SOME kitchen updates

Between taking out a giant tree that's growing into the side of our garage (I know, awesome.) and insulating some areas of our house, there isn't much left for redoing a ton in the kitchen. However, I am SO tired of that 90's forest green, meets honey oak, meets brilliantly ugly brass fixtures. I'm ready for them to dance off to the tune of Roxette's "It must have been love, but it's OVER now". When we looked at the house it was one of those, "Hey, the kitchen has been updated. That's a bonus." But, now that we've been here a year, I am over it. 1995 called and they are dying for some more brass, and I'm ready to give it back. Will you help me?

Here it is in all its glory:


We can't get a new counter, sink, floor, appliances, or cupboards. So, I'm focusing on removing wallpaper (seen in other pictures), painting, and creating some kind of cheap back splash. My biggest set back is the forest green counter. I wish I could ignore it, but it's kind of like the ugly, green monster. How can I coordinate with it, yet not accent its nastiness while creating a little more modern feel?

We got this clock for our wedding from a cousin of Kipp's, and so I started liking the orange/green combo.


Then I bought some dish rags in a package from Wal-Mart, I think, that had orange, red, teal, deep purple, brown, and green. I like some of those concepts, but I really don't want to accentuate the dark colors. That room doesn't get a ton of light, so I want to brighten it up a bit.

oranges, eggplants, dark green, light green? Kind of like in this wedding...


And this bouquet...


To save more money, we would love to use leftover paint from other rooms in the house. We have almost a full gallon of this:



What do you think? What else could I do with the ugly, green giant?