In that last pic, the slats inside the humi look like poplar or birch, too. That's a nice idea, both aesthetically and structurally.
Cedar doesn't lend itself to make good structural components. It's very soft and very weak. If the slide-in slats were made of cedar they'd probably break the first time you pulled them out.
I like the contrast, too.
One other thing I hadn't noticed from before is that the hinges aren't mounted inside, they're face mounted on the back. That's even odder and it totally takes the functionality out of the design.
I'll explain...
The back bottom of the lid is beveled. The top back of the bottom is beveled. The reason for that is so that when you open the humidor, those two surfaces meet and create a stop. It looks like the lid should open about 145 degrees and then stop.
I mentioned barrell stop hinges earlier. They look like your hinges in the pics, but they have a built in "stop" at 50 to 55 degrees past perpendicular (145 degrees). The reason I mention the 50 and 55 degrees is that's how they are labeled for sale. They're called "barrell hinge with 55 degree stop". A guy already knows they mean past 90 degres (or he'll learn the first time he gets them, lol).
By not setting in the hinge, the whole built in stop design of the humi is defeated.
That says the guy isn't real swift, or he doesn't understand hinging, or I missed something. That something would become obvious as soon as I opened the lid.
Brad, did the lid swing all the way back and hit the table, or did it stop at some point along the way? It looks to me like it'd do the former, but the hinges may be stops, or the mating surfaces might bind before the lid hits the table.
Either way, it goes right back to you being absolutely right about the hinges. They should have been set in. I'm just craftsman-curious and want to see what the builder was thinking, and what (if anything) he did to make the lid stop like it should.