Cherry Cabinet Doors

wannaBelkhuntin

I have a customer that has a kitchen with very nice cathedral style raised panel cherry doors with just a clear finish that are 5-6 years old. The problem is the cabinets are maple with a light brown stain so they don't match. I told her I can reface them with 1/4" cherry so the cabs will match the doors, my problem is do I try to age the cherry by adding a light stain or do I just leave them natural and let them age. I read in Leo's post of his little corner cabinet that the cherry ages fast but is that much of an age difference to much to hope they will match up reasonably a year from now? I am thinking in a year the cherry will age enough to be reasonably close and look way better than the than the maple cabinets she has now.
Thanks Dave

pinwheel

Precut all your parts & let them set in a sunny window for a couple weeks. They'll age pretty quick this way.

AndersonsWworks

Just my opinion but I would not stain the cherry. If you stain it now and it matches, it may not match a year from now. I refaced a kitchen in natural cherry and about a month later went back and put a natural cherry pantry in. The new pantry was decidedly lighter than the refacing that I did a month earlier. Now a year and a half later they all match.

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Leo G

Take your refacing material and finish it. The take it out in the bright sun (No clouds) for a couple of hours and that should accelerate the aging process quite well. 10 minutes in the sun will produce darkening. Give it a try, take a pc of cherry and put something completely opaque on a portion of it and place it in the sun for 10 minutes. Remove the opaque object and you will see the surrounding area has already been sun burnt.

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Gus Dering

Have you ever brought cherry home on your lumber rack and notice how much it sun burns on the ride back to the shop?

Don't stain it.

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Leo G

One of my fears with a natural cherry kitchen is bringing it to the home. Usually I bring cabinets over in a pickup truck so it can really see the sun. I am waiting for that one job to see a big streak down a set of cabinets because I drove east (or whatever) for an hour or so while the sun was beating down on them.

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wannaBelkhuntin

Thanks Leo, I had thought about that but was afraid of warping, but I think that is what I will try. Thanks to all.

Gus Dering

You need a covered wagon, Holmes

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Leo G

Gotta deal with what I have.

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Custom Cabinets in Hartford County Connecticut