My friend has had walnut cabinets for five years. It has a purplish undertone, not at all orange or yellow. It is in a room with 13-foot counter-to-ceiling windows on two sides. It's lightened a bit but still quite dark. I doubt she'd let me take pics, sorry.

Alder is a very soft wood, easily dented. 590 on the Janka scale. For comparison, white pine is 420 on the scale Walnut is a relatively soft hardwood but ranks over 1000 on the Janka scale; red oak is 1220 and hard maple is 1450.

Don't get alder! We have walnut cabinets and stained them a light mocha shade. They still look great 5 years later. I think they are beautiful!

Yes :) alder seems ho hum after seeing the walnut door! I see quite a few kitchen designs using them (online), and it's hard to imagine them all turning orange/yellow.

I had the contractor ask the cabinet maker about it and the cabinet maker said he thought it was because of the finish.

nwtreelover , real Black Walnut cant be matched in the grain features. You need to look at water based matte polyurethane finishes. They resist turn that yellow color.

If you stain walnut, it won't show the color change (or the grain) as much.

(...although some finishes themselves will yellow over time, that's not what you're talking about here. It's the wood that changes, not the finish.)

When I was picking out my cabinets and landed on natural walnut, my cabinet maker was sure to pull out an older sample he kept around to be sure I knew what I was asking for.

I have darkish stained walnut "built ins" on two walls in my living room. They havent changed in color but the grain is masked by the darker color. They are beautiful but i think cherry would have been fine and a lot cheaper. It was my designers suggestion to use walnut but she was spending my money not hers.

I have been decorating my family room in MCM style and have purchased 50 - 70 year-old walnut side tables or upholstered furniture with walnut legs. I would advise you to go look at Chairish.com and search on MCM walnut furniture and you will be able to see lots of pictures of what it looks like. Though, these days, people are not likely to stay in their homes even half of 50 years to see that change!

My 2-3 year old unstained natural walnut kitchen cabinets already have almost the same yummy orange cast as my 1960s walnut furniture. (We do have quite a bit of natural light.)

Hmm, I just got an alder vanity... I didn't realize they weren't durable. The finisher bleached the wood before staining it to get it the nice warm brown (with no yellow) that I wanted it. It is a beautiful cabinet, so I hope it holds up!

I think a bathroom is a fine place for alder. People generally don't bang stuff around in there!

Actually alder is lovely in a more rustic or vintage styled kitchen, too, where dents add patina and character. :)

Thanks for all the input! My GC is rushing me, but it's a big decision, and just want to make sure we're comfortable with what we are getting. I'm getting a door stained using Alder to see how we like it, and might use that for bath cabinets. That way we could see an entire cabinet done in Alder and see if it fits the look we want. We're going with a Shaker style.

Robinlmorris, I never thought about bleaching.

Fori, I have thought that alder had a more rustic look to it, but maybe because it is often shown as knotty alder.

We have some Danish MCM, a teak credenza and some lovely Harry Ostergaard chairs. These will be in the formal dining area, but there is a pass through and the kitchen cabinets are on the other side, visible from both sides.

The table in the eating area has a dark finish on it. I have quite a mix of wood colors/stains and a slightly eclectic style.

Walnut like in the photo below wood be perfect, if it would stay that color.

I have been thinking about painted cabinets and a wood island. Our kitchen doesn't have a lot of natural light, so this might be a way to lighten things up. That's one reason why we are redoing the kitchen. It has a 2 tier island, that blocks light in the sink area, and our appliances are currently black!

This is also similar to the layout of our kitchen, but we have a tall pantry cabinet where the window is, and the RHS it's open to the eating area. The RHS has an opening to a small hall to the pantry. But we have cabinets on the rhs and frig.

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We had nothing but a small, north-facing window facing a 2 story house 30 ft away when we started our kitchen remodel. The adjoining family room has a 5 ft doorwall, but it is far aaway from our work in the kitchen. So we added this, and it was probably the best thing we did in the remodel. It is just a 2 ft x 4 ft operating skylight. When it gets hot or smokey inn there , we open it up and it clears right out. My contractor made the opening in the ceiling almost twice the size of the skylight, and the light just pours in.

That looks beautiful! I hadn't considered hickory, but that could be an option.