You either go darker, or you paint. Or you buy new cabinets. Dark stain that has penetrated deep into the wood fibers has to be sanded into pretty deeply to get rid of that stain inside the wood. Its way more work than just sanding to paint. And that type of sanding ruins the profiles, so you might as well do all new.

I’ve used lacquer thinner on stained unfinished wood before with luck. I’ve just never done it on alder and am not sure how it’ll turn out. If it doesn’t work, we’ll just have to paint because buying new cabinets isn’t an option.

Did you see a sample of the stain on the alder before they were stained?

If you use lacquer thinner on slabs like that, you'll wind up with a streaky mess.

I did and it was much lighter. It’s not even comparable. I’m concerned that a different type of wood was used. Looking at the island and the hutch on the left, the colors of the wood stained and unstained are pretty different. Is that typical for clear alder? I’m not sure what to do at this point.

The problem is that chemical removal will leave the surface mottled, and physical removal (sanding) will likely result in going through the veneer and ruining the surface. Once you have a dark stain, you're pretty much stuck. If you want a different, uniform appearance, you have to paint.

And you are certain they used the stain you specified? Alder is pretty soft so it would easily grab the stain, but they should have known that. But if there was no discussion of the result you wanted, but just what they were to use, then I doubt you have any recourse but paint or redo the cabinets. Is there a part of the cabinetry you could live with painted and just replace some critical areas with new wood?
What a disappointment for you, but if they are nice cabinets, I would try to change my vision and paint them. They would be beautiful painted.

We shared a lot of pictures of what we wanted and then told them the stain that we wanted based on the wood samples that they gave us. Its very disappointing as the cabinets weren’t cheap to build. They didn’t even tell us they were staining today or we would have been out there to see a test patch before they did the whole house. We found the stain can at the house and it’s the same color we specified. We unfortunately have no recourse since they used what we said.

I think we’ll paint the hutch in the kitchen that’s stained because it is very different from the island. Maybe we’ll paint the living room cabinets to match the walls too.

Can you share what stain was used?

What does your GC say and I hope this doesn't negate your warranty.

It may not be the exact color you wanted, and thats very sad, but, on the plus side, it is a pretty color, and I wouldnt be painting over that very pretty wood. Yes, they should have notified you, and you should have been there, to check on the color, but, its also too late for that right now, so hopefully, once its all finished, you will have fallen in love with the darker color. I wouldnt paint anything right now. Give the dark a chance to grow on you, before you put paint on that will be there forever too.

@cat_ky That’s exactly what we decided. :)

We can always paint over it later if we want. We’re going to give the dark stain a chance at least.

Ashley-

I think that's a wise plan. It's disappointing to not get what you expect, but, since you have a large and light-filled kitchen, the darker cabinets will not appear oppressive and you may be just fine with them after the kitchen is completed and you are not focusing on this single aspect.

Alder wood has a warm red tone and needs no finish. However "Alder wood responds exceptionally well to all types of wood stains. The wood is not very porous, thus reducing the varnish or stain required for finishing purposes."

Suggest you read this article:

https://www.buildwithrise.com/stories/benefits-of-alder-wood

In my experience, alder is pretty hard to stain and get it correct. In our first new builder 17 years ago, we had the exact same thing happen with our alder cabinets with them turning out much darker than anticipated. We lived with it because the cabinetmaker ended up giving us 50% off. Well, I shouldn't save "give"....he knew he goofed and lied to us on several things and just never asked us for final payment :/

Clear coating alder would probably have yielded a result closer to what you were wanting. The more I look at your cabinets, though, the more I wonder if they are even alder. The graining looks more like birch, which I have in my master bathroom in a dark stain.

Have you looked at any options like limewashing?

The cabinet maker didn’t stain the cabinets, which I think is part of the issue. The painters stained them, so I think they used way too much stain. I’m also not sure that the wood is alder since it took the stain much differently than our samples did. I’m not going to fight it though because we just need the house to be finished at this point to keep our locked-in interest rate. 😔 I’ll deal with it myself in the future if we can’t live with it.

I think it would be a mistake to not atleast try to wipe some of the stain off…as is the wood pattern is very mottled and the dark stain amplifies that…also …all the cabinets with glass doors…with the dark background …only light colors will show against the dark background

In your pictures the island color seems quite different?…

The island does look a bit lighter and I’m not sure why. The wood looked lighter before staining it too, but they claim it’s the same wood. I’m going to ask about that on Monday.

The stained wood was already sealed, so it would need to be stripped to even try the lacquer thinner. I don’t think that would make it any lighter at this point, so we decided to just leave it as is and see if we want to paint it later on.

Would you paint the back of the cabinet white or leave it dark? Most of our dishes are white, so they’ll at least show up.

I would paint the back of the cabinet to match the walls…that alone will make a big difference…and the grain on the island is so unusual ..very interesting…if all the other cabinets are painted..i think it would be a very striking feature/ finish…if on site it just looks awful …ignore my suggestions

Ive not worked with alder but it looks like its blotching due to uneven absorption of the stain due to the characteristic of the wood - perhaps they skipped the step of applying pre-stain conditioner which would have made the stain more even color? Perhaps they applied the pre-stain in the sample but not in the finished product? That would account for it looking lighter.

@ashley k - I’m curious how this has worked out for you? Is it growing on you? Or did you change it?