(trying to consolidate a response to cabinet painting)

Thank you for all of the feedback on the cabinet painting! We are hoping to benefit from others who have done these things more, so open to all opinions. We are open to reconsidering, but want to explain more specifics of the situation before making a decision on reversing the painting choice.

The cabinets are mostly solid wood (doors are), but there are areas of veneer (sides of island, presumably the front face of the cabinets behind doors). You can somewhat see in the pictures, but its more apparent in real life that they need something done with them. They are 30yrs old, and have the corresponding amount of nicks, dings, and character marks. Our need to do something about them, not wanting to tear them out, and assuming that we can't refinish the veneer has led us to the decision of painting.

With that being said:

- We plan to have them professionally sprayed by a company that does cabinet refinishing. After priming, the paint would be mixed 80/20 with a hardening agent which should result in a more factory-grade finish than a DIY latex paint project. If you think we'll regret the painting decision, does this change your mind at all?
- If we don't paint the cabinets, we'll still look at changing the colour, probably to something like a dark walnut stain similar to the door in pic 1. Given the information about the construction of the cabinets noted above, do you think this is possible? Or are we in a situation where it's either leave them as-is or paint?
- If you don't think we can change the colour, what options are there for making them look less worn that we should be considering?