I am glad you like the kitchen color but it looks like walnut to me. Two of the drawers in the bathroom look like walnut. The others may need another coat of stain. This is what concerns me.

"Painters'' have no business staining cabinetry. Only a cabinet finishing specialist, in a clean room offsite, has any business finishing cabinets. A custom cabinet shop usually produces finished cabinets, and employs the finisher. You got rooked here with a faux custom maker who didn't do a complete job. And then it was made worse by having someone with marginal skills try to finish the job that the ''custom'' guy should have done. Your builder should be ashamed of hiring these fake ''custom'' people.

Stain penetrates wood. They will have to sand back to completely bare wood. Removing a significant amount of wood. It would be easier and cheaper for them to make you new cabinets. And do them properly. Offsite. In a clean room without bugs and dust to contaminate them.

Watch them carefully. I'd bet they'll try to pull a fast one and try to stain over what they already did. NOT acceptable. Put a hidden Sharpie mark on one of the doors on the inside, where only you will know. If it doesn't get sanded out, you will know that once again they tried to pull a fast one.

I'm sorry your having this much trouble. Clearly not a professional job. I would get an outside opinion by a very reputable company. Then you will have the information you need in dealing with your contractor. Personally I wouldn't trust them to do it over. Good luck

The bathroom would be unacceptable to me. I am not picky, but I would want my money's worth.

The contractor's remark about failing to use Sherwin Williams is pointless. The application is not acceptable. Does your contractor think it is acceptable to not stain the tops and sides of drawers and doors?

In the case of the vanity only two drawers seem to be walnut. Since the others are too light, I still think they could me made to match. Are the backs of the doors stained? If not, that is also unacceptable. Insist they fix the vanity. They know competent cabinet finishers, I'm sure. Maybe they tried to save money.

I know you are content with the kitchen cabinet color but the tops and sides need stained. I can see it and I'm only looking at a picture. It must be noticable in person. Am I the only person who can see this? I ask because I do not have excellent vision and I apologize if I am going on about something that is an illusion.

Yeah, definitely a sloppy job. Sophie Wheeler is correct; most painters, even good ones, don't have the background to apply a cabinet/furniture grade finish with a penetrating stain or dye. It takes a LONG time to figure out how to deal with different wood species using different products etc. to get a true cabinet grade finish. There probably should have been a pre stain conditioner applied to ensure that the stain penetrates the grain as evenly as possible to prevent blotchy color distribution. This is especially important in open grained wood species as there will be areas that suck up the stain heavily; this is particularly tricky when you have end grain exposed such as the profile of a raised panel door. Too much conditioner and the wood will barely take any stain; too little and you still have issues with blotchy areas. I personally go with the school of practice that a good sanding sealer should be used after staining, so that you can fill the grain and get a superb top coat. If your builder is fair and you are happy with the quality of the cabinet build; just find a good shop handle the finish work. I've known plenty of guys who build great cabinetry but cant finish them to save their life. As others have correctly stated, you can't just strip and re-stain; the pigments or dyes are ingrained within the wood fibers and the only thing you can do besides sanding a massive amount of material is to use a product like Minwax polyshades. It's not a true stain as the pigments suspend in the poly, but it can be used to darken lighter stained material. You can always go darker, but you can't go the other direction without breaking out the 80 grit. Best of luck with you project; keep us posted as you get this issue squared away.

Now, there are some awesome new products out there that will probably eliminate the need to sand away any material at all to change the stain color.... Check out the video on youtube I've linked....

Hate to comment again but I'm wonder why the cabinet maker did not carefully choose the best wood pieces to work with to create a cohesive flow of the grain. That's what custom should be all about. Looks like he used whatever. Hope this ultimately works out for you and you get what your paying for. Problems in building are common, just takes time and research to get it worked out.

This very typical of work completed by individuals that do absolutely no prep.

Good to hear and looking forward to see your new cabinets!