any hardware and hinge suggestions would be appreciated! The hinges I saw seemed to need to mount on the face, with the screws going into the door on the back side of the door and I wasn't sure if this would mess up the opening/closing of the doors since they close well now.

the other option would be to simply keep the hinges and paint them white too.

Another option would be to use something like the Ce Ce Caldwell paints that adhere well, and perhaps gilding them with something in a dull metallic.

I can actually see these hinges looking pretty nice on a white/cream colored cabinet. It might be a challenge finding handles (I'm not a knob person; they're always coming loose), so you might consider keeping these, but moving them down to a more modern level.

What I really like about your cabinets is they're inset. Being a forced DIYer, I'd change the door and bottom drawer a tiny bit. I'd shorten them. Then, I'd put a stile at the bottom of the uppers that's the same width as the rails on the side. For the drawers, I'd make it the same width all around. It would also modernize a traditional look to traditional vs. era look. Does that make sense?

From what I can see, these look custom and are probably well made. What's on the other side of the kitchen?

If keeping vintage, I'd clean & polish them and not paint. If you are trying to totally change the look of your kitchen and home, I think you're going to have to do as CEFreeman suggested. You'll have to shorten all the doors and add a bottom rail between the stiles. Then on the hinges, since they are inset, you can change out to a different type for inset door, not visible from the front. But that will only look good if there aren't indentions from the current hinges.

Do you have any photos with a door open?

This is going to reqire moving those hinges, though, so they stay the same distance from the top as they do from the bottom.

They are quite pretty. I, too, like the hinges.

Nancy