Ugh, forgot to add, the cabs are also wayyy lighter than they were in the store display examples the sales guy showed us. He did say they will darken, is there any way to speed that up, ha.

The doors on our full overlay cabs were adjusted after the cabinets were installed. The hinges allow for door adjustment.

Can't picture what you are saying about the island cabinet - sorry!

Cherry generally darkens after installation, but I'm not sure what causes the darkening. I have natural cherry and they have darkened a little, but not a lot in 8 months.

Good luck!

My hinges allow for adjustment as well--and there were several that we did have to adjust as they weren't properly lined up. You can adjust the doors up and down, and also back and forth so that the doors are closer together--ie, no 1/4 inch gap between them. There are screws that you turn to make the adjustment. I'd check on that first, if your hinges allow for adjustment, I'd ask the GC or installers to do that for you.

I have natural cherry cabinets and they were a little bit on the light side when they went in, but they have darkened quite a bit over the past 8 months. I have a lot of windows in the kitchen and it gets a lot of sunlight. This may have sped up the process somewhat. I love the new darker, richer color and look forward to watching it change even more as time goes by. If there isn't a lot of light in the room, I'm not sure how you might speed it up the darkening process artificially. Sorry.

Cj

Ohh, many thanks for answering, pudgy and CJ!! I will ask about adjustable hinges. The installers are really nice and competent (have done this a long time), so I am sure it has to be something that can be adjusted once everything is installed.

I did tell them I was kinda freaked out about the island and it's a non-issue, the corners come off to allow it to fit through the door, and they put sort of a false corner on it once it's installed.

Darn, part of the kitchen gets some sunlight and most of it doesn't. I guess it'll take a long time for them to darken then. Oh well.

All of you issues are not issues at all and are completely normal and expected during the install stage. Your installer is focusing on getting the box carcasses correct and will adjust the doors in the finish stage. Cherry darkens over time. And most corner cabs aren't completely L shaped 90 corners in the rear inorder to minimize useless space and to make alignment during install easier.

Well, this is the first time we are having a new kitchen installed, so I am not familiar with the install stage. Hard to find info about it online as well, so I thought to ask here. I hope it's okay to ask questions and vent on here, because I plan to do lots more of that. :o)

For adjustments it can take a couple of months to get the cabinets properly adjusted. Ours were set up initially to be all properly aligned but after using them and depending on how they are opened and closed and how often they are used, re-alignment may be necessary. Our pull-out trash, after 8 months needs to be re-aligned. I know how to do the others but not this one. E-mail to the GC to find out.