What is a good wood to to use for kitchen cabinets?

[Brian Elfert]

I'm posting this in off topic because this is for store bought kitchen cabinets. I'm looking at having a new house built. The builder has a cabinet shop build the kitchen cabinets, but they use stained poplar. The poplar looks like crap to me. What would be a better wood to ask them to use? I'm sure they will use whatever I am willing to pay for.

Personally, I still like oak finished with a light stain, but the trend in kitchen design is to go with either white or a dark stain. Personally, I think the lighter oak finishes will stand the test of time better than a darker finish. Ten or fifteen years for now everybody will probably want to replace their cabinets because the color is outdated. I look at older houses and the wood finishes just scream 1970s or 1980s because they used the really dark brown finishes that are hideous. My parents have natural oak in their 1978 house and it still looks pretty nice even today.

[eugene thomas]

If ya like oak go with that. In last few years have noticed poplar prices have gone up. Maybe only 50 cents bf difference in coast compared to oak. Seems poplar is the choice for painted cabinets though.

[Justin Ludwig]

In my neck of the woods folks like soft maple for its versatility (paint/stain) and alder/knotty alder for stain versatility - it also paints well (I've seen people do it as an after thought on islands). Oak is traditional and can be timeless if done properly. From there you're limitless on varieties and styles.

[David Weaver]

When I see honey stained oak, I see what was popular when I was working at aristokraft almost 20 years ago. I see the "new" cabinets that were put in the kitchen on roseanne when they won the lottery in the show's story - in the mid 1990s, and I see a wood that I think goes with polished brass trim.

To me, it's out of date.

We had maple cabinets at aristokraft back then, and I guess they were a little more expensive, but they looked much better. They didn't get ordered that often.

(I worked on an assembly line, so I saw cabinets going by fast, it's not like it was anything similar to woodworking as we see it). I might've had a job on the line, depending on who was out, putting guides in 70 cabinets an hour, and bending the guides to shape to set them up, or putting the doors on 70 cabinets an hour. So, it wasn't like I thought anything about design at the time, but I got to see what was popular, and the most popular by far was light oak, and white RTF was probably the next most popular (imagine those cabinets still have bright white doors by now, but with yellowed painted frames), and dark oak was probably next. The maples (a whole variety, but lots of natural) were the next most popular after that.

At any rate, what I'm saying is that when your kitchen is 10 years old, people will think it's 30. If you plan to stay there indefinitely, it doesn't matter, you get what you like and that's it.

If I was putting cabinets in a kitchen now and thought I might sell the house in 10 years, I wouldn't even put wood cabinets in these days. Most buyers aren't going to care in a $200k house, which is a typical price around here for a medium-small three bedroom house.

I'm slowly building cherry cabinets right now with cherry ply, but raised panel caps on the ends. I figure they'll look out of date as soon as the cherry darkens. Maybe before. But it's my house and it's only going to cost me about $2500 to build all of the cabinets.

[Brian Elfert]

Are you just ruining good oak by slapping a dark stain on it? I guess one could still go with a light oak, but any realtor would tell you that is not the design trend today. The reason to build your own house is partially to get what you want, but if you do have to sell down the road are you killing the resale value?

My current house was built in 2001. I used nice Corian counter tops. I got a feedback from potential buyers that they thought the kitchen should have granite or quartz for the price range as that is what everybody expects now.

[Leo Graywacz]

If you are going to stain use hard maple. It's white in color so you can use the whole color range of stains and it won't affect it that much.

If you are going to use paint, then you can use soft maple, it's cheaper and the color isn't that consistent, so it is a good paint grade wood. Still hard.

Cherry is my personal preference, just a clear coat and let it age. Looks great.

[Brian Elfert]

At any rate, what I'm saying is that when your kitchen is 10 years old, people will think it's 30. If you plan to stay there indefinitely, it doesn't matter, you get what you like and that's it.


My kitchen is 12 years old (so is the house) and nobody has commented that it looks outdated. The cabinets are a light oak color with raised panels. The cabinets were pretty expensive. The only comments were that folks want granite these days. The Corian counter tops look nice and aren't an outdated color. Everyone just thinks they need to have granite or quartz these days. I think they see it on all the TV shows and want it. Most seem to want granite more because it impresses anyone visiting than for practical reasons.

I'll ask if they could do hard maple instead of poplar if I still went with dark stain. I'll also ask about oak.

[Mel Fulks]

"Design trend of today" is what assures a kitchen will be "dated" when the house is for sale again. And when everything is
"high end",like now, there isn't any high end. There are many treatments that are good but see little use:Art Deco, faux
finishes, unusual glass, inlaid laminate. I draw a sharp line between real estate agents and people who know something about design. Watch out for experts wearing lime green "leisure suits".

[eugene thomas]

Maple and full color pallet? Whenever I have to stain maple a dark color long day. As to resale. Like someone said, in 10 years will be dated so would build what YOU like and enjoy the house.

[Judson Green]

If your building (having it built for you) do what you want, unless you're planning on reselling/moving again soon its likely your buyer will have other ideas for the kitchen anyway. Seems to me remodeling ones kitchen/bathroom is quickly becoming are national past time. Personal I'm not a big fan of dark kitchen cabinets and I wouldn't use poplar unless painted.

[David Weaver]

My kitchen is 12 years old (so is the house) and nobody has commented that it looks outdated. The cabinets are a light oak color with raised panels. The cabinets were pretty expensive. The only comments were that folks want granite these days. The Corian counter tops look nice and aren't an outdated color. Everyone just thinks they need to have granite or quartz these days. I think they see it on all the TV shows and want it. Most seem to want granite more because it impresses anyone visiting than for practical reasons.

I'll ask if they could do hard maple instead of poplar if I still went with dark stain. I'll also ask about oak.

I'd ask if they can do hard or soft maple, either will be hard enough, but they might prefer soft maple if it's less expensive, works easier, and if it finishes easier (I don't know if it does or not, or what cabinet shops do to make maple stain well, I guess a pre stain conditioner combined with the right final grit for sanding? who knows).

What I mean by out of date in 10 years is not whether a 12 year old kitchen looks out of date now (but it's hard to be the judge of your own kitchen to begin with), but what a kitchen will look like 10 years from now. When I see light oak, it looks to me like we're at the absolute possible end of light red oak being something you find other than in inexpensive cabinet grades at home stores (specifically because red oak grows hard and clear even when it grows fast, thus it's inexpensive).

That's just my opinion, though. All of the kitchens where I've seen people blow a lot of money (and I only have my friends to go by) have been maple or something with no pores like that with the exception of one house that has ultra dark oak (and that was done in the last few years).

I agree with mel, too, that something away from current design (like a treatment or something like art deco style) has a better chance of not getting a look of being out of date, because most people won't be used to seeing it.

I also agree with mel that everything is pitched as high end now. If a cabinet has guides and dark redish colored melamine taped doors with a figured wood pattern, it's sold as high end or modern.

My parents house was built in 1925, it's a large cap cod all stone house, which is already a little off the beaten path. All of their cabinets and counters are built into the house, with the exception of one counter being replaced with modern countertops, the rest is original wood. Someone looking at the house wouldn't find it dated because it's fairly plain and all solid wood and built in. They have the luxury of never having to update their kitchen, because it's unique. The only thing they had to do 30 years ago was get layers of paint off of it.

And one last comment, a friend bought cabinets from a wholesaler because he redid his own kitchen, but didn't want to build the cabinets. He paid $14,000 for cherry cabinets that looked good in a catalog. Cherry with maple drawers, etc, all solid wood. When he got it, the doors are slab style to look modern and plain and square, but they are made of so many thin machine done laminations that they look terrible (very light stain, hopefully they will darken with age). It's a large kitchen, so there are probably 16 or 18 cabinets and one of those is a pantry unit, thus the cost to some extent. But the drawers were made of finger jointed pieces of maple, and with the thin laminations the whole thing just came off as cheap to me. My point being expensive to pay for doesn't guarantee that someone else will perceive a kitchen as being expensive. I have to admit that a lot of the melamine with faux veneers that I see in commercial spaces look better than their expensive cabinets.

My friend was not happy with the cabinets, either, and sent back about half of the doors to try to get cabinets where the boards didn't look just randomly selected, and then he did the same thing again for a few of the replacements. His view was that's really all that's available, so he didn't get too upset about any part of it other than the time to keep exchanging things until he was happy.

[Judson Green]

Probably not stain at all but tinted lacquer.

[Von Bickley]

If this is your house and you like oak, go for it. Oak cabinets have been around for decades and will still be around when we are all gone.

[Kent A Bathurst]

First -

Anything but stained poplar. Yuck. IMHO. Poplar is popular, I think, because it is inexpensive, and very soft = easy to work.

Second - when you and others say "stain" I think "dye, not stain". Likely just a semantics issue with respect to this conversation.

Last - don't know what the rest of the home looks like. Oak could be good, our it could be out of place. Maple could be good - likely will be - as long as its finish "fits". Birch or beech can be dyed to look like almost anything, including mahogany. Had some wonderful birch in my mid-twenties bungalow - doors, trim, etc. - all made to look like mahogany.

Of course, when I did my first and last-never-again kitchen for that house, I used cherry...........go figure.

[Brian Elfert]

I don't really know what process they are using to color the wood. I just called it stain since that is all I have ever used. I have no ability to spray lacquer so I have never done that.

I'm looking at building a new home so whatever was used in the kitchen would match or be in harmony with the rest of the house. I think light oak is relatively timeless although builders tell me it is out of style right now. I don't want dark cabinets that end up like the dark stuff from the 70s and 80s that everyone hates today. I don't want potential buyers in 20 or 30 years to walk into the kitchen and immediately think the kitchen needs to be torn out and redone. My parent's house was built in 1979 and has light oak cabinets. I don't think buyers would think that kitchen needs to be redone. The cabinets do need to be refinished due to worn finish from 35 years of use.

The entire new house model I looked at has poplar trim in addition to the poplar cabinets. The trim looks hideous to me because they used such cheap wood for the trim. I have to wonder if they cheaped out on stuff I can't see. I know the furnace ductwork is not nearly as well done as my current house. I'm also having another builder bid my plans who I know will do a good job, but I also suspect his price will be quite a bit higher.

[Mel Fulks]

Around here most of the cabinets are colored with oil based pigment stain. The two main colors are called (by me) Used
Motor Oil Brown and Burnt Transmission Fluid Red. Color unevenness is fixed with toner (aka thin paint) before spraying with lacquer. I know ONE cabinetmaker who carefully uses water dye stains and no toners. Be careful.

[Judson Green]

As mentioned above

Poplar is kinda soft using it for base molding might not be the best idea, prone to denting. Even when doing painted molding I've always used hard maple, if only a number 1 common or brown maple.