Glossary:
Is It Really Cherry?

You'd be surprised how many people think that natural, fresh milled cherry is a deep red-purple color because that's what they're accustomed to seeing in furniture stores.  The truth is that most new furniture you see that is that color is NOT made of cherry at all.  More likely it is silver maple or alder, which have graining similar to cherry, and has been stained or even glazed to take on that color.

Why?  Because cherry has a natural tendency to darken as it ages.  Most woods do, but in cherry this trait is quite pronounced. Antique furniture made of cherry is this color after being in use for 50 to 75 years.  People who liked the color of cherry antiques, but didn't want to pay the price for antiques, made this color popular with manufacturers of new furniture.  Originally they called it "Antique Cherry Finish" or Classic Cherry Finish", but in time they got lazy and shortened it to just "Cherry", even though there is no cherry in it.

Can we build a piece of furniture out of real cherry and stain it to look like an antique?  Yes, we can, but we advise against it.  The cherry will darken with age.  If we stain it that red-purple color to start with, it will end up nearly black in just a few months.  We doubt that you'll be happy with that.  This picture is of the top of a freshly built and finished cherry chest.  On top of it is a piece of clear finished cherry that has been exposed to light for one month.  See how much it has darkened in just that amount of time?  The first 4 to 6 weeks see the fastest darkening, beyond that the process continues, but much more slowly.

It would be better to either exercise some patience with genuine cherry furniture, or build it of a look-alike wood and stain it Antique.