what's your favorite finish for curly maple?

[Bearded_woodpecker_design]

Ok quick question for the experts. What is your favorite finish for curly spalted maple? I'm currently building a midcentury modern west elm inspired bearded dragon enclosure. i know what it sounds like lol. my son is turning 8 and he asked for a bearded dragon. as my wife and i are not "lizard" people we agreed without really knowing the size of cage we were going to need. after finding this out the things going to need a 4 foot wide cage so as its going to go in our living room its got to match the rest of our furniture, but i got to choose the wood species. I was lucky enough to find some beautiful spalted and curly maple as accent on the ambrosia maple plywood my local big box store just happened to have.

my long-winded question is what is your preferred finish for curly spalted maple that's going to make the curls look amazing and be a strong enough finish to withstand my kids and a lizard? I'm leaning towards a couple coats of Arm-r-seal and doing an epoxy coat on the inside bottom of the enclosure. what are your thoughts? Also has anyone used those ceramic finishes as a top coat and if so are they worth it?

 

[DLJeffs]

Reptiles are a little messy and need water - so the inside needs to be safe for the lizard to be around and also to be water repellent and easy to clean. If I were building this I'd look for a fiberglass or metal pan for the bottom and build the cage around that. That pan would be removable so I could easily clean it. The sides can be wire screen but remember the lizard eats insects so you might need to ensure the screen size will contain whatever food you plan to feed the dragon. For the outside, I'd still go with 4 to 5 coats of wipe on poly, goes on easy, dries relatively fast, and will allow the spalting and curl to shine through.