Styled maps might be what you are looking for,
It's worth mentioning the wizard first (note that in #9, it should be styles, not style)
https://mapstyle.withgoogle.com
These are references:
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/reference.html#StyledMapType
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/styling.html
There's an example of a styled map in the static API
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/staticmaps/#StyledMaps
The saturation and lightness control the look. Less saturated = less color, more lightness = whiter