I had the same problem. I wanted full wood shaker style doors, as opposed to wood frames with veneer insets. I got cherry, and wanted it to be the same stain as the adjoining family room furniture. I had one heckuva time with the wood vs. veneer, and then when I found that Thomasville had what I wanted, came the stain decision. It was VERY hard. I went with a briarwood stain and I am very happy with it.

I had Home Depot order me a NEW sample door so that I could judge just what I was going to get. I wanted no surprises. I would suggest that to anyone that is having trouble selecting a stain. Perhaps if you pick the stain that is the closest to what you want, ask for a new sample door, you may find that it's what you want, OR don't want. My KD told me that the sample doors that they have in the store are sometimes really old, and that the flourescent lighting does weird things to it too.

Don't know if that helps much - but just wanted to chime in because I feel your frustration. I was there.

Good luck!

Boxie

We had the same issue - we kept seeing the KM ginger glaze in Maple and other woods but not cherry - my husband loves cherry and I didn't but I thought - let's just order a tiny door as it was only $40 and we did and loved it - that's how we got our color but it took us months to come up with that. Try the stains on other woods would be my suggestion - a darker wood will take to the stain differently. That made the difference for us.

I bought custom maple cabinets and dictated the stain color. Its a cherryish color. Most places don't like to do dark finishes because its harder to get a good match between the light and dark woods on maple. Companies like to spray the stain and come out with a finish that is exactly the same from piece to piece. If you like the wood variation and let them know they should give you a choice. Here is my color. You can see the variation in stain, but that's what we like.

It is generally harder to stain maple wood in a darker shade and have consistent results than a light shade.

Perhaps you could select a different cpecies of wood with the same door style and a darker stain

I had one heckuva time trying to find a dark enough stain
without clashing with the floor. Since our cabinets were entirely custom and the company doesn't have tons of stained doors so you can choose. They had to custom make one for us. It is similar to the KM Ginger Glaze without the glazing. It is exactly what we wanted.

If this is of interest to you, the formula they used is 1/2 Burled Cherry and 1/2 Harvest Brown.

The salesman actually suggested I might like cherry better. I like maple because I like less grain, and because I'm worried about cherry getting much darker over time...but maybe I should take a second look.

How much darker does cherry get? If I got one of the lightest cherry finishes (which would be darker than the darkest maple finishes in this line of cabinets - more of a medium tone wood), where would it end up, and over what length of time?

Hi Charlikin,

I thought you liked the cherry with carmel stain from Hanssem. That is what we are getting. It is finally getting delivered on next Friday (you may recall that we originally ordered these cabinets from another KD who almost got away with $9k of our money). Anyway, the cherry wood is not as grainy and it' a nice brownish color, which I think you will love!

if you dont want grain go with maple, cherry has pronounced grain with darker colors and will continue to show more variation as they patina. Maples tends to lose its grain with darker stains, but it also become blotchy, you may want to consider birch as an alternative.

Hi ni - no, I had been looking at the maple colors.

I'm actually going to go back and look at Medallion cabinets, which are framed, but *might* have a color that makes me happier. I did some more reading about cherry, and the idea of it getting a couple of shades darker disturbs me. I know people love that quality about cherry, but I'm having a hard enough time choosing a color without having that color change on me!!

Hey, you're getting your cabinets finally!!! I'm so happy for you!!! Can't wait to see them. (Also can't wait to see that Eureka door style! :-))

If you like maple but want the final color darker, you might think about a glaze over the stain you select. My cabinets (Omega Dynasty) are maple with a mocha stain and a coffee glaze.

Cherry does darken, but I don't think that much to worry about - we've had ours a year and it's not anything noticeable. I originally wanted a lighter wood... just didn't work with a darker stain for my taste. Cherry or mahogany stains much better. I am not a big fan of the grain too but it really isn't a big deal - see if they can make up some small samples for you - that' really the only way to tell if it is what you want. Take it home and look at it several times a day in different lights.

charlikin, my Hanssem cabs are finally here!!! See link for pics.

The Eureka style is gorgeous!!!

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0608412717552.html