To stain Pine or Maple to look like Cherry, you can use 2 coats of Conditioner and use a heavier bodied stain (some water based stains or a stain like Zar) can dry brush it until the color is uniform. There will be almost no unevenness (as opposed to when you wipe off the stain) and the brush marks will disappear eventually. Here is some trim we stained for a window job in White Bear Township. It is actually pine but looks very similar to Cherry.
