My Ugly Kitchen

I found some pictures that had the kitchen in the background, so thought I'd share them to give you an idea of what I was dealing with. You can see the green striped wallpaper in the background. There was also a border that matched. The picture with the cake on it is of the snack bar which sticks out into the middle of the floor. There's an odd space of about 5 feet between it and the wall. Not big enough for a table. And there's no light other than the window. Strange. We had the desk there for a while. You might be able to see a corner of the desk in one picture.If you can see the small corner built-in, that's what Darrell took out and we moved the desk to that wall.
In the picture looking at the kitchen, you are standing beside the snack bar (like where Melody is in her picture). I hate that snack bar jutting out in the way. I feel like it cuts off everything--flow, light, etc. The kitchen is very dark, not enough lighting, dark stained cabinets, yellowish/brown flooring. I've already picked out a stick on vinyl tile for the floor. I'm planning on antiquing the cabinets and painting the walls. Check out the post below for a link to Frottage.
That's it for now. Let me know what you think or any ideas you might have.