Help choosing wood for kitchen table

[Matt Schroeder]

I would like to build a table for our kitchen. It will be 44" round, with a three leaves to expand the major axis to 83". I have seen beautiful pictures of this item in cherry, but am concerned that over time with the leaves stored in a closet they will not age the same way and will not match the rest of the table. Are there other domestic or exotic woods that would be economical to build this table from, that would either mimic the color and grain of cherry themselves, or lend themselves to staining to achieve a similar color, without changing color over time as dramatically as cherry? Any leads you can provide to good wood choices, and finishing schemes if necessary, would be appreciated.

I thought about Jatoba, whose color I like but the grain is different than cherry, and I don't know anything about its long term color stability. I also considered maple with a cherry stain, but my efforts along those lines in the past have led to wood that is more red or orange than I was shooting for. I need something hard to stand up to the rigors of daily use. I am also open to using figured wood for the top, although I am wondering if the large surface might make that a bit overwhelming to the eye (say a quilted maple with a bit of cherry dye, perhaps).

The form I am shooting for is the expanding pedestal table from Graves's Dining Tables book (Taunton Press).

Thanks,
Matt

[guy knight]

jatoba while being extremely hard ages to a wonderful deep reddish brown i made my cabinets out of it and they have aged to a wonderful color

[Peter Quinn]

Jatoba has the same color change as cherry, but as Guy noted darker. So leaves will not likely match over time. I have not seen any stain that truly matches the color and shimmer of aged cherry, but you might get there using dye stains like lockwoods or similar. You may have to play with a few layers of color or mix your own from a base color tinting with primary's to suit. Most commercial "cherry wood" formulations do tend more towards orange. I've heard of guys using birch, maple or alder to match cherrys basic grain. You could also use actual cherry and dye that to simulate age up front .

[Steve Kohn]

I made my kitchen table top with Cherry. The legs and aprons are made of walnut. The table has two leaves for it. One leaf is always in the table since the grandchildren are here frequently. The other leaf is only used when we have additional people over, and then my wife uses a tablecloth so any color mismatch doesn't matter. In fact the second leaf doesn't even have aprons on it so that it is much easier to store.

You can always put the leaves in the sun and give them a "suntan".

[glenn bradley]

I wonder if Steve K's solution isn't the easiest? You could color the parts in such a way that they would continue to match but, I find coloration of that extent hides the beauty of the material. I would finish the table to your liking for "normal" use. A table cloth would probably come int play for any large gathering anyway ;-)

[Andrew Hughes]

How about Alder?Also known as poor mans Cherry,Save some money and a rustic looking table.

[Kelby Van Patten]

Matt,

Build your table out of cherry. When it is constructed and sanded, but before you apply the finish, set it outside in the sun, all day, every day, for several weeks. You'll need to rotate the pieces such that different parts are exposed to direct sunlight on different days. Then apply whatever finish you are going to use. By the time the unfinished wood has seen a month's worth of direct sunlight, the pieces (leaves and all) will experience most of the color change they are going to experience over the life of the table. Once the table is in use in your dining room, and the leaves are in the closet, the table won't darken that much more, and the leaves and table will remain reasonably close in color.

[Jamie Buxton]

Build the table from two species -- say, cherry and maple. The majority of the top is one species, and the leaves are a different species. Perhaps the legs are the leaf species.

The idea is that if you build it all from cherry, the leaves and the top proper are never going to match, but they'll look like you wanted them to match. When the leaves are something completely different, it won't look like you tried for a match and missed. It will look like you deliberately designed for the contrast.

[Mark Bolton]

Though its markedly worse with cherry your going to have the same issues regardless of what species you choose. Any material, and finish, with one stored away protected/sheltered from light and use is going to change/age differently. If your leaves are only rarely put into use they are going to stick out like a sore thumb regardless of what they are made of.

[Matt Schroeder]

Thank you all for your comments, and anyone else is welcome to keep on chiming in. My worry with cherry is the magnitude of the expected difference. Observing my parents 20+ year old oak table in their kitchen when the leaf is installed prepared me for the difference in appearance one would expect due to use (the leaf is a slightly different color, and is glossier without the minor scrapes and dings of the rest of the top) but when set with placemats, serving dishes, and perhaps a small centerpiece the difference is minor and disguised. Comparing the 10 year old cherry pieces in my house to newly made ones is a much more distinct difference that I would expect to stand out much more. I have used the trick of accelerating the color change by leaving unfinished cherry pieces in the sun for a few days but know the change continues even with that head start. I am not sure I have the time to try more than a few days of sun exposure (only available on weekends, and then it has to be nice days), and since I don't have a protected place to lay out an item this big I would live in fear of a malicious bird ruining the experiment anyway. Perhaps I could put a thin clear plastic sheet over the table and still get the UV effect? Has anyone tried that?

If anyone has pictures of a similar situation that shows the difference I might expect to see I would certainly appreciate seeing them.

Thanks,
Matt

[Ed Weiser]

Matt, what about QSWO? With a medium stain, the long term color change is rather limited and the table will withstand daily use well.

[Mel Fulks]

I can remember several times as a child being admonished by an aunt or adult of authority for being in a bright south facing room without closing the blinds . "I can't believe this! You're fading the rugs,upholstery,etc..." People didn't worry about colors fading ,they just prevented it, the method still works.

[Prashun Patel]

If you like the look of that table in cherry, then I strongly suggest you stick with natural cherry. Anything else dyed or stained to mimic cherry is hard work and won't look as good (unless you do this professionally, have a repeatable process, and cannot afford the price of cherry on every project).

As long as the sheen is similar, variations in the panels/leaves is to be expected and (to me) is not unattractive.

Cherry darkens most rapidly in the beginning. I suggest that if you are fearful of the disparity, keep the leaves in a room that gets (even indirect) sunlight for a year. Both will continue to darken ad infinitum, but the disparity will be less if the leaves are allowed to age this way. Is it out of the question to leave both leaves in the table at all times for the first year? Even if you only keep one in at a time, and rotate them say weekly, the color changes will be tanfastic.

[Matt Schroeder]

Thank you for all your ideas. I think I will try a hybrid approach by sticking with cherry but trying to get a bit of a head start with a few days in bright sun before finishing, and then use Prashun's idea of leaving the leaves in for as long as I can stand once it is in place. We don't want a table that large permanently, but several months should be OK, and then maybe lay them on the floor of the guest room (similar sun exposure to the kitchen) for a while after that with occasional installation to check the progress. When we need the guest room we need the leaves anyway, so it will be a good place to have them out.

Ed's suggestion of QSWO has me wishing for a reason to make one that way. I think it would be beautiful, but the kitchen cabinets are already oak, as are the banister and floor in a nearby hall, so I am fearing oak overload. We like the idea of some contrast in the woods.

I'll post some pictures when the project comes to fruition. At the pace I work there may be a way to teleport small copies for everybody to study to 3-D by the time I am done!

[Sam Murdoch]

[QUOTE=Kelby Van Patten;2212945]Matt,

Build your table out of cherry. When it is constructed and sanded, but before you apply the finish, set it outside in the sun, all day, every day, for several weeks. /QUOTE]

Tanning your cherry before finishing is not a bad idea but be very careful with doing this out doors. Lots of other climate effects going on outside besides sun shine that might negatively effect the wood - yes, birds and cats (without malice - just passing through) or an occasional unpredicted rain fall, for example.

Having said that - if you have the time and a sunny room - finish your work to your satisfaction then simply leave it all exposed to the same amount of daylight to tan. The key here is to expose it all the to the relative same amount of light. That could be lots of sun or diffused light - whatever the effect will be in the table's final resting place. This is a much safer approach as all your finish work is complete and there is no guess work about stability or contamination. After some time (several months) the continuing color change of the not often used pieces will be negligible. As you noted simple daily use will have an effect on the appearance of the seldom used parts compared to the rest.