What wood would go well in combination with cherry

[Harley Lewis]

I have some nice wild cherry and I would like to use it for a frame along with another wood as an accent panel to make a blanket chest. What wood would look good with the cherry? I have read walnut burl, but would that be a look of choice? For example, would elm burl veneer look good since it is lighter, or would walnut burl look better?

Thanks

[Sam Yerardi]

Pretty much any lighter color wood will look good with cherry as far as contemporary designs. Myself, I like maple, spalted or otherwise. If it is an older design, more period, for example, a wood darker than cherry might go well. Another wood that really looks good with cherry is sycamore.

[NICK BARBOZA]

birdseye maple looks great with cherry. there is one i have seen with that combo and it looks SWEET! i would like to do one in that stile someday...

[Thomas Knapp]

Curly Maple looks great also. I'd go for maple with the best figure I could find.

[Travis Gauger]

I like the contrast of the lighter woods too. Beech is a cheaper alternative that I have used in the past as well as maple. For a darker wood to contrast it, I'd use walnut. Here is a picture of a cherry and walnut table I did. Piture is a little poor, but you should get the idea.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I'll leave out picking the figure of the wood to you.

Maybe I should leave picking the wood entirely to you and keep my mouth shut on the subject since I've not built a piece with contrasting wood. However, I've looked at a lot of pieces since I do want to do one in the future and have come to the conclusion it's something that is easy to get wrong. Pick something real dark and something real light or a bunch of different woods and that would work only for small pieces. A large cabinet or chest could easily end up looking like "clown" furniture. I have about 50 ft of holly that was given to me that I have yet to use for that reason.

I do have one pretty strong opinion. If the piece is going to be frame and panel the frame should be darker color. The darker should enclose the lighter. For what I've seen something like maple would work well. The contrast is easily noticed but it doesn't 'hit you in the face' when you look at it. Good luck with whatever you choose.

[Harley Lewis]

Thanks for the replys. I tend to agree with the lighter wood with the cherry.

John Fry of chisel and bit has created a bed and a blanket chest made from oak and walnut, it looks absolutely beautiful.

http://www.chiselandbit.com/Bassett/Bassett1-full.htm

This is the look I am trying to find but using cherry rather than oak. Joewoodworker has some nice maple burl veneer that might be just the ticket.

Harley

[Brian Penning]

I wouldn't go with walnut. I've made a couple of pieces and the walnut gets lighter while the cherry gets darker. Hard to tell them apart after a couple of years.

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Birdseye and tiger maple go great with cherry as does any maple IMHO. If you want a real contrast, and you can find it, holly is nice.

[dan grant]

i had some spalted hackberry i used for a workbench that i trimed with cherry, used a wipe on finish, when all was said and done the hackberry was a nice yellow colour that blended well with the red, anything goes good with cherry:)

[Peter Quinn]

I apoligize in advance for my opinion, it is not meant to annoy.

If the design is traditional I prefer to forgo the 'accent' panel idea as it seems a design statement misapplied. I woud seek out in this case some highly figured cherry (nothing matches cherry like cherry) and work on a book match.

I love the work of James Krenov, he seems to combine contrasting woods with grace. Of course the designs are unique and contemporary so the pieces work. My instincts say another fruitwood like pear or apple will harmonize with cherry and age well. Butternut might be a good choice if you like walnut but find it too dark.

I find figured maple colored a few shades toward amber (the color it will achieve naturally over time) very pleasing in a darker frame, but if the panel is both plain and lightly colored it strikes me like a harliquin court jester ie: an annoying joke.

Another question is what to do with the top of the chest, which is as visible as the panels? Harmony, contrast or competition?

[Sam Yerardi]

I always go for harmony. I think a better companion to cherry in its coloring is a wood not darker but somewhat lighter. A drastic difference might work in a few cases but usually IMHO it tends to look cheap. A reference was made to pear, etc. like Krenov uses. I think his work is some of the best examples of how to mix woods of different color.

[Al Willits]

Not exotic or fancy, but I'm doing a TV stand/cabinet that's in white oak and using cherry as a accent/inlay.
It seems to look nice and anybody who's seen it so far hasn't broke out in laughter.

Al

[Jack Briggs]

I like walnut with cherry. Otherwise birdseye maple and cherry are a nice combo as well.