My kitchen has gone through MANY transformations over the years. The First Picture gives you an idea of how the cupboards were originally, however I had discovered how to paint the counter tops so that is not the original color. They were a golden yellow, you remember that from the seventies right? 
In the second picture you can see that we sanded the cupboard doors and painted the frames. The counter tops changed colors several times, even navy blue at one time.
Then we decided to just dive in and redo it the best we could without hiring a contractor for anything. There was a lot of learning during this project. My husband built the cupboard doors from scratch, we moved the location of the fridge, added about four cupboards, cut off part of counter and finally tiled the counter so .... no more paint. I LOVE the end result and kind of want the next house we buy to need a kitchen redo so I can do this or something VERY similar. We finished this in 2001 and I love it as much now as I did then.
The hutch in the corner in the last picture we got at a yard sale for a steal. It was originally pine so we refinished it to match the cupboards. Some of the decorations, on and inside the hutch, were also bought at a yard sale.
The Barstools were also purchased at at yard sale and I recovered them. Someday, depending on the next house, I would like to paint them black then sand and stain.