We were told that the tile should be down before painting all the trim and walls so this is what we have done. Tile is almost complete. Now the big question is What is the easiest and best way to cover the tile before trim, walls painted and cabinets stained?? PLease help with any information you have. And what items need to be used in doing all this? All information will be greatly appreciated! This house building is about to wear me out :)

Matching stained cherry is one of the hardest tasks there is in finishing because cherry darkens with age, and the extent of that darkening varies dramatically among different lots of cherry. One of the many reasons I never put stain on cherry. That said, your two samples will never end up close to each other. The new on looks like it might have been colored with a dye, while the old has a semi-opaque stain/finish that was popular 20-30 years ago. You need to find someone who can replicate that look. The striations on your new sample running the length of the board look like sanding marks from a drum or belt sander. You won't get any acceptable finish until those get sanded out completely; I'd use a random orbit sander starting at 80 or 100 up to 180 grit, making sure all sanding marks from the previous grit are gone.

white oak is not that expensive, and certainly is NOT the highest priced cabinet wood! I've worked with it many times on my projects. It's only slightly higher than red oak, which is one of the basic woods. Rift Sawn white oak would be a tad more expensive, but certainly way cheaper than walnut, cherry, birdseye maple, teak, etc. (Shannon, go visit a lumberyard and look at the prices. white oak is rather inexpensive) Any carpenter worth his salt knows what white oak looks like, and how to achieve that finish. I also asked OP for those exact questions (what are the samples, what kind of wood is he doing and lets see pictures). You don't need a white paint wash to create that look, but using a white stain would mimic that picture. it's a white wood stain that 'whitewashes' the wood. however to keep it from looking like something from the 90's, it would have to be used sparingly. Another option is to ceruse the oak w/liming wax to create a similar look. a finisher could use the white stain on raw white oak with a raised grain, do a quick wipe on and wipe off, so that the majority of the stain stays in the grain. when quickly wiped off, you get a slight white wash look, but more of it adheres into the grain. Cerused White oak. (can be done w/liming wax, or even that White Stain, which I've done on white oak myself) This is a process where only the grain receives the white stain, and the rest of the wood stays like it is. In fact, the more I look at OP's picture, the more it looks like Cerused oak. Like this one: Cerusing is a very tedious process which would cost more in labor. I've done it on 5 or 6 pieces of furniture. this is that raw oak I posted in my first comment, with a gray stain, and liming wax used for the ceruse technique

I had custom natural cherry cabinets in my house, and the company that made them was able to match the grain exactly by using the same source of wood. I had hoped to do natural cherry again in our downsize condo, but the KD (same one) cautioned me that Kraftmaid would not be able to match it, that cabinets were sourced from different places and made in different factories, and that I would not be happy with the result. Natural cherry can have quite a variation in light and dark streaks, if I was expecting it to look the same. I love natural cherry, and even though my cabinets did darken, it made them even more lovely and rich.