I am fulfilling a favor I owed, so I am building a desk.  My friend’s wife seen one at Target she liked.  (I know it’s Target, but it is their choice, and it’s relatively easy to build)  That one is in the “Craftsman Style”, with a dark finish.  The wood I am using is some maple from the tree of their former front yard.  (Large local company bought up about 20 blocks of houses to expand, so my friend had to leave the house they had lived in for 40 years.  Their parents-half block away were in their 90’s and they left their home of 60 years. 

Anyway this is maple wood, and I suspect the tree was struck by lightening at one time.  The wood is kind of cracked in places, and has a lot of dark streaks in it.  I avoided all the cracked places, but tried to incorporate the dark streaks.  It might look really weird, but it will also remind them of the centimental value.  I don’t think maple stains up dark real good, and anyways I don’t think the color would be right.  My idea is to stain it just a golden tone to give it a little color.

Could you please give me some of your ideas?

Thanks!