Here's a photo of the lowers along the wall. Sorry for the low quality phone photo : )

First of all, I think you cabinets look great.

Second, I don't see any problem with mixing Shaker with Slab in your kitchen. You had to stand in just the right place to get the pic that shows both lowers and uppers together. The way your kitchen is laid out, if you can see both, you are probably so close that you aren't getting a panoramic view. And you will never be looking at the uppers and the island doors at the same time. You just won't.

Thanks cawaps! It's hard to get the imperfections in the photo with the glare, but here's a photo where you can see a small part of the seams. Glad you think the shaker and slabs will look okay. I'm so torn on what to do but shaker seems to be the best option that I've thought of so far.

Veneered slab are a better option than shaker here. That's what most of your high end Euro cabinets use if they use wood at all. And make sure the substrate is MDF for the veneer.

Or, the best option of all would be to get your money back from the incompetent cabinet maker and find someone else to do it. If he can't' do a decent glue up, there's no telling what type of problems that exist that you can't see, or just don't have "the eye" to see. You would be better off taking that money and going with a national cabinet line than most local makers if you want slab. It takes more specialized equipment to do the veneer layups, edgebanding, etc. than most local small shops will own.

I think it will look great. The glass doors are essentially shaker doors anyway. See if he will replace all the doors with shaker, even the island doors.

If you want flawless doors without seams, have them made of solid surface.

Wood grows on trees. What did you expect?

Wow! Thanks for all the helpful suggestions! Point well taken about the shaker style. Our house is contemporary so I hate to add a design element that will throw that off. Its a great idea to have a sample veneer door made to see what it looks like. And I'll definitely see if there's another cabinet maker that we could use. I'm totally fed up with these guys!

hollysprings - Do you have any recommendations for a national cabinet line? We are in Minnesota if that matters.

jess, the problem is with the finishing. You could have twenty glued seams on a door and not see a single one of them (at least while the door is new) if they were properly glued, sanded, and finished. It's something you should ask your cabinet maker to fix.

If you want to see a beautiful veneered slab door, look at Barker Door. They are flawless. Samples are inexpensive, and the doors are reasonably priced. They're manufactured in Oregon and ship throughout the US.

Here is a link that might be useful: Barker

Thanks for the suggestion EAM44. Yes, it's definitely a finishing issue. I will look into Barker about getting a sample.

Trebruchet - While I don't expect perfection in a wood door, I also don't expect to be able to see 7 vertical lines running the length of a slab door.

I have to agree with those that said it looks great with slab. Try to stick with that if you can find a way to do it that isn't seamed. I think that the shaker would throw the style off what you have so successfully achieved. It wouldn't look bad but just wouldn't be in line with your objective.

To be fair, you shouldn't expect to see the join lines on a slab door constructed from solid wood when it's first delivered to your home. (Which I'm assuming that your cabinets are newly installed.) A newly created slab door should be smooth single slab in appearance.

Subsequently, you WILL see those join lines telegraph. It's unavoidable. It's the nature of using solid wood that contracts and expands with the waxing and waning of the humidity. Different pieces of wood expand and contract at different rates, leading to those join lines appearing between the boards. In extreme cases, the entire door can warp inches out of flatness. That's why solid wood slab doors are constructed with battens on the back. It prevents major warpage. It does NOT prevent the join lines from being seen over time though. And it's part of the reason that all cabinet companies require you to maintain the humidity in your home as part of their warranty coverage. If you don't use your AC in the summer or have a humidifier running in winter, you've just voided your warranty.

And that is why the majority of people who want slab doors prefer to have them in veneer over solid wood. It presents a much more stable surface over time. It warps less. And you get the opportunity for some beautiful graining patterns that aren't "striped" because of the many different pieces of wood required for solid doors.

Here are solid slab doors by Holiday Kitchens in Wisconsin.

I also think your kitchen is beautiful. Maple is not a great wood if you want dark. If you've seen dark maple that isn't streaky, it's usually been applied with a toner of some kind. I would NOT want a toned finish....cheaper companies use this to tone out wood for finishing.

I can't believe your cabinetmaker suggested maple.

Cherry, Alder or Poplar all would have been much better!

Kompy

Thanks for the explanation hollysprings. No one had mentioned that to me. I do have some veneered woodwork by our cabinet maker. He made a bench, table and part of the TV cabinet out of veneer and there is a very noticeable line around the edges. It doesn't bother me on these other items due to their large size, but I think it would bug me on the cabinet doors. I may need to find someone who can do a better veneer job.

Thanks for the recommendation Kompy. Those cabinets look great!

sounds like you need a better cabinet maker. Maple is notorious for not accepting stain well, so you get streaks. But the bad joins on the doors and the TV cabinet sounds like he's a bit sloppy - cabinetry requires a high degree of precision.

My slabs are solid rift sawn oak. The sample door I got with the stain on it showed every stripe, because the slab was glued up with 3 inch boards. I asked the cabinet maker to use a wider board, and they turned out very nicely. The cabinets just got delivered yesterday, so I can try to post a pic later with the two different glue ups.

While I can see the glue up on the final product, it isn't as busy as the narrower boards. The cabinet maker warned me about warping, but because of my wood species, I decided to take the risk.

Thanks hazeldazel - I agree. He is being sloppy. I think he'd irritated b/c he's had to remake a number of doors/drawers/cabinets so the newer ones are coming back even worse than the first ones we had.

LoPay - that is exactly what the doors look like - stripes every 3 inches. A wider board would definitely make it look better than what I've got.