ank, could you please try using the spacebar when you type? I don't mean to be rude, but it's really difficult to read your post.

I painted my cabinets last year (same type as yours) in part because it was the only way to get ride of the hideous brassy trim piece. Just scuff sand everything use a bonding primer (like Zinsser BIN) under your paint.

If you check out the kitchen forum, lots of folks are doing two-toned kitchens these days with the top and bottom cabinets different colors; however, this usually involves a lighter color on top and darker on bottom. The Gardenweb search feature doesn't work well, but you can Google "gardenweb two toned kitchen" and find some helpful threads if you want to consider that look.

Without seeing a pic to know what you mean by "the top cabinets are fine and have more detail", my recommendation would be to paint them all. It's a lot of work, but I bet you'll be glad you did.

Another option would be to reface the front of the cabinets.

Lee
Resident manager of over 20 years.

Now that posting pics is so much easier....... Haven't tackled the cabinets yet, but here is our kitchen floor we redid last year. Took out vinyl and had laminate installed. We had the beige carpet removed and carried the laminate through the LR, DR and hall. Soooo happy with it :-)