Oops. Here is the other image.

wow, quite a difference and a very cool experiment! thanks for sharing your findings!

Very cool. I prefer the sun-darkened one. I wonder how dark it would ultimately get.

I prefer the sun darkened as well. If I weren't worried I'd ruin my cabinets, I might give them a little tanning time before I installed them in my one window kitchen. If anyone knows a way to import some sun, I'm all ears. Sun lamps in the kitchen? ;)

There are some uv resistant finish coatings so you also need to know what was used on your product.

There is really no such thing as a UV resistant coating (that I know of) You can't stop it the wood from changing tone, cherry/rosewood is the worse offender but even the lighter woods like maple will shift in color.

You can slow it down by using finishes with UV inhibitors, but nothing will completely stop it....one thing I have had luck with was actually staining raw cherry to get to the sun shifted color, the pigments in the stain seem to help keep the color true for a longer period of time

Here is a link to an example that Barker Cabinets shows of cherry doors, one new and one a year old. (scroll down just a little) I think it ages beautifully.

Scroll down further to see examples of walnut, maple, and sapele, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cherry Doors Darkening

I have also read that Walnut lightens with age from oxidation.

Thanks for this. I'm getting Innermost natural cherry. I like both the light and dark, so I'm good.

What I'm nervous about was that the KD voiced a few times that the rep wanted to reiterate that with natural cherry, there's much variation. I thought it was odd that THAT was the focus of 'are you sure you're okay with that?' rather than more discussions on how it darkens. But maybe that's more a function of them using wood that itself has had more exposure before the cabinets are made?

I just hope mine are as pretty as dcward89's. :D (I've started looking at Barker for the bathrooms.)

athomesewing:

Great link, thank you!

KD is just covering all the bases, I am sure they have been down this road with someone who was not educated in how the wood changes colors etc and they were very upset when it did change!

And when they are saying there is a lot of variation in the wood, maybe they are talking about natural cherry in general there is a lot of variation within the boards of cherry, with sap and heart wood

I didn't want sap wood, which doesn't seem to darken much, and my cab maker doesn't use it. Most cab manufacturers do use it, or you pay a premium for heart wood. Otherwise you might want to get a stain. That's probably why she is warning you.

I have my CabinetJoint.com unfinished cherry cabinet doors sitting out in the yard. I love the change!

The 1992 cabinets I've stripped are a gorgeous cream and chocolate brown. I was able to suck the red stain out of them, and actually bleach them. They're gorgeous. I'm hoping my newer stuff will darken in that direction.

No, I'm not crazy enough to think they'll ever match! :)

Here is a picture of our kitchen cabinets when they just arrived along with a 2 year old door that our GC gave us to use when choosing colors of other finishes:

Our cherry family room cabinets were even a bit lighter in color when they first arrived. I almost wondered if they had used the wrong wood they were so light. Most of the darkening happened within the first few months even inside. My understanding is that both light and exposure to air promote the darkening so even if you keep UV off they will darken (to the cherry color that I love fortunately).

This picture is from when our kitchen was around 5 years old. We remodeled the family room and did the floors in the whole area so the baseboards are off. You can see the color variation that we have in the mature darkened cabinets:

I've been talking to custom cab makers about natural cherry cabinets and one of the things I focus on is how they match wood. They all use heartwood but they all emphasize that there are always natural variations (which I understand: even my Stickily mission cherry has variation/a few places where there looks to be a tiny bit of sap wood; I don't mind it at all) I've asked them things like whether they reject boards and they both said yes.

If I went with a national company, it'd have to be towards the high end if I was thinking natural cherry.

It starts out light but I'm so very happy with the way it ages (at least in my Stickley stuff.)

There can also be a difference in aging between veneer (plywood) and solid wood. I've been leaning towards using solid joined boards for all exposed panels over any use of cherry veneer. Since I like A&C, I prefer the look of joined boards over veneer anyway. I have to get a final cost on it, though.

Cloud Swift, any chance you'll see this message on a 6 year old post? :} I am trying to make a tough decision about whether to go with natural cherry in a kitchen. If it aged to the color in your 5 year picture, I'd be great with it! The color of the door your contractor gave you in picture 1 is what has me concerned. Would you say that your cabinets never darkened quite to the extent of that door the contractor gave you as a 'final color' example? TY!

It's hard to tell from photos, since so much is dependent on lighting but I think ours are darker than Cloud Swift's look in their photo.

Ours are solid wood: no veneers.

The last photo tries to show contrast: the floor is white oak with a clear finish.

aptosca, THANK YOU. Super helpful. SUPER helpful. Would you mind sharing which cabinet brand you used?

Full custom by a local cabinet maker. If you're in the Santa Clara valley, I can't recommend him highly enough. But given your login, I'd guess not.

aptosca, nope, Boston! ;) Thank you.