Your plan will lead to a golden yellow natural maple color. Osmo is NOT a cabinet coating. You need something like SMATTE, sprayed professionally, by your cabinet maker. Not done in home. That will not stop the natural aging and ambering of wood. But it will have the wood look "raw".

Why on earth is this being done so piecemeal? The boxes, with the finished face frames and doors, are installed at one time. You don't build or finish on site. This is just a weird way to do anything. With an even weirder way of finishing.

Minardi, this is the way my cabinetmaker works. He installs the boxes and then orders the doors and drawers. I was not expecting that. A carpenter/ finisher will finish the boxes if I want to use Osmo. I also got a bid from a professional cabinet finisher to have them sprayed with a clear coat, in a shop, not on site. Based on McDonald Enterprises, Osmo is not suitable for cabinets. I appreciate the professional comments.

McDonald Enterprises. Okay, thank you very much. I edited my post to reflect your comment about Osmo. You may have saved me a lot of grief. I had heard positive things about Osmo as a coating, but only from a few sources. What is a Smatte coating? Is it a polyurethane? And when you say that it will "have the wood look raw" are you referring to Smatte coating? If you have a moment to respond, I thank you for your time!

There are shops that will build a cabinet box and then order the door and drawer faces from an outside vendor, but that would not be a "cabinet maker" in the true sense of the word. However, every business needs to start some where, and it's likely keeping the cost down & supplying elements the shop doesn't have the capablility of fabricating.

I would NEVER have cabinet doors and drawers finished on site. There is no way to control the environment & this practice severely limits what finishes you can use on the doors and drawers.

There are door and drawer face suppliers who provide prefinished pieces and since you are so far down this road, I'd at least consider this option to reduce the number of surprises and get a quality finish that can stand up to the normal wear and tear in the kitchen.

https://www.theshakerdoorstore.com/

The Cabinet Door Store

Fast Cabinet Doors

https://www.cabinetdoorfactory.com/

Maple would not be on my choice of woods to use because it changes color over time. Are you at least getting pull out drawers with full extension slides for your cabinets?

BeverlyFLADeziner

I really appreciate your comments. If you have any more time, I have a question. And, yes, I ordered full extension, undermount slides for the drawers.

Disregarding my personal preferences for the moment, can you say which wood species do not change color over time?

Thank you, I will explore your links for prefinished cabinet doors.

Note: I edited cabinetmaker to cabinet box maker in my post. You are correct, he is not a cabinetmaker. He used to be a cabinetmaker, but years ago switched to ordering from a supplier after making the carcasses. I chose him to keep my costs down, as my demolition revealed water intrusion problems that lead to mold abatement, removal of subfloors, and reframing parts of 2 rooms. In any case, the cabinet budget shrank!

Have you considered birch? I wanted birdseye maple on some of my cabinets but was encouraged by my cabinet maker to use a printed birch veneer instead. Eight years later, they look exactly the same. Not suggesting birdseye, just suggesting birch might be a good alternative or some version of white oak.

Lovely. I am considering birch. I like the lightness.

S-MATT - Matt Coatings for Wood - ICA Group's Coatings

Your door/drawer selection is not chosen in a vacuum. All the rest of the finishes in the room must be considered.

Birch has a tendency to lean pink so I'd be careful with that selection. You might have a hard time getting your flooring selection to complement the color.

BeverlyFLADeziner, thank you. So generous. Birch can lean pink. Got it. I'll get samples.