"Leuf" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:20:30 -0400, "CraigT"
wrote:

The wife wants a shelf over two windows that abut in a corner of our
bedroom. She also wants a small piece cove molding to come down like a
mini-valance in front of the top of the drapes.

snip
.. Is there a wood
and stain combination that might satisfy the spouse acceptance factor and
keep me out of the poor house?



What most people think of as "cherry" aint cherry. In fact if you
spent the $300 on the cherry and didn't put a "cherry" stain the wife
would probably come home and think you screwed it up. Your furniture
is probably maple with "cherry" stain. If you did the visible parts
with maple and the shelf with poplar you'd probably have a happy wife
and it won't cost you much.


-Leuf


Ditto - good advice. And, why waste a precious (to me, anyway) hardwood on
something that will get a first glance and then be forgotten. Additionally,
you might want to do a trial of your chosen stain on a piece of maple and
see how evenly it absorbs. If blotchy, either do a seal coat of MinWax
pre-stain or use a thinned shellac coat. I'm lazy so I buy the MinWax.