I don’t want to hijack the thread that’s already touching on this so I’ll start a new one.
I’m working with a customer who wants some family room tables/cabinets built that will work with the existing maple cabinets in the kitchen and the existing entertainment center. The kitchen and fimily room are essentially a large “great room”. The kitchen cabinets and entertainment center are clear coated maple. The kitchen appliances and the electronic components in the entertainment center are black.
I’ve suggested using walnut and maple for the new pieces and would like to see pictures anyone may have of pieces made of these species.
Thanks
Replies
Many woods will go well with maple (what doesn't go with "white")?
Cherry is a beautiful wood that looks nice with maple due to similar grain and contrasting color. It also looks very good with black.
I hadn't thought of Cherry, but I found some pieces of walnut ply and solid birch in my scrap pile. I banded the walnut with ~1/2" wide birch and gave it a coat of oil based poly. Man, it's pretty!!
A couple of the neighbors said that they might want something made with that. - lol
Pondfish,
I'll second that one. I got some cherry panels 2'x6'x5/8" which I'm making into door fronts to go with paper birch face fames for my shop cabinets.
Just for giggles & grins I wiped them all with mineral spirits to see what they might look like and oh my!
Think I might do the whole thing with shellac. Maybe blonde for the birch and amber for the cherry. Whatta ya think?
Gotta like it,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 7/1/2007 7:50 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
Dave,
Cherry and Walnut are both appealing to use with maple. I am out of time to shoot you some pictures. However, if you have some cut-offs of the species you want to work with, glue them up. For samples, I usually lightly sand to 220, then apply the anticipated finish. If you can do that, you will have a physical sample you can show the client.
As far as matching the appliances and electronics, I would suggest using black hardware on the cabinets, and black upholstery on the chairs if they will be padded. I am unable to speak to their tastes, but those types of things are prone to being replaced. Your furniture should be built to last through several lifecycles. Incorporating the color into replaceable parts (pulls, knobs, etc.) on your furniture may make sense. Once they redo that kitchen to stainless steel, or the upgraded sound system only came in silver, they will appreciate having furniture that looks just as good with the new as it did with the old.
I make "samples" the same way, and I have a pile of them laying around the shop. My walnut/birch sample came out really neat and if I had some cherry and maple, I would make a couple more.
This project will be a slow mover. She's a classic soccer mom and is deeply involved in the kids summer activities (swim team, etc). I made a fireplace mantle for her a few weeks ago and that led to her talking about the family room furniture. She isn't really sure what she wants beyond something that "will go with" the existing cabinets. She mentioned maple with black painted accents and I suggested contrasting wood. (I do paint grade stuff, but I don't really like to - lol)
I don't see any re-upholstering of the family room furniture. It's a burgandy leather (vinly?) and looks pretty new. I may pick up some small pieces of cherry and maple this week and make up more samples. I'm thinking that cherry and maple might be better since it will be next to the burgandy couches.
You had mentioned some tables. You probably meant coffe, end or sofa. I did a job about 6 months ago for a client with a big kitchen that opens to a family room. I built a table for cards/board games. When I mentioned upholstery, I was thinking in terms of you making a game table, and needing to make chairs also. Sorry if I ended up throwing you off.
If I lived anywhere near you, I could give you a pile of cherry cut-offs from my last job. I'm glad to hear the walnut/birch was neat. I find the birch gets along with the planer much better than maple.
When designing contrasting wood pieces, I like to mix walnut with oak, or cherry with maple, since the grain and pore structures in these pairings match pretty well. Also, I think walnut/maple is a bit too much contrast. Here's a link to some crummy pics of a maple/cherry kitchen cabinet. These cabs turned out pretty nice, IMHO. 35937.20
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
I think Rosewood goes with Maple too.
View Image
Look at http://forums.taunton.com/n/find/findRedir.asp?webtag=fw-knots&mg=8351F982-0E0A-4A04-B0A4-42788EE2AD01
This is a bed that I made with walnut and maple accents. I used Watco as a base coat. After some experimenting I used 1/4 Watco with walnut tint / 3/4 Watco natural. This helped to tone down some of the yellowish tint that the natural Watco gave to the maple. Am currently working on the dresser and night stands to match.
I put a top coat of shellac then wipe on poly. If I would do it over, I would skip the poly and maybe the shellac.
Paul
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