Is there a way to keep Cherry from darkening.

[Ed Morgano]

Hi, i'm building a kitchen hutch out of cherry. I plan on staining the outside to match the rest of my kitchen which is Cherry stained with red Mahogany stain. I would like to keep the inside shelves a light color without paint or stain. So, my question is: Is there a chemical or something that will keep the cherry wood from darkening? I've attached a picture of the old shaker hutch that we have now and the new one partially completed. Any help would be appreciated.

190421190420

[Neil Bosdet]

Hmmm. The best ways to keep the cherry from darkening (that I can think of) are:

1. Keep the light from getting at it.
2. Finish it with only a water borne clear finish. No stain, no shellac, no solvent finishes. Water borne finishes won't yellow, solvent borne finishes will and that will darken your hutch shelves.

Neil

[Neil Bosdet]

I suppose you could also bleach the wood. Although I haven't done this. You could also use a lighter wood for the shelves like maple.

[Joe Chritz]

No

(but you can slow it down)

Joe

[Tony Bilello]

......... So, my question is: Is there a chemical or something that will keep the cherry wood from darkening? .......190421190420

Cherry like most woods darken with time. This is usually caused by 2 things. One is exposure to sunlight and the other is oxydation from exposure to air and moisture. You can cut the exposure to sunlight by using a good marine varnish to reduce UV radiation from penetrating down to the wood surface. As for reducing oxydation, well, just about any hard finish will do that to a degree. Moisture and air will permiate just about any surface given enough time.
The real question is.........how important and how radical do you want to get? A clear coat over cherry produces what I call a honey colored orange look. It will darken somewhat over the years but still remain that basic pretty honey colored orange for a very long time. It wont get to the brown color in the photo for probably 50 to 70 years maybe much longer than that. Even way back when, furniture makers used stains, dyes, exposure to chemicals in tents and a myriad of other techniques to darken cherry. So..................do you really want to do anything other than a clear coat? A typical clear coat has a slight ambering to it - not yellowing in the true sense of the word. This is usually considered desireable by most including myself. Acrylica and waterborne finishes are usually referred to as water white. They impart just about no color at all. To me personally, this lacks the warm look of the wood, especially noticed with red oak.
I say clear coat it either with a true clear coat (with ambering), or a water white finish - whichever you prefer.

[John TenEyck]

If you use a water based product with a UV stabilizer the wood will look most like what it is now, and stay that way for a very long time. One such product is General Finishes Hi Performance Poly, not to be confused with the slightly cheaper poly-acrylic. I'm sure there are other products with similar properties; this is the one I have used with good success. Brushes fine and sprays great.

[Ed Morgano]

Guys,
Thanks for your feedback. I just ordered some General Finishes Hi Performance Poly and will go with the honey color inside the cabinet. I've done some experimenting with bleach (kills the sheen of the cherry and didn't lighten it), a white wash type finish and a couple of other things. I like the natural look of the Cherry the best so I'm hoping that the UV protection will keep it light for a good while. Thanks again for your help.

[Steve Schoene]

Why not use a different wood. For example, I had a kitchen built from red birch, with a cherry island top. When new the cherry and the birch were almost identical in color (the birch did have a little more visible grain.) But is a few years, the cherry had darkened nicely and provided a nice contrast to the birch whose color change was insignificant by comparison.

[Harvey Pascoe]

Cherry in a kitchen is going to become very dark no matter what you do. It reacts not only to light but also airborne chemicals (vaporised cooking oils and fats) and the finish does not protect it, just like certain species of oak. I have cherry just outside the kitchen, finished with UV poly and after 5 years it is as dark as stained mahogany and looks like it, too. And it gets no natural light at all. Not bad if you like dark wood.

As for bleaching - watch out! Some pieces will turn an ugly greenish color while others may turn out nicely. Inconsistent results is the name of that game.

[Neil Bosdet]

Cherry in a kitchen is going to become very dark no matter what you do. It reacts not only to light but also airborne chemicals (vaporised cooking oils and fats) and the finish does not protect it, just like certain species of oak. I have cherry just outside the kitchen, finished with UV poly and after 5 years it is as dark as stained mahogany and looks like it, too. And it gets no natural light at all. Not bad if you like dark wood.

Wow! Good info.