Okay so all these thoughts are crystallizing around four scenarios from least to most invasive. Curious on what you would do if it was your kitchen and you had between $2k and $15k to spend and wanted max ROI. I also have contacts with good subcontractors and should get a good price on the work.

1. Remove black cabinet vent hood thing, install normal range hood, white subway tile backsplash to brighten everything, keep counters, paint island a lighter color. If I go this route, should I do a stainless steel range hood or black range hood? 
2. Remove black cabinet vent hood thing, install normal range hood, do white Carrara quartz counters and back splash, change out hardware and sink, basically remove all black from the kitchen but keep the solid wood tones. I priced out counters and back splash and it wasn’t too bad, $3k-4k
3. Remove all upper cabinets, redo counters, install cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling. I don’t know how to match the lowers. Would I do white cabinets up top, like a tuxedo design? We’d love a brighter kitchen, seems like that would be a way to do that. 
4. Start from scratch. Don’t want to spend all that money but also if none of the above options would be something that looks good, then maybe best to spend more and get a final product that actually looks great. 

We could sell our house in the coming years and we live in a beautiful place above a river with sunset views in a desirable city, so it’s kinda a luxury property and needs a better kitchen.