Kitchen reno opinions, please

[glw]

Hi; I'm new to this board and was wondering if I could get some opinions and suggestions on what I should do with my kitchen. 

We bought our 1920's house 7 1/2 years ago. We painted, added the butcherblock island, and replaced the fridge and light fixture/ceiling fan (no central air). Now that both our dishwasher and stove need to be replaced, we're thinking of doing a total renovation of the kitchen. We're planning to stay in the house forever if we can. 

Currently:
- solid wood cabinets, cherry stain (doors are in good condition, but the overall layout could be better.)
- white marble tile floors (There are 3 cracked tiles, grout needs to be redone. We have extra tiles in the basement.)
- white travertine countertops (in bad shape)
- white appliances (dishwasher and stove old, fridge new-ish)








We definitely need a new dishwasher, stove, and countertops. The wall with the window could have more cabinets so we can get stuff off of countertops. We'd like to add a tile backsplash on the wall behind the stove/dishwasher/sink and a drawer or hinged cabinet to hide the trash and recycling cans. I'd also love to get the microwave off the counter somehow. There is a hood over the oven, currently.


Would you...
- Keep the floors? The tile continues through the French doors into a sunroom, but there's a step in between so I don't think a change in flooring would look bad. I'm not sure if replacing just a few individual tiles and then regrouting is even possible? The rest of the house has the original hardwood, so I'd like to keep tile of some type.
- Get all new appliances? We don't really like the look or upkeep of stainless appliances, but white appliances seem to be totally "out" now. With a new cabinet layout, we could get a larger fridge (the smaller one is just fine for the two of us, though.) Another option would be to get a new stainless dishwasher and stove, and get a wood cabinet front for the fridge.
- Overall, what would you do to this space?

[glw]

Apr 21, 2015 11:21:07 GMT -5 nursecramer said:

Do you have a pantry?

I can't tell what's going on over your sink-- a window to another room of the house, or is it just reflecting the kitchen?

Do you use the butcher block island? For me, the

Tiled kitchen floors are a lot of work to keep clean. Would you consider a linoleum? Especially if you used a vintage pattern, something like this:

I would probably take off the little rail on the top cabinets.

For appliances, I think white is still a classic choice, and will do a lot to balance the darkness of the cabinets.

We have a small pantry space (tall cabinet next to the fridge) and a large amount of storage space in the finished basement.  The window over the sink looks out into the sunroom, which is an addition to the house. 

We use the island for all food prep. There currently isn't enough counter space next to the sink to do anything. 

That linoleum is really pretty! I haven't had trouble keeping the tile clean since there's no exterior door through the kitchen, but getting rid of grout would be nice!

[kaylie]

I would change the floors out and I really like that picture nursecramer posted.

My opinion on the appliances depends on what your plan is for cabinets. I have nothing against white appliances but I don't love them with your current cabinet color. If you keep them dark I might consider GE's "slate" appliances. Stainless isn't always that hard to keep clean - I think it depends on the manufacturer. Our Bosch dishwasher gets a new smudge on it every two minutes, but our Fridgidaire range doesn't show them at all.