Ouch. everthing has to be painted if you like the overall and the install was good no other probs . and you don’t pay for the paint by a pro. Or new fronts Etc . There’s so much pigment you may as well paint. Maple doesn’t do dark / heavy stains well, but still....

Take a drawer out and put it on its side. Does it look the same?

I've been warned from multiple different sources that maple does not take stain well. If your designer did not warn you about this, then he/she was remiss. But if you were warned and plowed ahead anyway, I don't see where you can now turn around and complain that the maple took the stain unevenly. Yes, it did. That is characteristic of the wood.

Blotchy would be one thing ... this is something else. You're absolutely right that this is to the point of looking intentional. Unfortunately, it sounds like it isn't the look you were going for. What does the cabinet maker say?

As mentioned, maple is known for not taking stain. Maple is a cabinet material that is normally either painted or left natural. A 1-minute google will tell you this. Please let us know whether the designer, the carpenter, or the ”rep” warned you about this or not. It is such a standard thing that maple isn’t stained, I find it odd that no one said anything. If the designer was inexperienced, surely the carpenter and cabinet rep would have known this wouldn’t work out. Even more problematic is that you were not trying to stain it a natural wood color, but gray.

We need to understand what was communicated in the discussions before this work was started. Why weren’t you given a sample in advance? Who chose the maple as the cabinet material? Who chose the gray stain? Without that background, it’s hard for us to know how to advise you.

Hi all -- thank you all for your comments and perspectives. I honestly appreciate it.

Our designer did say that maple sometimes stains unevenly, and I also understand that this is an unfortunate situation that I allowed. However, it was also discussed that maple takes differently to stain randomly and not in a clear pattern that repeats on 7 drawer fronts. In this case, the stain took to the vertical grained boards darker (all of them), and it took to the horizontal boards lighter (all of them). As a professional cabinet company I would hope that if they saw a clear pattern they would intervene to ensure that they could mix up the resulting cabinet. Of course, the sample we were shown certainly didn't look like our drawer fronts nor would our drawers be used as a sample shown to clients when they select their cabinets. I am fine with all the other cabinets as they do mix the dark and light where one piece of the door takes the stain differently. It can blend together just fine and has a random effect.

In the end, we negotiated to re-make 3 drawers (there are two stacks of drawers, 7 in all). We will have them stained and hoping that they will not take the stain with the same stripe on the sides of the drawers. Then we can mix the drawers up and hope that they will look more random.

You can all use this picture to show your clients how maple can end up in a worse case scenario.

Thanks again all, and here's hoping that our next set will be more random. :)

I am getting ready to order, coincidentally, grey stain on maple cabinets. Yikes!! In the showroom, I liked the look on maple better than cherry, hickory or oak (the other options). However, I may need to reconsider. I didn’t really like the graining on the oak and hickory, and I was concerned the cherry would darken too much over time. Any suggestions?