My DH and I agree with rhone and her DH. When we looked at a sample with a very light stain and the natural cherry, there is a depth to the natural cherry that the light stain wipes out. If you are looking at new cherry, be aware that natural cherry darkens a bit on exposure to UV. Most of it happens in the first few weeks, then a little more over the next year or two. Our GC loaned us a 2 year old sample door to use when picking the wall color.

Thank you Vicnsb and Buehl for your comments. I have been mostly lurking, not having time to post, being owner builder for the last year. I plan in the near future.. after our move to post many lessons learned..for now I only have one album with way too many pix from beginning to current. If your interested..probably better to skip to the last few pages... Here is a link that might be useful: 2007/08 new home contstructon

i love the idea of an illuminated shelf. ours is NOT an interior kitchen, but we're in triple decker victorian land in boston. neighbors are *right there* and our kitchen is on the second floor. we have a big double glass door at the back of the kitchen that allows for plenty of light.

We put the wood look tiles in a house that we will use as a rental property. I am not there to take better pictures. These are some picture I already had. We put the tile in the herring bone pattern with a border in the living room and kitchen. It is the cheaper priced tiles. There is color variation in the tiles. We also used the same tile in the office. They are laid on the diagonal. I will also post a picture of the wood look tiles we used in the bathroom. These are a different tile. They were longer planks and not much color variation, and cost more. They cut them in random different sizes. I hope the pictures help.