Dining table - mixed woods

[John Ziebron]

I think I've procrastinated enough on building my new dining table and now that I have A/C in my pole barn workshop I'm ready to go. The basic design of the table is done. It will be a roughly 4 foot square (with rounded corners) top on a pedestal.

I am planning on making the top out of hard maple because of the hardness and surface which I want for writing on. The dining area is small and is flanked openly to the kitchen. The flooring in these two areas are red oak as are all of the kitchen cabinets. So my thought is to make the pedestal out of red oak. I am planning on staining and finishing the top and pedestal as close in color as I can.

Is this a mix of woods that would be improper for this project from an aesthetic standpoint? I know someone will say why don't you just use all red oak and fill the pores on the top but I don't really want to go that route. All opinions are appreciated.

[Prashun Patel]

Imho you will have an easier time and more consistent product by sticking With one wood. Either wood will be fine. Red oak is easier to stain. My desk is red oak and the reputation that it’s hard to write on is not true in practice. It is plenty hard and resists pens and pencils practically as well as maple in my experience.

[andy bessette]

Mixing woods in the manner you suggest is usually reserved for beginning DIY'ers. Better to stick with the same wood.

[Jamie Buxton]

I'm fine with multiple species in a single piece of furniture. What I'm not so enthusiastic about is staining them all, attempting to get to a single color. First off, they won't ever get to be a single color. Stain is translucent, so the color of the different species will come through. Second, I dislike stain. Wood, just like Mom Nature made it, is beautiful stuff. Covering it with dilute paint is a bad thing.

[John Goodin]

Rift sawn oak is a favorite but my first thought would be maple. If the cabinets and floors are red oak I would be afraid a red oak table might be too much of a good thing. Maple is more difficult to stain than oak but there are numerous people on the forum who can provide good advice in that department.

[John Ziebron]

Thanks to everyone for your advice and comments. John, I agree with your comment about too much of a good thing. 95% of all the projects I've done in the last 40 years, including several sets of kitchen cabinets, have all been with red oak. In my present house I remodeled my laundry area last year and decided to try maple for all the cabinets and really like the look. So for this table now I have decided to make it all out of maple. I know staining is a little different for it but I'm already experimenting with some scrap.

[Tom Bender]

Hi John
You are probably experiencing the challenges of blotching on the maple. And if you seal then paint the stain over that you will have a scratch prone finish.

My choice would be stained Oak for the pedestal and unstained maple for the top. This will break up the 'too much oak' look but still have an obvious connection to the room.