I love the white/cream idea, but I am not a fan of distressing. I am sure I am in the minority. White or cream will have more of a mass appeal than red, but it is your place, so you should do what you want.
I agree with cereal K, mostly. Red accent walls seem very 2008 to me. BUT I do like those pics you posted.
Do I gather that you plan to eventually get new cabinets anyway, and just can't swing it yet? If so, and you don't like the cabinets as-is, fuck it. Go for it. You can always re-prime and do distressed cream at any point. More work, sure, but you won't be ruining them.
Yeah. Kitchen currently needs a pick me up but we can't afford a complete remodel right away and counters and floors are good. Cabinets are that awful 80s pine, so I want to just paint them (I've painted cabinets before).
Once kids are our of daycare and we don't have 1.5k in daycare bills every month, we will get a new kitchen and bathrooms! Yay! Lol.
I'm not really a fan. But more importantly, is this your forever home or do plan on moving in a certain number of years? If its your forever home then eff it, do what you want! Paint can be reprinted if you change your mind or really even if you plan on selling. My house is varying shades of gray everywhere and it makes me happy. I don't really care if other people don't like it.
So I meant to say I have white cabinets with butcher block. Every so often I toy around with painting them a color, but I have to live with them for the foreseeable future, so I want to be sure.
Basically, I want to live vicariously through you.
I like it, I like the last picture best. I would be worried I would get sick of it so I might paint the walls red so I can change it more easily if I get sick of it.
I like it, but the style would have to be just right. A brick red looks really nice in colonial farmhouse style kitchens. Butcherblock would complement that nicely.
I was originally going to say cream distressed cabinets with red in the backsplash but... after seeing the red only on the lower cabinets I would definitely go that route.
I'm also really loving the green jenny1980 posted. If I hadn't just painted my kitchen walls green I would do this myself!