kitchen remodel: staining maple (wood) cabinets

[mark grossman]

do you have hands on experience at staining or have you had your maple cabinets professionally stained??

question: is it correct that maple cabinets generally are not stained-- just sealed and varnished?? or that they are stained VERY lightly. that this is due to the maple wood grain and to a certain splotchiness when maple is stained??

[john clark]

Yes this is true. It is nearly impossible to stain maple without making a blotchy mess. It is a good idea to try to apply something though because the wood will darken unevenly on exposure to light, and a little bit of stain will help stabilize it.

In a previous life I spent about one hundred years trying to make stain work on maple for some office furniture. Really, "a certain blotchiness" just does not begin to describe the extent of the problem.

[mark grossman]

unbelievably, neither our general contractor or cabinet maker or painting/staining person spelled out these facts of life to us. nor did they suggest doing sample stains on sample maple pieces. while the end result is not disastrous, we do have to live with splotchy areas and the overall look is darker than we would have preferred. we became knowlegable after the fact and of course too late.

[Sherri]

If there is ever a future project, try this recommendation from our cabinetmaker. Make a trial door using the exact same color, design, etc of the finished product. Cut it in half and homeowner and cabinetmaker each take one. THAT is what the delivered product needs to look like. Worked like a charm.