Having computer trouble so sorry for delay but THANKS EVERYONE for your helpful comments. All of your floors are beautiful and exactly what I'm trying to achieve! Thanks for sharing with me. Boxerpups, I read your floor history, wow! I can tell you though they look wonderful now!! Muskokascp, post a pic if you can, I'd love to see! Marcolo, I got a laugh out of your post. Chris, your cape house looks just beautiful. Nantucket is my favorite place in the world. I got married there (sconset chapel in sconset village - if you're familiar with the island) and we try to go back for a family vacation every year, if only for a long wkend. I dream of having a vaca home there or on the cape, maybe one day! Enjoy yours :o) I did experiment with stain last night and think I came up with something I like... 2 pts red mahagony with 1 pt black walnut. They start tomorrow. I hope hope hope I love it. It really sets the tone for the whole house so I want to get it right. Thanks again everyone for your posts, pics, stain formula's and words of wisdom!

we really stepped out of the box and went with espresso stained cherry, sedna granite, granite backsplash on cooktop wall, rubbed bronze door hardware. i dont like stainless, so we paneled appliances. although we did use harvest gold stain on refrig. and some trim pieces. we were afraid it was going to be too dark, but it looks awesome, imho. we do have a skylight, kitchen window, sliders in dining room and dining room window, so we do get alot of light. we also did 2 glass upper cabs. alot of people suggested a light granite, but none "spoke" to me and frankly i don't like the look of dark cabs with white or almost white granite. to me it looks commericial/sterile. i also did not do stainless/silver hardware. again, did not like the look and i really didn't want to see all this silver which in my opinion is what would catch your eye with dark cabs. i didn't want to really notice the hardware, just wanted it to blend. my advice, get what YOU love. you have to look at it everyday not the people who recommend "this or that". that's what we did and we don't regret it for a second. we still have a pretty big punch list, so i will post pics when all is done. best of luck!!

oldhome - Get what you love! Just know the darker the finish on hw flooring the more the dust bunnies especially will show. If you choose a low luster (satin) poly scratching will not be that evident. Also, the best advice re: hw in kitchen area is that it should have a coat of poly applied every year - this is due to the high traffic/use in that area. It's done to protect the flooring, keeping it looking great (think traffic pattern wear). Flooring people just rough up the existing surface and apply a coat - Using any type of oil based product (i.e. murphys soap) will prevent them from having the capability of doing this. In your case it may mean doing kit & family room. I met w/the flooring person a number of times - he was patient and good w/trying to get the right color - I think he ended up using a "watered down" version of provincial- The provincial, early american, and dark walnut are all in the same brown family. Kitchen flooring was new white oak, all the other flooring was 75 yo oak. He did an incredible job matching the 2 - which I did not think was possible - transition btwn the 2 is first pic HTH - good luck Here is a link that might be useful: minwax stains

To answer the OP's question - NO. Cherry will always redden as it ages and, in fact, I think deep colors tend to redden faster. Below is a 50 year old cherry bed with a protective finish but no stain (I would tell you it was my wife's childhood bed, but I am sure she can't be a day over 30)... I took a picture of a bed that I made two years ago that started with a deep chocolate color but after only two years the red hues are really starting to shine through, I would post that, but the picture is bad and the bed unmade so my wife would kill me. I will see if I can get a better picture tonight. I personally love the reddening of the deep dark colors, but if you really don't want it then I would recommend white oak for kitchen cabinets. White oak is more expensive and harder to work with than red oak (cheaper than cherry), but there is a reason that boats and barrels are so often made from white oak. It is incredibly moisture resistant and has very good color stability. The color you start with will be the color you have forever.