Advice on improving my dark kitchen

Definitely affix under cupboard lights to illuminate the worktops. Also makes it cosier, but the best thing is you're not working in your own shadow. You can get battery powered stick-on ones, but maybe screw on any that will be near steam.

Hang pots of brightly coloured flowers on the painted white wall to cheer it up, or even paint a mural.

Your photo looks like Ikea units - if so, you can sand down the cupboard doors and spray paint them in a light colour.

I don't know what your counter and table top are made of, so I doubt you can paint them.

A hardware store ought to be able to supply paint that could be used on those black tiles - and you could ask their advice about the table tops too. If you decide to paint the counter and table tops, I would varnish them with clear varnish after painting them, so the surface lasts longer.

That looks like the 13 year old kitchen I have just had replaced. I too thought it was too dark. Two people I know have had their kitchen units spray painted professionally and they look good. Door and drawer fronts are taken away and on return the edges of the doors etc are painted. £500 was the cost of one, don't know what the other cost. I didn't go for that as I didn't fancy having the insides of cupboards left different from fronts, my cupboards were the same inside and out, some types are white or cream. Also I wanted a different worktop. Painting, perhaps a new worktop and stick on led lights on the kickboard to lighten the floor are all I can suggest.

Forgot to mention I also had the black tiles, drive me mad keeping them polished. DH bought cream coloured tiles same size intending to tile on top but eventually decided it wasn't worth it as the overall kitchen needed changing. My AS who has a very big kitchen and is saving for replacement did tile on top as a stop gap and it looks good.

I've used tile stickers on my fireplace. They're much better quality than the naff ones if the 1980s. You can get them in lots of shapes and colours to recover all your tiles without damage in a lighter colour.
There are sticky back plastic type options for worktops and units too, that I've seen in videos. But I've not used them xx

Up here in the Wigan area there are a few companies who will come out and spray paint the kitchen. There’s loads of Different colours to choose from .

If you replace worktops, your tiles may cracked.

I would look into replacing just the door and drawer fronts. It will give your kitchen an instant lift.

I’d paint the cupboards in a pale grey, either DIY or professionally and install under wall cupboards lighting, as already suggested
I’d also look at covering the tiles with pale grey glass splash back, professionally installed.

I would second the recommendation for Kitchen Magic who update a kitchen by leaving the old cupboard frames in situ and building new doors and ends around them. We had this done in a pale cream Shaker design and thought it looked amazing. We also sourced Travertine marble slabs (very pale white) cheaply from the internet and had them laid over our old tiles. Travertine is a bit skittish and temperamental and needs TLC but you could lay pale tiles to reflect light.

This would cost you a few grand, about a quarter to a third of the cost of buying new.

Alternatively, there are companies which will professionally respray cupboards so they look new. This costs about £1000 for a whole kitchen.

Lighting updates will also create a brighter effect.

Have a quick look at the wonderful kitchen transformations people have done on here.

www.facebook.com/groups/411202492387852/?hoisted_section_header_type=recently_seen&multi_permalinks=1949140711927348

Looking at your picture, the cupboard doors are a boring colour, though not very dark. What really drags it down is the dark work top which must be very depressing when you're working in the kitchen. That's the first thing I would change. I believe that companies that re-spray cars will sometimes also re-spray kitchen units which would give them a nice glossy finish if that's what you are aiming for.

Of course I don't know your taste or what your budget is, but a few things come to mind. One easy way to bring in more light is to have a skylight installed. Under-counter lighting is nice and helps a lot too. Restaining your cabinets a light color would give a whole new refreshing look, then you could replace your cabinet hardware with new handles and knobs to your liking! If it were me, I'd do the cabinets over in white (or an off-white or subtle color). Your black countertops would stand out nicely. Curtains and walls should be light too. Hope you find what you like!

My kitchen is at the back of my bungalow and can be dark from late afternoon,I changed the tiles to cream from black and put up a very large mirror to bounce off light from the kitchen window,I also removed the spotlights and fitted a large fluorescent light to the ceiling which made the kitchen so much brighter.