I just found out that blue green colors really bring out the beauty of wood. I know its not the same but I have honey oak cabinets and just repainted my kitchen a blue green and it really made the cabinets look stunning. Maybe you could try something in that color family to enhance the wood. Just a thought.

You are so right white is never out of fashion. I would set your budget and then look at your options. If you plan to stay in the house for many years then spend to the top of your budget (if that is going to give you a life time of pleasure), if you plan on being at the home for only a short time / few years then I would go mid range so it looks lovely, will have good resale value but you can invest your well earned money to go towards something else as well. Obviously Marble / Granite is the top of the range but there are so many cheaper and very attractive options these days that look just as good.

Hi V Lyon. I'm a novice at this myself so I don't have any real comments except that what you're looking at doing seems nice. But I did want to ask is what program you used to do your proposed makeover? Was it just Photoshop? Or something else? I'm keen to try this on our 1970s house to get a feel for how it might look...

Will you be keeping the cork tiles on the floor? If so, make the countertop/bench top a similar color. They are both horizontal surfaces. Choose a color you like that has a bit of yellow in the base (ex: tomato red instead of crimson, or lime green rather than mint green).