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.

I priced out 2 pieces 8 foot 1"X10" Cherry and two pieces of 8' cove molding
and the price was close to $300.

Plan B was for me to just glue up some smaller pieces of cherry onto the
leading edge of the shelf and the backer piece to the cove molding and stick
with the real cherry for the cove molding because this all you are really
going to be able to see. Probably closer to $120.

But, then I thought to come here and ask if there might be a cheaper and
acceptable alternative? The rest of the furniture in the room is a dark
cherry which really doesn't have any great pronounced grain. Is there a wood
and stain combination that might satisfy the spouse acceptance factor and
keep me out of the poor house?

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.

I priced out 2 pieces 8 foot 1"X10" Cherry and two pieces of 8' cove molding
and the price was close to $300.

Plan B was for me to just glue up some smaller pieces of cherry onto the
leading edge of the shelf and the backer piece to the cove molding and stick
with the real cherry for the cove molding because this all you are really
going to be able to see. Probably closer to $120.

But, then I thought to come here and ask if there might be a cheaper and
acceptable alternative? The rest of the furniture in the room is a dark
cherry which really doesn't have any great pronounced grain. 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

"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.

I built a "quick & cheap" bookcase for the grand kids out of pine and used
aerosol cherry tint on it.. looks great and they've used it for years..

Personally, I'll use any cherry that I can get my hands on for turning...


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

On Aug 10, 5:20 pm, "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.

I priced out 2 pieces 8 foot 1"X10" Cherry and two pieces of 8' cove molding
and the price was close to $300.

Plan B was for me to just glue up some smaller pieces of cherry onto the
leading edge of the shelf and the backer piece to the cove molding and stick
with the real cherry for the cove molding because this all you are really
going to be able to see. Probably closer to $120.

But, then I thought to come here and ask if there might be a cheaper and
acceptable alternative? The rest of the furniture in the room is a dark
cherry which really doesn't have any great pronounced grain. Is there a wood
and stain combination that might satisfy the spouse acceptance factor and
keep me out of the poor house?

Well one thing I have done that looks close is birch with some cherry
oil based finish like Watco. You may nee to use more than one coat to
get the color you need. You can also use a wipe on Poly over this
stuff if you need more durability.