Painting just cabinet doors...
+4
I have very outdated cabinets in my kitchen. I want to paint just the doors a dark blue and keep the wood. We repainted the walls to a light gray/blue color. Will painting just the whites of the cabinets look silly? I am not looking to change the cabinets or spend money on that as I do not foresee staying in the home over five years! It would be too much to invest. The photo below is from the sale listing prior to buying the home. The cabinets are still the same.
Paiting the doors dark blue is a great idea! It will add some color to your kitchen and also help it look more cohesive. The dark blue will be more the tone of the cabinet boxes, so will actually make your kitchen look less "choppy". Good thinking!
https://www.remodelaholic.com/how-to-paint-cabinet-doors/
Oh, and this is why they make apples and oranges so to speak--
I would not paint them a dark blue as I feel it would close in the kitchen--especially with the dark wood color. The white was there for a reason--to brighten it up. My opinion is to paint the box a darker gray than the wall (look at the paint chip from your new wall color for the shade darker hue) and the doors the same as your wall or the next shade darker.
This is just doors painted blue. The white stripes are pin-stripping for cars! Easy, fast and inexpensive. The knobs are all different sets of colors and designs for cuteness. The base cabinets do not have the pin-stripping.
As you are not planning to reside in this house for many years as you said, choosing to go with a kitchen 'face lift' idea that does not cost a lot, or does not need a great deal of time makes total sense to me.
Painting 'just the cabinet doors' is still considerable work requiring down time, space, and materials, in preparation and application.
The style of cabinets that you have is dated mainly due to the brown edging. Since your walls are already painted blue, I would suggest painting the edging the same color of blue as the walls. This would result in an updated look with the cabinets matching the room, and would be less work than painting all the doors. Keeping the door fronts white would ensure that the kitchen remains bright and clean looking.