Wood preferences

[Mike Cozad]

I am/have never been a fan of oak. I have exactly 3 pieces of oak furniture in my house. 1 I built in shop class when I was 11 and didn't know any better. In fact, the shop teacher let me pick white oak for the legs and aprons of the night stand and the drawer front and top are red oak. Other than the fact that it was my very first piece of furniture I hate it. The other 2 are mission style end tables my wife wanted. They are quartersawn, have really nice straight grain patterns and are stained pretty dark. I actually kind of like them because they don't look oaky to me. Now, all of the cabinetry in this house is that cheap a$$ crap like the BORG sells and stained light golden oak for on the 1990s. Hate it. I despise the way the ply veneer looks. I tossed the powder room vanity out last year, the master bath is going this year. I will paint the guest bath vanity to save money.

Finally to my question, if you were in my position and you were looking to sell a home in a year that was filled with crappy cabinetry you don't like, and frankly can't be objective about, what would you do? I guess I'm looking for some guidance on whether I am in the minority and most folks are OK with oak, or am I the majority and I need to do something about it. Now, if it were you and felt it had to be changed, would you paint it or replace it? I don't want to dump a ton of money because I worry about the return on the investment. If its replace, what species? I like hickory but I bet many don't because it probably looks unrefined to some. Also most other species are not a cheap date. I'm stuck because I know what I prefer but really don't know what the majority of the population likes. Thanks for any suggestions or feedback, or even just a quick thought on where you stand on golden oak cabinetry. All the input will be helpful.

[Darcy Schaffer]

I am in agreement with you about disliking Oak. I'm not a fan and mostly don't like it. Having said that, I own a house at the Oregon coast that has oak floors that my wife and I just had refinished. They look fantastic and, while I still prefer other woods, I'm more than accepting of the quality and looks.

Many people love the look of Oak so I think, if I were you, I'd just leave things as they are until you get feedback from buyers (or a realtor?) that says you would benefit from a change.

Darcy

[Marty Tippin]

Oak cabinets, oak floor and oak furniture in my house. I love the stuff. I'd have oak doors and oak trim if I could, but the builder went with cheap paint-grade trim and doors....

I don't really think light oak cabinets are going to be an impediment to selling your home. If the quality is poor and is noticeable, that's a different issue. Your real estate agent should be able to give you an idea of whether it will affect the marketability of the home. But I would almost guarantee than any money you put into replacing them is not going to come back to you in the form of a higher sales price. You might get away with painting them if it's part of a whole re-work of the kitchen (tile backsplash, new counter tops, etc.)

[Harold Burrell]

I like oak. :o

[John Schweikert]

Paint the cabinets. Many buyers have no issues with attractive design and well painted cabinets. Why sink money into something you plan to sell in a year. The stats are out there that show you the ROI on just about any part of a home renovation. Decks are usually the highest return. Kitchens maybe in the 70% range. $10k-30K now on new cabinets with 70% return when sold or spend a few thousand dollars at most for a very good painter.

[Paul McGaha]

Oak is my favorite wood. I love the look of it, the toughness, it's affordable.

Our family room, kitchen, dining room, living room, all oak furniture.

Maple probably 2nd for me. Cherry 3rd.

PHM

[David Gutierrez]

if you are selling in a year I would live with it. Oak is not universally hated. Ask a real estate agent if the cabinets are a negative for a sale and react to that.

[Matt Day]

I would paint them without question. I was astounded by the amount of houses we looked at, when we bought three years ago, that we're last remodeled in the mid 80's early 90's. They are a huge turn off to buyers and a majority of buyers have no interest in remodeling or doing work to the house - they want move in ready.

And golden oak cabinets do not appeal to most buyers and are a dated style. Most people want the modern kitchen look - either dark cabinets and light countertops, or white cabs with dark countertops. If I were you, I'd paint or replace. Color depends on the flooring and countertops you have and if you want to replace countertops as well.

I hate the golden oak kitchen look btw. I'd love to build a kitchen but my house was remodeled a couple years before we moved in, quite nicely too. Maple cabs, black quartz countertops, and black stone flooring.

[Peter Quinn]

For me, Rift sawn red oak is quite striking. The rest of the red oak comes in two grades, paint grade and shop grade. I wont allow it in my home, makes me feel like I'm in a badly decorated diner or a cheap furniture store. Don't want it on the floors, walls, furniture. Ive tried staining it, I've tried bleaching it, best results come from burning it on the stove. I was given 700BF BF of it and have yet to find a use for it. But opinions vary widely on the subject and mine is hardly anything close to the middle. White oak is for me a different story. It is both one of the most beautiful species I've ever worked with and one of the ugliest. Sometimes on the same board. I just finished a huge job at work mostly white oak, really great designs that show off the species qualities, and I have a new found admiration for it. It works well on a certain scale in both flat and quarter sawn. I don't like it for formal or fussy designs, it seems most elegant when the lines remain bold and simple. Cherry and mahogany take curves better, hickory and butternut does rustic better, walnut has more depth and is infinitely easier to work with (also does very formal better). But white oak is often in the crest of nobility, it has a stately beauty if used with restraint. Problem is most people my self included can't afford stately beauty, and most people can afford to weed out the uglies that WO offers up, so its seldom done well for the masses.

What to do? Can-o paint is my first though, or an opaque white wash/grey wash with a glaze and clear coat towards semi matte. Maybe check your plans with a real estate agent to see what sells locally and an interior designer in your area to see whats popular, because preferences tend to vary widely by region. Some places out west do beautiful rustic kitchens with mesquite that would never ever ever fly here in southern new England.

[Huck Schwee]

I'm not a huge fan of oak myself. I like the price and the look in certain situations (quarter sawn furniture) but for the most part, I agree that I hate my houses golden oak cabinets. I would suggest gel staining the cabinets (http://semidomesticatedmama.com/2013/08/how-to-gel-stain-your-kitchen-cabinets.html). I want to do this but haven't yet. I had a friend who did it to their house and I think it looks excellent. I looks like it's about as difficult as painting but still retains some of the wood look and is probably more durable (although that's just conjecture).

[Kevin Bourque]

The oak used in kitchen cabinets and furniture has been selected so that only the boring , clear boards are used. I hate it!!!

I have some red oak in my wood collection that has bold dark streaks, wild grain, and other cool characteristics. Its hard to believe the 2 are related.

[Jim A Walters]

I like oak, especially rift and quartersawn. I generally don't like a lot of the rotary cut veneer that ends up with unnatural looking grain patterns. It seems oak cabinets can range from gorgeous to just plain ugly depending on the selective use of the grain, staining technique and finishing. Maybe that's more so with oak than with many other woods.

[Kelly Craig]

I like wood, period. That said, I am building my wife a new kitchen and everything is paint poplar with a coat of white paint (bead board centers).

If you're selling anyway and potential purchasers are the type who can afford to replace the cabinets, it may be you want the spruced enough to sell the house, but not so much they're a waste of money. Many would disagree, but I believe even people who plan on tearing the place down often need to see the potential. For example, my place had dead wires hanging out of the walls where the baseboards used to sit. Add enough things like this and people see anything but a turn-key home.

If your cabinets look dated, think about painting and/or refacing them. You may have to fill the wood to try to avoid the painted oak look.

I added soffits (with secret doors), build a custom cabinet with a Susan over the fridge and refaced a thirty year old cabinets in a friend's house, then bought new doors and drawer fronts. Everyone thought he had new cabinets. It cost him a fraction of a new set, and he got to keep his plywood beasts he build back in the day. They do look nice.

[Mike Cozad]

Thanks for the replies and feedback. I like the gel stain facelift. I think that's the way I'll go in the guest bath and kitchen. Thanks again.

[Brian Hale]

You could offer to make new cabinets for the new owners.

Brian :)

[Mel Fulks]

I wouldn't change them out or worry about it. As I have so eloquently said before "the new owners can't possibly store their canned goods where you stored your canned goods". No matter what you replace them with ,they will not only be
ugly but also contaminated. Just be kind enough to make the price of the house high enough to allow them a "special deal"
that will give them money for new cabinets.

[William C Rogers]

When I was getting ready to sell my house about a year out I decided to reface my existing cabinets. I used cherry for them and it made a big difference. I also added pull outs to the lower cabinets. I think it cost me around $800 to do this as I reused all the handles and hinges. I carefully removed the face frames and made new. I covered the outside ends with 1/4 cherry ply.

Edit:
IMOP I will say that refacing my cabinets made a big difference. Cabinets are one thing someone does not want to redo when they move in. The buyer will either like them or he won't be a buyer.
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[Mike Cozad]

I wouldn't change them out or worry about it. As I have so eloquently said before "the new owners can't possibly store their canned goods where you stored your canned goods". No matter what you replace them with ,they will not only be
ugly but also contaminated. Just be kind enough to make the price of the house high enough to allow them a "special deal"
that will give them money for new cabinets.

I like your thinking. Thanks for that perspective. Never really thought of it that way before.

[Mike Cozad]

Nice transformation William. Looks much better.

[Craig Day]

I absolutely hate the look of oak. A tight-grained, quarter-sawn oak does look nice, but other than that, oak might be a deal breaker for me when looking at a new house.

[Wade Lippman]

Oak is hopelessly out of style. The cabinets will hurt your resale. I had oak in good condition; the realtor assured me the first thing a buyer would do is gut the kitchen. Sure enough they did, replacing a 1 year old dishwasher because it was the wrong color.

That said, since there is no way of knowing what your buyer will like, take the hit and let him do something new. It would be a real shame to put time and money into painting them, only to find a buyer would have bought your house except replacing your cabinets with oak would cost too much.

A realtor will tell you that is stupid advice. It will not show well, and a buyer wants something they can just move into and not have to do a thing. They will tell you to update everything. I would trust that if realtors weren't paid on commission; for every $1,000 you put into your house, they make another $70.

[scott spencer]

Red oak is "ok" with me, but is very common. The oak grain pattern on veneered ply at the homecenters is predictable and really lame IMO...I prefer not to use it (the quality is pathetic too!). I like QSWO a lot...those flecks are very cool IMHO.

To answer your question, I'd leave the cabinets as is unless they became a noted issue....after all, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

[ray hampton]

if you are serious then wait until the buyers sign the papers and get the storage bins done in their choice of wood

[Mac McQuinn]

While I like Q/S white oak, The furniture I own is in (3) different colored stains to mix things up a bit. That said, I like Cherry a lot and while I don't like working with Walnut, I feel it has it's place along with Mahogany.
Mac

[Larry Frank]

I love red oak and a natural finish. The wood is tough and durable. I hate painted cabinets especially ones painted black. And if you have kids, white cabinets are going to be real pretty after a few hundred dirty hands have been on them.

I think that red oak is easy to work, relatively inexpensive compared to cherry or walnut.

I must be in the minority and did not realize so many people HATE red oak.

[Duane Meadows]

Larry, you may be in the minority(hope not!), but I am right there with you! We just upgraded our kitchen with red oak and natural finish. I like it and my wife wouldn't have had it any other way.

My second choice would have been cherry, but probably wouldn't have liked those after the cherry darkened.

[Wade Lippman]

I must be in the minority and did not realize so many people HATE red oak.

It is not an issue of people hating oak, it is an issue of it being out of style. 10 years from now everyone might want oak, but for the moment it take a lot off the value of your house.

[glenn bradley]

This could be regional. I'm a SoCal son of a SoCal son, etc. In the 70's, it seemed the California furniture scene was golden stained red oak EVERYWHERE. Dark stained QSWO, I like but, I guess I just had enough flat-sawn red oak furniture around while growing up that I avoid it. LOML has a giant bedroom pier group in, you guessed it, golden stained red oak. I have made her bedroom items that match but, that's about it for me.

All that being said, I too concern myself over fixtures in the house. Will the majority of future buyers like what I like? Probably not. My cure is to make items that I can enjoy while I'm here and take with me when I go. The acursed red oak kitchen may get re-done, it may not. Good luck ;-)

[Justin Ludwig]

William makes a good point. You can save a lot of money by refacing. But, are you putting the cart in front of the horse? If you intend to sell the home in the near future, you just may get a buyer who loves oak. Woods, like anything else, go in and out of style. Case in point: I haven't built or had a request to build oak cabinets in over 3 years - now I have a set of red oak cabs on deck and one set "in-the-hole". When it rains it pours.

I like oak, but only if it's not stained "golden oak" or "fruitwood". Man I hate those 2 stains.

[Jason Roehl]

You can thank all those home improvement shows for all of this. I'm not a fan of the '70s-era, dark-stained oak cabinets with the funky door style in my kitchen, but they're serviceable. We've been in this house for 7 years, and maybe in a few years I'll be able to build some new cabinets (I plan to go with hickory). But, oak for cabinetry was used in this area for 30+ years, and still is from time to time.

I occasionally watch "House Hunters", but it's like watching a train wreck--I can't look away. The people they get on these shows have got to be the most neurotic they could find among the applicants. "It doesn't even have granite countertops!" "But, there's no ocean view..." Barf. Be happy you can afford a roof over your heads...

About 15 years ago, after we finished bringing a house out of the '50s with a fresh paint job for a client who had moved to an assisted-living facility and was selling the house, they commented, "We should have done this years ago! Now someone else gets to enjoy it." So many people do things to their house right before they sell, then they never get to enjoy the fruits of the remodeling disruption in their lives. I say make it yours when you move in, and when you sell, take the hit on the price rather than go through the hassle just to eke out a few bucks. Often it's just a realtor's opinion anyway on what a house needs to sell.

[scott vroom]

Pictures of the oak cabs would help....as others have mentioned, the condition and quality of the cabinets is a bigger concern than species/finish when it comes to resale. If your Borg cabs are from the 90's, they're probably tired looking even if well built. My first choice in your situation would be to reface with a species of your choice, with new doors. Painting the oak would be my last choice....even with grain filler (a huge PITA), the unevenness of the open oak grain will telegraph through. Just my opinion.....looks cheap-o to me.

Here's a remodel we did for a customer that wanted to replace the 90's oak with white painted. We refaced with maple and I made the new doors/drawer fronts in my shop.

[Paul McGaha]

Pictures of the oak cabs would help....as others have mentioned, the condition and quality of the cabinets is a bigger concern than species/finish when it comes to resale. If your Borg cabs are from the 90's, they're probably tired looking even if well built. My first choice in your situation would be to reface with a species of your choice, with new doors. Painting the oak would be my last choice....even with grain filler (a huge PITA), the unevenness of the open oak grain will telegraph through. Just my opinion.....looks cheap-o to me.

Here's a remodel we did for a customer that wanted to replace the 90's oak with white painted. We refaced with maple and I made the new doors/drawer fronts in my shop.

I really like the look of white kitchen cabinets like that. And a nice counter top to go along with it. It looks really good Scott.

PHM

[Ole Anderson]

Oak, love it or hate it. I built my house in the '70s and went with dark stained trim and doors with dark oak Formica cabinets. Redid them 20 years later with oak trimmed white from the Borg. At the same time I redid all trim and doors with golden oak. Just redid the cabs with hickory.