Wood Combo Opinions

[Woodenskye (Bryan)]

Thread transferred from previous forum - Original Post by Coop

Original Post:

I made this bookcase a year or so ago for my son and his wife. Now she is wanting this hall tree to match it. The bookcase, made of walnut and cherry, was sprayed with dewaxed garnet shellac with several top coats of GF HP. Would the hall tree look ok made of walnut and the door panels of cherry? Or would it look better all of either wood? The two pieces will be in different parts of the house.
Sorry for the quality of the pics. I have a larger one of the bookcase but it is too large to post. 

Follow Up Posts:

1) Coop, I think the cherry and walnut in the bookcase is good. In the hall tree, I'm not sure it would look good. In my opinion if I was going to do I would make the entire thing out of walnut, but make the drawer panel out of cherry.

2)   Thanks Bryan. The bookcase was a Guild Build and as I recall, that’s what Marc used. However, I was hesitant about the cherry panels as I have never seen a two tone door like that. Thus the reason for the thread. Thanks. I’m just glad she does’t want It painted. Love her to death but I would have had to hold my nose and not sign and date it!

3)  I will contradict Bryan here a little bit. I think that if you used the cherry for the panels only on the hall tree, no where else, not the arm rests or anything else, just the panels, I think it will look good. Then to help it along make sure any hardware you use is black this will draw things back to the walnut and keep the cherry as an accent wood. I think too, that I would keep the cherry clean and a simple tight grain no figure or cathedral grain to it.

4)  Now that I look at the hall tree again, I don't think that it would look good in just walnut. If I was t pick just one species i would use something like mahogany, sepele or cherry. But I know you have a walnut stache so it is what it is.  

5)  Here is my thought on the walnut only, if you are going to have coats hanging there, the cherry wouldn't be seen often, so having it be the drawer panel would provide the accent. The other suggestions for species Chet gave are good options if you wanted to go a bit lighter.

6)  Just another thought...
Why not age the Cherry a little before finish? Put the Cherry out in the sun for a few days and let it age naturally and then build with the cherry panels. IMO, it would look amazing!
Use cherry for all the panels including the drawer.

7)  Although I do have a walnut stache, most is 8/4 or better. I did buy 25 or so bf of walnut and cherry today. My figuring is, it’s going to DIL and I can write it off and put the balance in stock   . So I do have plenty of both to be creative with. Unfortunately I can’t scroll back to see previous posts while I type but I think to your point Chet, I bought figured cherry, thinking just the opposite of what you said, thinking figured would be better on panels if that was the direction I went. I’m glad I threw this up for discussion as I have no sense of direction when it comes to something like this. Thanks for all and any input. 

8  That’s exactly what I did with the bookcase to darken the cherry so there wouldn’t be such a stark contrast. Then the shellac subtracted from it as well. Thanks to Chet for your help with that. 

9)  Regardless of the wood used, do you think laminating a piece to the edges of the “door”, to give it the thickness of a real dood would be a good idea? The rest will be 3/4”.

10)  Not quite sure I follow?  Why not just thin out the panels to 1/2" rather than thicken the rails and stiles?  Would certainly be structurally sound.

11)  I was just thinking that as it was suppose to be or look like a door, that it would look better if it was as thick as a door, only on the outside edges? It would be built out of 4/4 and the panels as you suggest will be 1/2”.

12)  Make a trip to your local furniture and antique stores and look at their options for your build ideas.  I think you'll find most hall trees are built from 4/4.
The wife and I make trips like this occasionally and I'll snap photos if I see something that really catches my eye.