so I took them throughout the area. Most of my walls in the hallways and living room are tan. I have one accent wall in the living room that's a deep chocolate brown. The formal living room is also the brown color. My kitchen cabinets looked a lot like yours and we thought about tan at first but it did NOTHING for the cabinets we weren't fond of. So we went back and forth between the brown & red. We finally went with red since we have enough brown throughout the rest of the house. Maybe if you walk around your house you'll figure out what colors you guys tend to like and you can go from there!

Good luck!

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if you wanted to paint the kitchen cabniets white It is easy to do with just laytex paint high gloss and they will wipe of nice. I was thinking cottage look with white cabniets and nice blue (not light not dark but med with maybe a little smoky look to it) and you could do the beadboad on the wall behind your table with a chair rail above it and not half way up the wall but just a little higher ( will wipe off nice) and on the wall where you would take down that laminate like the counter top. I would ass a splash of color in a roman shade above the sink like red.

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Hi! Here's my two cents which is not much different from others on here: I really like your kitchen..very spacious and nice. I do see some things you can change. I would definitely get some curtains of what style you like. Also, pick one or two colors that you and your husband agree on and do a theme on those two colors for your kitchen or just pick one. I think a green or earth tone color as long as it isn't a brown or beige would look good. Mabeye a terra cotta color. I wouldn't paint the cabinets unless you really want to. Buy a nice rug and matching towels and you should be fine.

The picture on the right is what I did to my cabinets I painted them white with latex paint (walmart brand) then I bought mixwax gel stain and wiped it on let set and rubbed it off lightly to desired finish. You can add more if you rub it off to much... Also my pulls I bought on ebay for 0.99 each. Uppers in this picture are not done I just wanted you to be able to see the differance. Also we no longer have the Nasty yellow counter tops we ripped it off and just did new sheet laminate and a 4" tile backsplash. We didn't have alot of money at all to fix it up and had to do it in steps. I can post before and afters if you would like to see.

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