try Minwax Espresso
It's dark I'm using it on oak, but I think it would look like your picture on cherry. Bought it at HD - not all stores carry it.

Thanks!

Tried that one, and it was nearly black.

I wanted a specific color for my custom cabinets at my last house and couldn't find it in stores. I looked around for stock cabinets that had the color I liked and ordered stain from them. It was very expensive, but got the color/look I wanted. If you do this, be certain of the wood type of the stock cabinet matches yours. For example, a stain would look different on white oak than red oak.

RED FLAG! Drop back and reassess their ability to actually give you a quality custom product. There are plenty of semi custom lines that can give you exactly what you're talking about. They should know the stain lines that they use well enough that mixing a custom stain should be second nature. Doing several samples should also be easy for them to offer you. It's really simple if they know what they are doing. And if they use Minwax, they are hacks.

Hollysprings, you may be right, but we are too far gone to reassess, the cabinets are being made!

They have offerred several samples, and they keep doing variations on the same 4 stain colors. I'm really frustrated.

I'm frustrated with the place in general, but we are where we are at this point.

They use Sherwin Williams conversion varnish, I have some paint chips from Sherwin Williams and minwax and the espressos look the same.

Laura - that sounds like exactly what we are looking for with our cabinets...we love cherry grain, but not necessarily looking for a red undertone and we want dark cabinets.

As near as I can tell, espresso, but more transparent. Espresso has blue undertones, which should counter the red of the cherry wood.

It almost seems to me (who knows NOTHING about staining wood) that we're probably looking for a 50% espresso, 50% clear or maybe a 60% espresso, 40% clear mix. Maybe. I dunno. (We're still trying to get final drawings from our cabinet maker...we haven't even ventured into the stain area yet.)

Oh, and Hollysprings since you're here - what stains are good ones to use?

I'm not a woodworker, but my ex was, and he colored a lovely red table for my daughter using wood dye, not stain. Based on my fuzzy memory, I thought a dye rather than a stain might be what you are looking for. A web search confirmed my recollection: "Dyes are characterized as transparent, as they bring about color changes in wood without obscuring the figure" (see link).

Here is a link that might be useful: Dyes vs. stains

Unfortunately I am limited in my options, the cabinet company uses spray on conversion varnish, so I need to use a standard stain.

Any specific stain colors anyone suggests trying?

If you can't use dye stain,resolve yourself to the fact that the type and quantity of pigment required to get that trendy dark color is going to make the grain look like it's been painted. As muddy as it's going to be, you had just as well have used maple (or poplar) because the only difference will be to your wallet.
Casey

My custom door company uses Sherwin Williams stain. None of the usual stains finished out dark enough due to the process of spray-staining/wiping/spray clearcoat finish. All the green ,pink, yellow undercoats came through loud however.
I asked them to do a double coat stain in Minwax espresso on the red oak and it is finally approaching the darkness we needed. The grain shows through but is coffee dark.
It is not black when sprayed. When hand applied, hand wiped off and finished it would look like your sample pics.
How the stain is applied is everything.

Try General Finishes products. They are far superior to Minwax stains. I don't thnk our local woodworking shop even carries Minwax as professional woodworkers seem to prefer General Finishes. . The GF java stain over pecan stain should give you the deep rich brown you are looking for. Google general finishes and you will see many on line tutorials. Not that you are doing it yourself but you will see the different stain colors. BTW, the last pic in your group appears to be a limed finish.

I do agree with Hollysprings that the cabinet company doesn't sound like they are experienced in mixing stains but the right stain will make all the difference in how your cabinets look when finished. Don't let them proceed until you are sure that the color is what you are looking for.

According to comments on Houzz that last pic is Mahogany.

What your after is not done with a single color as holly-kay noted. (We even run into issues when getting stain from them as application methods are critical to getting a match. ) Dark colors done with a single stain color use a heavily pigmented stain. Pigments hide grain. There are several approaches to get what your after.

My preference was ML Campbell for finishing supplies, second choice is Mohawk. I'd have thought your people would already know of them though. They will want to talk with tech support- Campbell I usually talked to a local supplier, Mohawk used to be able to talk with the factory.

Color names from mfg's won't help.
They make names up, are dealing with the commercial as opposed to consumer end of the finishing supplier, usually have someone on staff to work out colors/consistancy (at least the good ones) and work with a tech rep from the supplier on a regular basis.

Jakuvall, thanks for the explanation.

When you say that there are several approaches to get what I'm after, could you be more specific?

Do you mean that it would involve a stain then a glaze? Or something else?

I was also going to suggest a dye, which like somebody said, doesn't hide the grain of the wood.

what is the wood species of your island....and what is the perimeter in your space? I think because it's the island, I might pick a slightly lighter stain and have them glaze it,as long as you have some detail for the glaze to lay on. For an island, this kind of a detail, not complicated to achieve ,would be actually easier at this point than the trial and error trying to find just the right pigment to"allow" grain toshow......and really on the island, being below counter, not sure it's going to be appreciated so much...up on the walls where light hits and your eyes naturally get the full on view is a different matter. It's just going to look dark below the counter once you go that dark with an all over stain.....so add café or dark bronze glaze to a medium-dark stain......easy!

The perimeter is white, and all the doors are shaker.

I should say, that this is for the island, a stairway window seat, & cabinets on either side if my fireplace/TV in the living room.

Two stains, a pre coat and a stain, a stain and a tinted top coat (toner), a glaze can shift color. If you go to ML Campbell they have a number of products.

I am stuck with only using Sherrwin Williams....

If they SW commercial they can solve it, 2 of my mfg's use them and have good results. Retail I don't know.
You are looking at completely finished samples, yes? Not just stained blocks.

They do you use SW commercial.

I am looking at completely finished samples.

Do you have any idea of some color codes from SW that may work for this?

SW should be able to color match just about anything with some prodding.
Ours came directly from the cabinet company - Autumn stain with a Black glaze. The black just highlights the corners without overwhelming it.

Sorry, no codes.
I get client samples based what they offer, OR (for custom) send in a sample either supplied by customer or of something I have on hand for a match, OR get on the phone with someone to work it out if it's not a match to something but want a slight shift (they don't like the last one but within reason they will make me a sample block- works some of the time:-). I don't build 'em or have to make samples nowadays.

My cabinets are cherry stained medium dark. I love them. I can't tell you what the maker of the stains was, but if you want, I will try to contact the cabinet maker and see what it was. Here are 2 pics in different lighting:

The cabinets on the perimeter are cordovan stained cherry; the island is expresso stained walnut.

Sandra