where's the sink and dishwasher?? i love the cabinets and wouldn't paint but rearrange to remove the angles and alcoves, replace counters and splashback in white with square edges, cover the toe space with a brushed chrome laminate to break the connection between timber cabinets and timber floor, remove the pelmet over the window and add white plantation shutters or venetians to obscure the view of the brick wall and add some tall pot plants outside to enhance the outlook..any cabinetmaker should be able to salvage the best of this quality kitchen and present a fresh new look for you

Your cabinetry is beautiful. You could go a few different ways, depending on your budget and taste. The first thing I'd do is take the piece of panelling out above the window so that the full window is exposed, it blocks the light and dates the kitchen. If budget allows ideally I would square off the angled corners but this would involve some work with the cabinetry and is possibly more than you are wanting to do. Otherwise I'd look into replacing the bench top with a slim line bench top either in stone/marble or perhaps stainless steel and replacing the splash back behind the stove. If you can afford to lose the cupboard space I'd also take out the cabinetry above and around the cooktop and open the space up. Painting the cabinets is also an option but I'd opt for replacing the bench top & leaving the cabinets raw, but you could do both if you wanted.

Thank you all very good advice.

Thanks bigreader. As it is very functional I am not wanting to spend a lot of money to replace all the cabinets and the wood is in pretty good condition still. It also extends out to a desk and another cupboard on the other side of the passageway. There is a lot of timber with timber floors also. I don't like the colour of the stonetop and hate the pelmut and decoration above the windows.

Thanks oklouise. Some more pics below (tried a couple panoramic). I like your idea about the chrome laminate for the kick board. The pelmet has to go!

Thanks cloudpants and Mitch Henderson. I am nervous about painting all the cabinets as it is a large space. However in the pictures above it certainly brightens the kitchen up. Assume you would need a specific paint that works well for kitchens?

All well and good painting the cabinets but it is not ideal as even if done professionally the paint will chip ( been there done that). Is it possible to stain the wood a lighter colour perhaps, change the backsplash and also change the handles. A range hood above the stovetop would also give a different look.

I'm not sure about painting over the wood either. I have recently had stained timber internal doors, window frames and skirting boards painted over. Looks great, but chips easily. I spend a lot of time touching up chips. I think do the other suggested things - new white splashback, remove window pelmet. And I like the idea of glass upper doors.

Quality kitchen. I would lime wash the wood in white or an accent colour like sage, so the grain is still visible. Lightens the room & accentuates the quality. Easier to DIY than painting.

The cupboards are a beautiful honey tone so it would be a shame to paint over them. The granite benchtop looks good too. Have you considered simply changing the backsplash? Having the backsplash in the same granite as the countertops means you have lost definition between the bench and the cupboards. A metal splashback, for example, would add a feature without minimising the cabinetry. Don't think metal is tough and dark, the selection is very wide. You can also add it to counter fronts. Try www.thatmetalcompany.com.au. Ali and Ange are wonderful to work with, very friendly, and they really know metal. They are based in Mittagong and ship throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Like all those suggestions! I think what I would do is remove pelmet, add white bench and back splash and change door handles to smart brushed chrome ones. Perhaps chrome kickboard - although I have used black, which just gives a defined shadow between cupboards and floor (and that could easily just be painted!). Start with that (and a declutter) and see how it looks. If more needed then I like the idea of lime-washing the cabinets. Also you could glaze some of the upper cabinet doors just by removing the central panels and replacing with frosted glass (gives a muted lighter look). Probably a job for an expert! But less expensive than replacing whole doors I would imagine! Good luck!

When I have a closer look at the cabinetry I think it would be relatively easy to reduce all those ins and outs at the corners, e.g. in front of the sink and at the next corner to the left. You could check this out when the bench tops are off, and see if those corner units can be moved forward. Looks like just a trim to be removed, slide cabinet body forward and rejig the trim to suit. The sink would have to be redone when replacing bench-top, so no issue there. You would still have diagonals at the corners of the room but at least the lines would be straight - looking at the main bench top edge you will understand what I mean. More good luck!

Oh, and get rid of the high cabinet between the windows if you can do without it! And again good luck!!!

If you're after the most cost effective way to refresh the space, I agree with cloud pants! Paint & new hardware.

High Street, Willoughby (2) · More Info

High Street, Willoughby (2) · More Info

If you don't want to spend money do as few changes as possible. Remove the pelmets above the windows and potentially the wall cabinet in between the two windows (easy to patch and paint the plaster), paint the cabinets an off white colour (top and bottom although you could add a darker greyish brown to some of the bottom cabinets if it goes with the rest of the house. Use a specialist paint so it won't chip off. Change the door handles. Don't bother with anything more complicated unless you want to spend serious dollars. Good luck.

My first thought was to paint, but depends what you want. Wouldn't it look lovely stained a lighter colour or a darker colour? But if you don't like wood, painting it a good option. Changing the benchtop would really look amazing. Agree with taking away the cupboards too close to the window. Change hardware and splashback and you'll have a beautiful modern kitchen!

another suggestion if you wanted to go away from the timber style to a modern look, would be to replace all the door/drawer fronts with laminate or thermoformed ones. go for a paint matching color, if they have this, and any fixed panels can be painted to match, or otherwise leave fixed panels in the timber look if you can get a great looking laminate color to match the timber. also for any high wear end panels of cabinets could possibly be overlayed with the same laminate for less wear n tear. would need to suit style of benchtop if too much hassle to replace with a modern one.

changing the fronts, you can go to a longer handle, rather than a knob, and in a chome or even brushed nickel finish that will match the appliances... just a thought :)

all the best tho...

Wow cpospech, thank you for this post, it has cleared up a dilemma for me !! I'm about to buy a new house with a kitchen I really want to change.

I have have been thinking about painting it white (high gloss cool white) however I've been worried 'cos its a small (ish) room and the white just might overcrowd it. I have also had concerns about chipping which makes me hesitant to paint. After reading this thread tho' I have decided to;

1) sand the doors back (ingridsm you statement "been there done that" made me can any though of painting my kitchen, thanks for that )

2) whitewash or stain them a lighter wood (sujo20 .. thank you thank you thank you)

3) paint the kickboard and the wooden window frame high gloss cool white

4) put a white roman blind on the window (no pelmet

5) change all the handles to long slim brushed chrome ones (Anne H) (fmdon91)

6) pop over to Pinterest and see what they have on "staining kitchen cabinets" (bigreader)

If any one has any ideas for mine, please feel free to mention :) but I am going to be watching this thread closely for any more suggestions for cpocpech.

What have you decided to do cpocpech ?

Hi, I really like your timber kitchen. So I pretty much agree with barbara_lamb3. I am 55 and have seen so many trends come and go, I would not paint it white. White will go out of vogue and then be hard to strip off. We all have different tastes over the years. To lighten the load of timber I would do as others have suggested, remove the pelmet above window and install a light coloured blind, remove all the splash backs and replace either with a light toned glass (which I have found to be the easiest to clean splash back I have ever had), or with metal. Add a kickboard at the base of cupboards to tone in with the splashback. Is it possible to remove the bank of doors to the left of the oven and have open shelves? As others have suggested some glass/perspex doors would lighten the timber load, as well as lighter coloured door handles. I don't mind your bench colour, if you make the changes everyone suggests they will look lighter. Adding too much paint and coatings over things can give you surfaces that are hard to maintain. We can get precious about some things and I sometimes wonder if it is worth the money. Another thought I had was some sort of inserts for the centre door panels, or only painting/staining those. You need to break the uniformity of all that timber. I have an all white kitchen now and it does show the dirt... Before you do anything, copy your pictures into to something you can play with. I use publisher and I just grab images and paste them roughly over my pics to get a feel for things.

Shaker style looks even better in a dark grey. The cupboards recede and make the area seem larger. Perhaps there's a stain available.

Barbara, have you considered a polished brass or brushed copper? Of course there are beautiful silvers and blacks too. Depending on your final colours, metal finishes look beautiful as kickboards. Some can be tinted to match a pantone colour and they bend to 90 degrees. Great for corners. See more from That Metal Company www.thatmetalcompany.com.au

Brushed Copper

Brushed Copper

I agree with your decision, leave great cabinetry as it is, replace benchtops, splashbacks and get rid of pelmet. Do you need more benchspace?

Beautiful timber cabinetry. Sacrilege to paint it!

You are so lucky to have it.

Sue

The cabinets look lovely but if you don't like the natural wood colour you could just paint in a lighter shade of white or varnish them to give a darker feel.

I would definitely replace the benchtop, with a wood one or a lime stone (depending on your budget). Splashback could be updated with white chevron or subway tiles for a more modern look.

I hope this helps!

I have a similar timber kitchen at home. I considered painting the cabinets but I'm not DIY savvy, and i have no more budget for anything else. Many tradies who came to quote also asked if I was sure i wanted to paint over the expensive timber.

I finally resorted to peel & stick tiles and i love it so much i started selling it! www.stickonluxury.com.au