I think you're right in that you need to tone cherry, not stain or dye it, for the best results. Have you tried amber shellac? You can get a can of Zinsser's pre-mixed version at the same place you're getting your Transtint dyes. Amber shellac is a dead ringer for Transtint Honey Maple, for what it's worth. That might give you just the honeyed yellow you want (as long as it doesn't turn the cherry too orange, which will be the danger with any maple yellow color)? The shellac is great because it doesn't penetrate like a dye or stain, so it goes on more evenly, and can take any clear finish (poly, lacquer, catalyzed) that you desire for your topcoat.

Natural cherry is going to darken to pretty much the same color in any brand. There may be a difference in the amount of color variation depending on the grade of cherry used. Most of the darkening happens in the first 6 months or so. Here is a picture of our natural cherry kitchen taken after the family room remodel when the flooring was replaced. The toe kick covers hadn't been reinstalled when this picture was taken. (We knew we were going to do the family room later so we didn't change the flooring when we did the kitchen remodel.) The cabinets are about 6 years old here so about as dark as they will get: I've heard on this forum that stained cherry doesn't darken much. The color contributed by the stain doesn't darken and masks some of the color change of the cherry. Our first idea was to go with natural maple for the kitchen to keep it very light. We were worried about dark cabinets making it to dark. But every time I saw pictures of cherry kitchens I loved the warmth of them and cherry went so well with counter top colors we liked. We find the cherry dark enough to add some warmth and color variation to our kitchen without making it too dark. Our kitchen faces slightly north of west, but there are redwoods and other tall trees and a wing of the house shading the kitchen window. We don't find the natural cherry too dark. We used natural maple when we replaced the floor.

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.

Thanks to everyone. I do like slate but the kitchen is opening up to an addition sitting area and into our master bedroom so I would really like wood floors throughout the rest of the house. The existing pine floors in the great room - which were there when we bought the house - are really beat up and I don't want to use pine in the rest of the house for that reason. Want a much harder wood. But I agree with Fori that it's hard to put two different kinds of wood floors next to each other through a doorway to look right. This is a kitchen remodel with existing natural cherry cabinets which are beautiful so we are reusing them all and adding in a different colored island (Hamburg Grey). The existing floors in the kitchen which will need to be replaced are a prefinished Bellawood natural cherry which I always thought were quite beautiful until I started reading all the posts about making sure your floor is a contrast to your cabinets. Shows what I know! In any event, the cherry floors are also on the softer side and have gotten pretty beat up so would love to find a harder wood for the rest of the house.