When we first toured our house, I had mixed feelings about our kitchen. On the one hand, the layout is great. But the finishes were really not my style, as evidenced in the photo below. 
This was especially tough considering we had just built our dream kitchen in the Tangletown house (see more about that here). We didn’t (and still don’t) have the budget to do a total renovation for this house, so I’ve focused making small changes that I think make a pretty big difference. I’m calling this my “in progress” kitchen because one day, I still want to do a larger scale reno. For now, though, I’m pretty happy with where we have landed.
To start, I swapped out the cabinet hardware for some really beautiful brass pulls from CB2. Then I found some fantastic pendant lights at Crate & Barrel. They were part of a floor sample sale, so they were under $20 each, which is the score of a lifetime. I added a beautiful rug and I thrifted a barstool. Otherwise, it was just styling.
One of my favorite things is the mint green hutch that flanks the south side of the kitchen.
It has a very cool dish rack that we use for all our plates and is a feature I would have never really asked for, but I actually truly love. 
I also love the butcher block center island.
It would be nice if there was room for more than one barstool, but it ends up working out okay because we have the dining nook with the fluted benches just behind the island. The photo below is a little fuzzy, but it helps you understand the layout.
We eat almost all of our meals in this dining nook and I’ve even set up Nico’s baby swing right there. You can read all about how I built the banquette here.
So overall, I’m happy enough with the space, but I think it could be so much better with different cabinets, backsplash, and countertops. Pretty much all the changes I want are cosmetic because the layout is really functional for our family. My guess is that we will live with the kitchen as is for the next 3-5 years and that is something I absolutely can handle.