I think it's the wood ceiling that is giving you that cabin feel. I would paint that white or cream first and then see how you feel about the rest. I don't think the kitchen cabinets are to blame, but painting them white would of course brighten that area as well.

Katy, you'll get more decorating suggestions if you post this over on the Discussions side.

That's not a cabin look, that's a chalet look. It's a lovely house. It looks bright and airy. I'm not sure what painting the kitchen cabinets or the ceiling would accomplish, except to throw off the overall style of the house.

This house has a pronounced style. It would be far easier to embrace the style than to change it.

It's beautiful and I'd hate to see the wood painted. I don't think it needs to be cabin-y. It can be transitional and contemporary. That said I have seen homes where the wood ceiling is lighter with dark beams and I like that. Could be the whitewashed wood with dark beams. I still wouldn't mess with it though but I love what you have now.

I agree with graywings 100%! I'd say "1000%" but that's just silly...HAHA!

Rather than ruining the home's decor, you should embrace it and work with it rather than against it. It's gorgeous as it is!

I'm not necessarily committed to changing anything in the vaulted room, I agree, it has an airy quality that I like, but the kitchen feels really dated to me, so I am hoping to do some updating in there that *doesn't* disrupt the flow with the living room. Just don't know how to do that.

Not shown is the other half of the main floor, which is painted with more modern, fresh colors (gray in the formal LR, deep grapey purple in the formal DR right off the family room pictured here), that definitely don't flow with the style of the part of the house pictured here (posted over in the discussions side of things, I'm a beginner and still learning how this site works!). So there is already the issue of inconsistent style in the home.

Another vote for keeping the ceilings as-is. Can you post another pic of the kitchen if that is what you are most concerned about? It doesn't look too bad from the picture you have posted. And is that your furnishings or the PO's? It looks nice.

The wall color could be easily changed although it's not terrible. And maybe some tweaks to using just a light or pendant instead of the ceiling fan and to the mantle might be worth consideration. Also somehow the moulding around the doors and windows seems too small. Maybe if it were wider or more in keeping with the soaring ceilings.

furniture is PO's (we haven't moved in yet). here are more kitchen pics (I thought I had posted one or both of these before, but having trouble posting 2 pics at once). I don't like the country-style backsplash, and the cabinets just feel dated to me. We will probably also get new appliances.

This post was edited by katybug78 on Fri, May 30, 14 at 11:21

OK still only posting one at a time, here's the other:

I like everything about this house, I'd love to have this EXCEPT I hate that opened cabinet in the kitchen with junk in it. It looks like something happened to the doors, like they got lost or fell off? I would fill that cabinet with something attractive. I have no idea what the intent was when they built that kitchen and left that opened? I'm going to assume that the original owner had a specific use for it, perhaps fine wines? Maybe she showcased some lovely copper cookware?

I know, those are pretty random, and there are actually two, one above the oven that is slatted (they have cookie sheets or cutting boards in there, it looks like), and another in the bottom cabinets, which POs are using for board games, which seems strange to me too. My thought was to either put something attractive or decorative in there, though not sure what that would be, they are oddly shaped and segmented, or to try and have a matching cabinet door built. I suppose if I were to go with the first option, I could break out the shelves/slats to improve the versatility of the space.

Looks like the slatted area above oven used to hold a microwave

I have a kitchen with very similar cabinets at our weekend lake place. Though lots of people think the oak cabinets are dated mine were perfectly good and I wasn't about to change them. Yours look really nice as well. I'm not a big fan of painting cabinets, woodwork, etc. I just changed out all my cabinet hardware from brass to a blackish gray pewter and that made a world of difference.

After reading what amyktexas said about the microwave and looking, I'm sure that's what it was in the beginning(microwave) and someone got real busy and added the vertical boards to use it for pans instead. Also, the other area I will bet you also held some appliance such as a trash compactor or a wine cooler because look at the baseboard and you can see it's different just beneath that slot. There was something in that slot at one time and the next owner decided they'd take it out and "customize" it.