Identify wood type

[PaulA Chapman]

Hi and thanks in advance.

Can anyone identify what kind of wood the top of this desk is? I'm guessing (hoping) it's a hardwood of some kind, Oregon? If anyone knows how to get that glorious finish, I imagine it's a number of varnish layers.

Thanks again.

[Jamie Buxton]

The front edge, particularly at the right, looks like plywood to me. The top face, with its really wide grain pattern, looks like rotary-cut veneer. I'm going to make a wild stab, and suggest it is a sheet of 3/4 AC exterior plywood. $45 at your local Home Depot. I think it has been stained. And yes, it probably has a number of layers of varnish. The base looks like painted 2x4s, which is also a low-cost approach. The whole desk should be pretty easy to reproduce.

[Cody Colston]

I agree, 3/4" plywood. The grain pattern as well as the splotchy staining looks like Pine veneer to me. It's not exactly fine furniture but it's serviceable.

Finish is likely a gloss polyurethane.

[Art Mann]

I agree with the previous posters. Pine plywood.

[PaulA Chapman]

Thanks guys.

I think you are all experts ("splotchy stain" that looks ok to me).

I was hoping this would be a good, solid wood. What wood would you recommend for something similar looking but a little thicker?

[Prashun Patel]

To get that look but thicker, you can use two sheets of plywood with an edgeband of hardwood. That will be the easiest and cheapest way to do it if it's the look you are after.

To get that finish I suspect that would have been brushed on polyurethane. But that's just a guess.