Cherry Wood Cabinets: How the Color Changes Over Time

Cherry wood cabinets don’t stay the color of the sample you start with. One hardwood industry group’s cherry page says the heartwood of cherry runs from rich red to reddish brown, and that it will darken with age and on exposure to light. So as a general rule, decide whether you’d be glad to live with the deeper color. Then ask for finished samples, more than one door, in the stain and finish you’d order, and see them in your own light.

That matters because cherry chosen from one sample, or from a photo, can leave a kitchen deeper, redder or more uneven than the color you picked. The color you’ll live with, and the finish that carries it, are easier to settle before the cabinets are ordered.

Cherry Wood Cabinets Don’t Stay the Color of the Sample

A sample shows cherry at one moment, in one light. A photo does the same, and a screen can shift what you see. So treat either one as a starting point. It tells you where the wood begins. It can’t tell you where the wood is headed. That’s enough to start a decision. It isn’t enough to finish one.

According to one hardwood industry group’s cherry page, the heartwood of cherry varies from rich red to reddish brown and will darken with age and on exposure to light. The sapwood, that page says, is creamy white. So cherry doesn’t arrive in a single color. That page puts no amount, no speed and no time frame on the darkening. It says the direction, not the distance.

So plan for a color deeper than the sample in your hand. And ask to see more than one door. Heartwood and sapwood don’t look alike, and a single chip can hide that difference. Two or three finished doors, side by side, show you the spread. One of them may be the door you end up staring at every morning.

Will Cherry Cabinets Darken Over Time?

That page says the heartwood will darken with age and on exposure to light. It doesn’t say how much, how fast, or over what period. So the color in your hand is a starting point and not a final answer. Plan on a deeper version of it, and pick a shade you’d still like darker.

Light can fall unevenly across a kitchen. A run by the window gets one kind of light. A bank of doors around the corner gets another. The lights you cook under can change the picture again. Picture a kitchen with a window over the sink and a tall run around the corner. Same wood, same order, two different pools of light. So when you hold a sample, picture where those doors would stand.

Hold the sample against your floor. Hold it against your counter. Then picture the wood a shade deeper and look again. If you’d still be happy with it there, cherry may suit the room. If the deeper color gives you pause, say so while the plan is still being drawn. Color doubts are easier to raise early.

What Does Cherry Grain Look Like?

That page describes a straight grain and a fine, uniform, satiny and smooth texture. It also says cherry naturally may contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets. So the wood can read quiet and even across a run of doors, with small natural marks that turn up here and there.

A corner chip tells you little about any of this. The flecks and pockets land where they land, and a chip can miss them completely. Then they turn up on your doors instead. Ask to see a full finished door in the style you’re considering. Look at it standing up, the way it would hang, rather than flat on a table under a bright lamp. At that size, you’re looking at what you’d live with.

Then ask two plain questions. What do the flecks look like on the door style you’ve picked? And does the sample in your hand show any? If it doesn’t, you’re judging cherry on a partial picture. Ask early, because the answer can steer which door style you choose.

Does Cherry Stain Evenly?

Not always. A finishing note from that same group says tight grain woods such as maple and cherry will often become blotchy when stain is applied. That’s the note’s view of how these woods take stain. It isn’t a verdict on a cabinet line, and it isn’t a prediction about the finish you’d order.

So the way the stain goes on matters. In that group’s finishing note, a light wash coat applied before staining is named as one way to reduce that blotchiness. That’s a step for a finisher, not something to work out at your kitchen table. The useful question for you is simpler: how is the finish on these doors applied?

That group’s cherry page also says that, when sanded and stained, cherry produces an excellent, smooth finish. Smooth isn’t the same as even in color. One is about how the surface feels and reflects light. The other is about whether the color sits the same way from door to door. So ask to see the sample in the stain you’d order, and ask for more than one door while you’re at it. If the stained sample looks even in your own light, that tells you something. If it looks patchy, you’ve learned that while you can still change course.

How Do You Choose a Cherry Sample You’ll Still Like Later?

Ask for finished samples, more than one door, in the stain and the finish you’d order. Look at them in your own light: by the window, and under the lights you’ll cook under. Then judge two colors at once: the one in your hand, and the deeper one the wood could grow into.

Write down what the stain and the finish are called. That sounds fussy. It keeps the sample and the order pointed at the same thing, which is the entire point of looking. Then set the sample on your floor and hold it against your counter. Color choices get easier when the neighbors are in the room. And look more than once. A color you like on a bright morning can read differently in the evening.

Design planning and custom cabinetry selection are among the services Kitchen Design Partners offers, so the color question has a home in kitchen design and cabinetry selection. Ask it before the cabinets are ordered.

Two Other Wood Decisions

Cherry may not be the only wood on your list. We’ve covered walnut kitchen cabinets in a post of their own. Weighing cherry against another wood calls for the same sample exercise: finished doors, more than one, seen in your own light. What you’re testing is the same thing either way, which is whether you’d be glad to look at that color every day.

If another natural wood is tempting you, we cover white oak cabinets as well. Different wood, same homework. Get the real finish in front of you, in the room it has to live in, before anything is ordered. A wood you chose on a screen can surprise you on a wall.

Frequently Asked Questions About Cherry Cabinets

Do cherry cabinets get darker?

That cherry page says the heartwood will darken with age and on exposure to light. It names no amount and no time frame, so the pace isn’t something anyone can read off that page. Expect a deeper color than the sample you were handed. Ask to see that sample in the light of your own kitchen, and judge the color you could end up with rather than the one in front of you.

Are all cherry cabinets the same red?

No. That page says the heartwood of cherry varies from rich red to reddish brown, and that the sapwood is creamy white. That’s a range rather than one color. So ask for several finished doors in the stain you’d order, and look at them together in the same light. A single chip can’t show you the spread you’d be living with.

Can cherry cabinets look blotchy?

That group’s finishing note says tight grain woods such as maple and cherry will often become blotchy when stain is applied. That’s the note’s view of the wood, not a promise about any one finish or cabinet line. So ask how the finish on your doors is applied, and ask to see a stained sample before you decide. Leave the finishing itself to a finisher.

What are the brown flecks in cherry?

That page says cherry naturally may contain brown pith flecks and small gum pockets, and it presents them as natural to the wood. Whether you like the look is a matter of taste. Ask to see them on a full finished door in the style you’re considering. A corner chip can miss them, and then they show up on your doors instead.

Will Kitchen Design Partners help me choose cherry cabinets?

Kitchen Design Partners offers consultation, design planning, custom cabinetry selection, and coordination with your builder or installer. The first step is to contact us and schedule an appointment. We’ll discuss your needs, tour our showroom and start developing a customized design plan. In the showroom you can explore different kitchen layouts, styles and materials.

Settle the Color Before the Cabinets Are Drawn

Kitchen Design Partners specializes in kitchen and bath design, remodeling, custom and semi-custom cabinetry, countertops and tile, and guides each choice in the right order.

Which stain, which finish and how deep a color you can live with are all easier to settle while the cabinet drawings are still open. The wood keeps its own schedule. What you choose is the color it starts from.

Bring the sample or the photo that started your search and schedule a design consultation to talk through cherry wood cabinets against your own floors and your own light. In our Northbrook showroom you can explore different kitchen layouts, styles and materials while you do it.