Maybe I'm not good at refinishing after all

So far I've refinished two pieces of furniture, and in general I'm not hearing people like the completed pieces.  It's quite frustrating to put in that kind of time and effort to hear something less than flattering.
I have one friend who's opinion in such matters hold weight, and he has yet to say he's liked anything I've done.

• He hated the cake pan cabinet on the grounds that he's a traditionalist - the piece should either be painted or stained, and you never mix the two styles.  He couldn't get past the colors to address the workmanship.  
• The bureau he said was maybe "decent", but reserved judgement based on the fact he couldn't tell what kind of wood it was made from (it's a cheap factory veneer job), the grain was going in different directions, and he couldn't feel the piece to determine if I had done a good job.  He asked why I didn't just paint it white, totally missing the point I had just stripped off the sloppy white paint job that was on it.  It was stained that color to try and match the woodwork trim around the closet it's going to installed into and build around.

The one who was supposed to take the cabinet doesn't seem to be interested in it because of space issues, and I suspect it might not fully go with her decor although I did use oak stain so it'd go with her floors, and white usually goes with everything.  She decided to remake a piece of furniture for the same purpose as the cabinet instead, so I don't think she was too thrilled with it.

Only one other person (beyond Fred and myself) seemed to love the cake pan cabinet. 

I'm starting to question the effort I'm expending when no one seems to like the results.  My inspiration came from the images below, which I thought were fantastic examples.  Maybe I have lousy taste...or maybe I need to stop placing such importance on my friend's opinion.