I find natural maple cabinets beautiful and especially since yours is not a clear grade. I also love natural maple floors. If I did not have so many putty files in my home office and a cherry office desk, I would have installed Maple floors instead of Brazilian Cherry floors. I love my floors but they do darken up the rooms and I sometimes wish I went with a lighter floor.

Please post pictures so we can help.

Thanks, Lynn, we have also been wishing we'd gone with a lighter floor, so may have it all sanded down whatever we do.

I will again endeavor to learn how to post a photo.

I should have mentioned that the floors are oak. Even so, their color is very much like the maple -- both have so many colors and textures in them!

Our floors are natural maple select and better so there is some color variation but not as much as your cabinets. We went with the more matte finish. They were prefinished so I can't help with finish info.

Ours cabinets are natural cherry but perhaps looking at the floor will give you some idea of what your cabinets will look like with a finish (sorry, the floors were installed recently and the toe kicks are still off in the pictures; when added, the toe kick area matches the cabinets):

The way to keep the natural color is with a waterbased top coat. It doesn't have the yellowing resins. It's very durable.
I redid my old cabinets with Aquacoat 10 years ago. The finish on the old cabinets is still perfect. It was the layout, appliances and counters that drove us to a new kitchen. My new cabinets are maple, with just a wheat stain. The light stain brings out the gorgeous grain.

Here is a link that might be useful: waterbasednon yellowing topcoat

Sorry I haven't been able to get back to this till now. We were out yesterday looking at granite and marble, plus other "kitchen" things keeping me busy...

Cloud, those floors are beautiful, thanks for posting. My cabinets are the same color as my floor (almost) so if I clearcoated them both it would be a monochromatic look. I'm not sure if that is a bad thing, it sure is making the kitchen look big at the moment.

Sixtyohno, thanks so much for the Aquacoat link and your experience with it on maple. Was it sprayed on your cabinets? My painter says he does not like using waterbased products, apparently they are not as easy to spray on.

I did the same thing in my laundry. The maple plywood was so beautiful when it came in, I couldn't bear to paint it. It's the same plywood that was used for my cabinet boxes, so I wanted a hard varnish. My cabinetmaker was able to find an ultra low VOC varnish that would be long lasting and durable (I don't have the specifics to hand). Just wanted to say go for it. It's worth it. :)

Our new cabinets are stained an almond color with light chocolate glaze. Our cabinetmaker strongly suggested that if we painted them off-white and chocolate glaze (originally what I wanted) that the paint would eventually crack at the wood seams and I would not be happy. So the next best thing to off-white paint was almond stain with chocolate glaze. I am so glad I decided to go with the stain. My husband and I think its makes the cabinets much more interesting to see the wood grain. It was a good compromise for us. It gave me a very similar look to what I was originally looking for.

owls and pillog, thank you for the encouragement, experience, and support of this new idea. I've spent a couple years planning on painted cabinets, and all of a sudden this pops up -- it will take some thinking.

Brandy, creamy white with cocoa glaze was exactly what I was thinking before I saw the wood (or just creamy white). Honestly I love both ideas, meanwhile the clock is ticking! The good thing about going clearcoat is that I can always have it painted over, though that will be another mess, and another big chunk of money, and we've already gone way over budget.

I really appreciate everyone's help on this, thanks so much!

Plllog, YOU HAVE THE BAYVIEW SINK! How are you liking it? I have been thinking of getting it for my bathroom and dropping it in to a counter topped sink base. Do you recommend it (please say yes)?

Our bathroom, just of the kitchen, needs to double as a mudroom, farm washup center (vet supplies), lovely bathroom.

Oh, and I love natural maple. Hardly a prettier wood in my opinion when natural. Though I don't care for it stained, too blotchy.

I have painted creamy-white maple cabinets with a mid-toned maple-stained floor in the kitchen and natural maple cabinets in the bathrooms. This will make it more difficult for you because I honestly don't know which I love more.
We live in a forested area and so I don't think I would want natural maple cabinets in the kitchen but I honestly don't know. The natural maple is beautiful.

OT to enduring: I like the sink fine, but I have to admit I haven't had much chance to use it. :) I mean, I haven't had to soak proteins out of cloth, or done any dying, or anything, since I've had it. It's just fine for rinsing out a bit of laundry and the mop. :) I washed a paintbrush in it once. It holds my old Rubbermaid laundry basket perfectly, which is kind of terrific considering the washer is right next to it. It's awfully deep for a bathroom, but for hand washing it's fine--not so much filling the bowl for washing one's face. It should be fine for washing off wellies, and the odd small dog. Might be a bit big for some vet supplies. Maybe a dishpan to corral them? And it's awfully deep for washing veg from the garden. Again, you could adapt. A large sieve frame or something you could dump the veg in would solve that problem. You could make one to fit on the ridge. This is definitely a slop sink, however, and I don't know how lovely it's going to be in the looks department. Not ugly, but definitely utilitarian. 'Course the counter could help, as does the beautiful stand the cabinetmaker made for it. ;)

Bigdoglover, you mentioned that "We LOVE" the natural wood. Does the rest of the we love paint and glaze? Guys in general love wood, so if "We" includes one of them, I'm not surprised. Guys in general find white painted cabinets to be very feminine. If that's true of part of your "We", since you love the natural too, I think it would be a good idea, just so the guys feel welcome and feel ownership. Most will go along with whatever "happy wife" wants, and be pleased when she's pleased, but if he prefers the wood (again, assuming there's a he), that's a good reason to go with it and change some of your plans.

We have natural maple floors in our farmhouse and I would not suggest using any kind of oil based finish on them like tung oil, water lox, oil based poly etc. It will turn them very yellow. Use a water based finish like Bona or minwax's water based line.

Pillog, you are right on. The other half of "we" is DH. He immediately got on board, no hesitation, when I told him I was thinking of woodgrain instead of white. You're also right that whatever makes a "happy wife" is good by him. ("Happy wife, happy life" -- something a husband on "Househunters" said.) I like your way of thinking on including him.

Jenny, I'm so glad you mentioned no oil base on the floor because I was planning to have them use oil-based Duraseal this time, thinking it would look richer.

Thanks again to all. I/"we" are still sorting this out and will let you know what we decide. Still have to learn to post pictures. I'm not comfortable with the fact that my photos apparently have to be available on the general internet, as in photobucket. Correct me if I'm wrong about this.

BLFenton, I know what you mean about the natural wood in the kitchen, if it's very shaded. We have no window in our kitchen, though there are nice banks of them in the adjacent breakfast room and family room. That was the reason for going white. LOL about your situation not making it easy for me to decide! :-) Though your forest comment is actually very helpful.

Every time I see a new white kitchen posted on GW I drool and think "how could I do otherwise!!?" then I go in my kitchen and look at the beautiful velvety raw pinkish maple cabinets... I'm just flip flopping like crazy!

I'm late replying. sorry- Yes waterbased coatings need to be sprayed. There are some companies that advertise brushables, but they are not appropriate for your job. Your painter needs an HVLP system. I have an Apollo Sprayer-4 stage. I did my previous kitchen cabinets, carved living room chairs, a coffee table, my front door etc with it. Spraying puts on a finer finish than brushing and HVLP is the most efficient. You don't waste the coating and the air stays cleaner. I'm
sorry if I sound like an advertisement, but I do love my sprayer.
www.hvlp.com

Thanks sixty. you don't sound like an advertisement at all, and I'm happy to have the info in case I ever get brave enough to do something like that myself!

Thanks so much, everyone, for your help and ideas. After considering everything we decided to go with the painted creamy white. Next big hurdle is finding the right painter.

I’m posting here in hopes of seeing updated pics of maple cabinets. I will be installing maple slab/flat-front cabinets in a few weeks and would love to keep the natural color in a matte finish. My concern is that they will yellow over time... even if I do apply a non yellowing finish, since I’ve read that’s what maple tends to do naturally. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Here's a picture of the kitchen in our last house. the cabinets were custom made by a cabinet maker in solid maple. We did a clear "non-yellowing finish". The house was built 20 years ago, so the cabinets have a lot of years on them. They definitely did yellow a bit (although they weren't as dark as this picture shows.). There may be some different products now that will minimize any color change -- but any real wood does change over time, particularly when exposed to light....

@anne thank you for posting and for the detailed answer. Beautiful cabinetry!

@Megz we are also installing slab front maple cabinets that have a natural finish already applied from the manufacturer Decora. Would you mind posting a picture? curious to see how yours look and what kind of floorinng you have. we have red oak that is about to be refinished and Im trying to decide on color. anyones input or help is greatly appreciated!

@Rachel unfortunately I couldn’t get my hubby on board so we ended up painting. I don’t have a great pic either, only this one when I was playing with pendant heights. Sorry (Reallyyy wish we would’ve stained)