This is what worked for me after trying what you did. I used oven cleaner and after waiting a few minutes, I wiped it off and rinsed. Then after several applications, I used cooking oil to get the finished look I wanted. Lemon oil may work better. It will soak up the oil till its sealed. My hearth is slate. Try the oven cleaner in a small area to see if it is safe for your stone.

mkiv, perhaps the reason you aren't getting an answer is that we don't know what you are seeing as a cloudy effect. The picture resolution doesn't show the grain clearly. Maple is a very light wood with a very fine grain that isn't very much darker than the rest of the wood. So I think what you are seeing is that when it is stained as dark as in that picture the grain is very muted. Also I've been told that it is difficult to get maple to take a dark stain evenly so that may be what you are calling cloudy. Cherry starts out darker than maple. It's grain has more contrast to the background and there is more color variation in it. That provides the interest that I love in cherry. It contrasts the simple lines of slab or shaker cabinet styles. Perhaps you prefer a less prominent grain that blends with the simple lines instead of contrasting them. My cabinets above are natural cherry and I think catmom's are also natural cherry. Hers are veneer which is better for slab and mine are solid. They did a really good job on hers of using the plywood with cherry veneer well - if you look at a drawer stack, it is all cut in sequence from a piece so that the grain matches from drawer to drawer. You can also see that grain match on the pantries to either side of the microwave. It shows a care for craftmanship in building the cabinets. We went with shaker partly because in the natural cherry there is a depth to the grain that I don't see in the veneer - it is like one is seeing the effect of several layers of wood cells. But that goes away once the cherry is stained to get darker colors. The grain in cherry will be muted somewhat by going to a darker stain but probably not as much as the grain in maple. BTW, I don't agree with giacomo about the origin of the shaker style. It was created in a time when plywood didn't exist to be functional. It was done to be practical - which in the sense of an economical approach might be called "cheap" but it wasn't to minimize the amount of material. The extra labor cost somewhat balances any material savings. Shakers were all about having things simple and functional. They used a 5 piece construction for wood doors to make a door that tolerated the expansion and contraction of wood better than a slab. The wood panel in the 5 piece frame can expand or contract a bit within the bounds of the frame because it is held in the slot but not glued. Now that there is plywood, that an economical way to make dimensionally stable slab doors as an alternative to 5-piece. The panels on our doors are thinner because of the 5 piece construction, but they aren't "tiny". They are very sturdy. In the book of measured drawings of Shaker furniture (as in furniture made by Shakers rather than "Shaker" style furniture) that I got for my woodworker husband, all the drawers have slab fronts. Only the large doors are 5 piece. It kind of grates on me when people call something "shaker" with 5 piece for even small drawers. Here is a link that might be useful: comparison of wood grains

I'm in the process of doing this very thing. Doing Bridgewood Skandia (full overlay)cabs in maple with wheat finish...black counter of some nature (granite? Quartz? Still to be determined) and, goddess help me, stainless appliances. The Husband likes the look of ss and he so seldom has an opinion and when he does, I usually let him have his way. (Unless I'm totally opposed.) My sister SWEARS that there's a new stainless finish that isn't a fingerprint nightmare. I hope she's correct. Here are the tiles we are leaning toward for the backsplash...(tiny samples...I've ordered larger ones but they've not arrived yet): From Tile samples So far I'm leaning to the micro-mosaic on the left. Colors are JUST what I'm looking for. I set everything on The Dreaded Black Shelves so that I could get a feel for how the tiles would work with a black counter. Propped my cabinet sample above...and that is what I have for a "style board" to date. Floor will be marmoleum...I've included a link to my pinterest board for my kitchen. I've found pinterest to be a great way to add/edit ideas. Here is a link that might be useful: mjsee's kitchen pinterest board

Where are you located at? I would love to be able to help you. limestone can be super dark in color, have you tried looking at other natural stones as an option? here is a picture of a fireplace we are currently working on. The hearth is one solid piece with no seams.