Wood Staining Trials

Yesterday I tried a new wood stain technique on a box Josh made for me. We love the cherry color with black so we are working on creating something that will look good with our already finished cherry wood trim we have in the house. This is what I came up with. Not sure I like it. Back to the drawing board, aka Pinterest. ;)

The Details:
For this small box project I used Minwax Golden Oak (2 coats) then I added a VERY LITTLE amount of the Ebony Rust-oleum wood stain. Be careful with that one. I didn't realize it says it covers in one coat...I tried it on the bottom of this piece and it is true. LOL! I wish I would have thinned it out and I may still try that.

Do you have any suggestions? Leave them in the comments.