new cabinets, uneven stain absorption, HELP!
Building our dream “getaway” home on rural property we’ve owned for 25 years. It is about a two hours drive from our current home. Recently the new kitchen cabinets were installed: Made of Beech wood with Zar “early American” stain. We are very happy with the construction of the cabinets by a local cabinet builder, but over-all the stain is much lighter than we had expected. (The sample pieces we had seen, took the stain very differently.)
Most of the Beech plywood panels and end pieces are close to the color we had expected , but some of the solid wood frames and solid wood drawer fronts are quite light. (people looking at the photos comment, “Oh you have two tone cabinets?”) Some of the solid wood drawer fronts were made from narrower boards glued together and while that process seems agreeable and the grain appears to match very well, in some cases 1/2 the board took the stain fairly well and the other half , hardly at all. (Other than the apparent color difference, these appear to be one solid board.)
The cabinet builder remade several of the drawer fronts but with little improvement in the color lines. Some, but little.
We are looking for any insigts and guidance as to what we can do.
If these had come from a “big box” store I’d be screaming bloody murder. But we are dealing with the cabinet maker himself, and he’s a nice guy willing to try and “fix” the problem but he seems at a loss as to how to really resolve the problem without building totally new cabinets out of some different wood, or perhaps painting these. (neither of which realistically seem to be an option.) Yes I get that plywood and hardwood might absorb stains differently. But how do cabinet makers otherwise make cabinets whose colors are consistent? And how do you account for differential absorption in the hardwood? HELP!
We started this project two years ago, doing much of the work ourselves, but with a wonderfully skilled and widely respected local builder and general contractor closing the sturcture in and offering great oversight. Tragically he was killed several months ago in a traffic accident.
Help!