I'm confused. Your cabinets should come already finished from the factory, with a tough conversion varnish finish. Finishing shouldn't occur on site. So ???

You have wood floors, a different wood butcher block counter, and maybe a third wood on the island? I would paint the cabinets the same white as the walls. Also, paint your toe kick to match the gray of your cabinets.

- No we bought unfinished cabinets because my fiance is a carpenter and can do it himself but he thinks to keep them natural and I am leaning towards painting them.

-The island is only temporary through this renovation. Toe kick is also to be painted this week with rest of install. Floor to be redone to match overall tone as well. Just looking for advice on to paint same white as walls or to try something different with wood tone on uppers. I think I am leaning towards paint though ;)

I’d paint the same white as wall. I believe fiancé is officially outvoted and should concede ;)

also maple can be hard to stain so getting it to match or compliment other wood could be tricky.

Maple IS hard to stain evenly ... but I really do love the look of maple and if he can get it to match the butcherblock ... I would go with that.

For advice on how to do that, check out the finishing subreddit. Not a ton of activity there, but some good advice on when to use a pre-conditioner and how to get the best effects from poly, shellac, etc. Www.reddit.com/r/finishing

I agree with the advice to do white painted uppers. However, I kind of like the look of the wood planks on the wall and wonder if open shelving might work for you. Normally I try to dissuade people from it, but in this situation, it just seems like a natural fit.

Go for the stained or oiled maple. My suggestion would be to get a piece of maple and try out the methods and see how close you can get the color. Try the different methods and see what works best for you and which gets it closest to your butcher block.

I vote for painting the cabinets to blend with the white walls. Your kitchen DOES seem perfect for open shelving, but I understand wanting cabinets with doors. Looks great so far.

If you paint the cabinets you might as well have bought cheap MDF cabinets. It's a waste of good maple (and money) to slap on a coat of paint like that.

Maple is a beautiful wood. I'd leave it natural with a clear finish. Staining to match the butcher block makes no sense, because, with time, that butcher block will change color and get stained because it's a work surface. And you can't match the floor because it's oak.

The kitchen is a living thing--a work space--not a showroom. I'd put patterned glass in some of the uppers to open up the space.

Use a pre-stain conditioner if you do stain.

Either the cabinets are white like the walls, or oak like the counters. Maple should have never been a consideration and if they are going to get painted, then MDF doors would have been a better substrate.

I have never seen maple oiled...............I have seen it waxed. If you have leave the wood with such an open finish, it will slowly discolor around the handles from body oil and soiling.

All of your plans say that you really do not know anything at all about finishing wood, and what it takes to have it be durable enough for kitchen use. You are not “oiling” kitchen cabinets, or anything else.

“I am afraid if the don't match the wood well then the whole deign will feel in-cohesive and choppy.” You are there already. A hodgepodge of different woods and finish types is a recipe for disaster.

Using house paint on kitchen cabinets is a disaster waiting to happen. Unfinished cabinets are very very far from being a bargain. They are low quality to begin with, and when finished poorly, as you are describing, you might as well have set your money on fire. You would have spent less and gotten far more in the end by choosing a decent Budget American made line that was already finished.

At this point, the path of least harm is to continue down the house paint path you did with the others. And start putting away money to do this job over correctly in a few years when those fail. You will need a better layout then, and the fridge moved elsewhere. Don’t get too attached to any of this temporary stuff. Keep saving to do this right.

WE bought the house in the current state of hodgepodge and are doing our best to make it work with our budget. I did research and wanted to buy locally and the MDF cabinets were considerably more money and could only find them at big box stores. You are right that these unfinished maple cabinets are not the highest quality which is why we are okay with painting over if it makes sense visually to do so. Open shelving was my initial thought but with plans to sell this house in a few years, I worry that not enough people dig all open shelving as well as it could be considered less functional. Thank you all for your input!

If you have resale on your mind, stop spending money on bad bandaids that won’t help at all with creating resale value. Save more money to tackle it correctly later. The TX fakefarm shabby chic thing is dead and had zero staying power to begin with.

Leave the maple unstained and apply 2 or 3 coats of General Finishes HIGH PERFORMANCE WATER BASED TOPCOAT, Gloss or Satin, your choice.

https://generalfinishes.com/wood-finishes-retail/water-based-topcoats-and-sanding-sealer/high-performance-water-based-topcoat

With plywood wet it down to raise the grain then sand it with 220 grit. Do that a couple times. (This doesn't seem to be necessary with solid maple.)

Use white scotch brite pads to sand between the poly topcoats,

An oil-based finish may look a bit 'deeper' as it penetrates better than water-based, but I didn't want to go to the trouble. If you have a Woodcraft-type store near by they can be very helpful with finishing tips.

Maria Killam: Match natural wood with crisp white.

https://www.mariakillam.com/the-new-look-of-wood-kitchens-timeless-or-trendy/

I have maple cabinetry that my hubby designed and built. We painted the outside of them, we used Benjamin Moore Advance line of primer and paint and have had very good results with that. (Hubby used a sprayer, but didn’t have a booth, just did them outside on our driveway... he was going to build himself a makeshift booth if that didn’t work, but it did...) That paint takes longer to cure (not dry, but cure) than most other paints, but once it’s cured I’ve found it to be great. (Takes about 4ish weeks to fully cure. We installed and were using them before that, but just gotta be careful is all... we did have to scratch sand and re-paint two drawer faces when I accidentally got some spray cleaner on them and in a panic wiped it up with a dry microfiber cloth... scratched the snot outta them! But the paint hadn’t cured yet, and after we resprayed them you can’t tell there was ever an issue.) I’ve never tried staining maple, I’ve heard it’s tricky. I did use a clear shellac on the insides of my cabinetry, and that was fairly easy to work with provided you don’t overlap much with the brush. Shellac kind of instantly yellows the wood, but it’s a nice, natural finish. It’s not the best for water protection... I mean, it protects ok, but water spots leave a whitish mark... I’ve heard you need to wax the wood on top of the shellac if you want to avoid that. I didn’t do that, I just laid down some cork and shelf liners on my shelves and drawers to avoid getting water spots from stuff from the dishwasher that wasn’t completely bone dry. LOL! I’d experiment with some oil finishes for the outside on a piece of maple and see what you can find that might match up well with the counters. Unless you decide to paint... then I recommend the Advance line of paint, it’s well worth the money.

Forgot to add some photos of my kitchen... and a closeup of the paint job... you can see that natural wood leaves some hairline cracks at joints when you paint. A lot of people dislike that or see it as a flaw... but not everyone. Anyways, that’s why so many prefer MDF for painted cabinetry, it’s more stable with expansion and contraction for paint. I also included a photo of the inside of some of my cabinetry before it was all finished, that was after I had applied shellac. One great thing about shellac on the insides of cabinetry is that you don’t get off-gassing smells like can happen with other finishes in things like cabinets that usually stay closed. With shellac you only get a strong rubbing alcohol smell when you’re applying it, but it fades very quickly and then no more odors ever.

BEAUTIFUL