Affordable wood for cabinet face and window trim.

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INresponse

INresponse

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It has been over 30 years since I worked in the cabinet shop, and the cabinets were mostly made of oak. I want to build my own cabinets for the house I am building. With the money I save making them myself I should be able to buy the drum sander and router table, and I will have those tools for future projects. I am looking for more of a cabin type atmosphere, and I would like to use the same wood for things like decorative trim and around window openings and exterior doors.

I am looking for suggestions on what good, but affordable, woods that I might consider for these purposes. I don't like the look of fir, birch, or beech.

My initial thoughts are Ash, I have not ruled out Oak but I suspect the Oak is considerably more expensive. I also saw that Alder is similar in appearance to Cherry but I remember when finishing cabinets years ago I was not a fan of Cherry, but maybe my opinion has changed since I was a kid. I would go to a lumber supplier but the nearest locations (aside from home depot or lowes) are about 300 miles away in the Salt Lake City area. When the time comes I will make that drive, but for now I want to do some online research.

Thanks in advance.
 
I know nothing about cabinets other than my uncle does custom cabinetry, has a shop I would love to have... I know he sometimes uses Tulip Poplar aka Liriodendron tulipifera, It was the favorite wood used by pioneers for cabins.

It's fairly inexpensive here in the southeast, great for making beehives. It's also a beautiful wood. Boards 20inches wide are common.

Build 01 (6) sm.jpg
 
Peanut said:
I know nothing about cabinets other than my uncle does custom cabinetry, has a shop I would love to have... I know he sometimes uses Tulip Poplar aka Liriodendron tulipifera, It was the favorite wood used by pioneers for cabins.

It's fairly inexpensive here in the southeast, great for making beehives. It's also a beautiful wood. Boards 20inches wide are common.

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Interesting. Thank you. I will look into this option.


zoomzoom said:
Cabin style atmosphere?
How about oak pallets for your source of wood. Cheap and rustic.
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A good idea but very few oak pallets around this part. Although I am considering affordable wood options I would like the wood to be new and free from nail holes. I have and will make projects out of pallets and stickers. A saddle stand I made out of stickers was stained and urethaned and looks great.


phideaux said:
My favorites would be Hickory or it's cousin Pecan, but they may be spensive.

It also would depend on how I plan to finish it, or not.

Stain or not, oil or poly.
Latex urethane is very clear.
Paint .

Jim
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I did look at Hickory, when the time comes if the price is right it will be an option.
The cabinets would be stained and sprayed. I will also be buying a good HVLP finish sprayer, something that will be used many times in the future. Working in the spray booth was my favorite part of the cabinet shot. Although assembling the face frames on the press table was the easiest job.
 
cbrianroll said:
I like pine with no finish, I like how it ages...it makes me think "cabin".
Alder has a nice look also and is pretty hard when cured...never saw how it ages though.
Hickory would look fantastic...
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Thank you. I would definitely stain and urethane and cabinets and trim.
 
If you are looking for inexpensive, might try to find a local small mill. We had a huge cottonwood that was straight. We cut it so there was about a 12'-15' chunk and called the local mill offering to give it to someone but they would need to haul it. He didn't know of any one. Might contact local tree service also. Maybe between the two you can come up with something unique, beautiful and less expensive.
 
INresponse said:
This is a sample picture I found online of various colors on Alder wood. I kind of like the dark walnut color, I was considering darker cabinets and a slightly darker floor. Odds are the floor will be a faux wood tile.
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Dark walnut is my favorite, but how big is the room? Dark floor and cabinets might become like a cave unless there is really good light and large open space.
 
LadyLocust said:
Dark walnut is my favorite, but how big is the room? Dark floor and cabinets might become like a cave unless there is really good light and large open space.
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The kitchen and living room is one big area, the cabinets will come out into a peninsula with a snack bar countertop on it to kind of separate the kitchen from the living room. The two rooms combined are about 16' wide and about 30' long, with a vaulted ceiling that starts at 9' and goes up to 15' on the tall side.
I think I am safe from that cave feeling, and most likely the ceilings will be white and the wall will be a light, bright color to offset the darker cabinets and a darker floor.
 
From the pictures I am seeing of various varieties of wood I am liking the Alder wood so far. I like the grain, and it takes color well. Hickory was looking good but they say the tight grain makes it difficult to absorb stain and I want the cabinets dark.
Still looking for options. But hoping the Alder is an affordable option like was mentioned in what I have read.
 
Several good choices already. If you want dark, Walnut and Cherry are both pretty dark. Cherry is beautiful, but hard to work. It burns easy when sawing or sanding. Walnut is easier to work.
I love Peanut's idea of using Tulip Popular. It is a soft hardwood. Easy to work, and is nice looking. But it's not too dark. It will take stain very well. Our mantle is popular and we stained it with a cherry stain. My dad made the wife a pie safe, we left it natural, just sealed in with poly. It looks great too. Authentic down to the punched tin.
 
Bacpacker said:
Several good choices already. If you want dark, Walnut and Cherry are both pretty dark. Cherry is beautiful, but hard to work. It burns easy when sawing or sanding. Walnut is easier to work.
I love Peanut's idea of using Tulip Popular. It is a soft hardwood. Easy to work, and is nice looking. But it's not too dark. It will take stain very well. Our mantle is popular and we stained it with a cherry stain. My dad made the wife a pie safe, we left it natural, just sealed in with poly. It looks great too. Authentic down to the punched tin.
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I agree, Walnut looks great, Cherry is good but never appealed to me. But I think those are both on the expensive side of the price scale and I am looking for something more affordable. Unless I am wrong, did Walnut come down in price over the last 30 years in comparison to other woods? I really wish there was a real lumber store in this area. I have no desire to buy anything in Nevada but maybe the next time I have to drive into Las Vegas I will look for a lumber supplier there and look around and ask some question. Odds are I will buy from one of the suppliers in the Salt Lake City area, but that is too far to go window shopping when I am not ready to make the purchase.
 
Does anyone have experience working with lumber made from Juniper? With the high prices of lumber this year I have started considering cutting Juniper for firewood but keeping the larger, straight trunks to make lumber using a home sawmill.
If I cut it to 1" thickness and let it dry (desert environment) I could then run it through a planer and joiner to make straight boards for use in cabinets and trim. from what I am reading it may warp or bend a little when drying but it is soft enough to straighten and use with minimal waste. And, any waste would end up in the wood stove so it really wouldn't be wasted.
Just seeing if anyone has used Juniper. I saw a relatives casket made out of cedar and it was beautiful, made locally and I am sure it was relatively new cut lumber. I plan to ask around the area for local experience but any information would be welcome.
 
Just for example of what I am considering tree wise, these 2 trees are in my yard and will need to go away eventually to make room for aspen, birch, or pine trees. It is not uncommon to find trees with 6 to 10 foot straight trunks with diameters ranging from 8" to 18". The last picture is of a juniper that I cut into a makeshift bench for the yard, screwed into the top of a stump. This slab is about 6 years old and has been outside in the weather so it lasts well and isn't prone to splitting.
1625450866876.png

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Juniper is pretty. In Central Oregon there are many artists that use it for various projects. It's what my brother uses as firewood because there is so much of it about.
 
gogle red cedar furniture. Here in the SE all sorts of furniture is made from red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) or juniper. Every community has it's own "red cedar" guy with a little shop building all sorts of things. It's used to line closets or make porch swings, dressers, chests of all sizes and types etc...

Now, how closely related the junipers here are to yours? I don't know.
 
I made a beautiful "Medicine Pipe" from Juniper and redstone.
I gifted it to a medicine woman that I met at a non-denomination conference. She was more than a little surprised because it was the first gift from a Christian minister. (a gift that aligned with her faith)
 
No bad!
I am just a man. We are brothers. Brothers sometimes fight together and sometimes against each other. That is simply the way we learn.
 
I was also fortunate to work doing custom wood for a bit. I am also building a new home with lots of wood. I'm going with knotty pine kitchen cabinets n main wall in living room, doors n trim. Birch bathroom cabinets, bathroom vanity tops from birch n floors. All clear coated with poly except kitchen cabinets
Buying as much rough cut from our local mill as I can. Will start air dry asap.
Hey good luck man, have fun n stay safe
 
I love oak, built our kitchen cabinets out of oak veneer 3/4" plywood with solid oak trim, all the windows and doors in our main room are trimmed in oak. Two other woods that I have worked with for interior trim are clear pine and poplar, if the clear pine is from local mills, it's probably sugar pine, anyway it's easy to work with and stains well. I like poplar because it's easy to cut without slivering, it takes paint really well and it stays straight after cutting. I've used both clear pine and poplar for shelves. I've not used alder, probably due to the higher cost, out here in Oregon and Washington alder is used in making furniture and cabinets, same with birch. All the better knot free woods have gotten very expensive, most of the oak mills out here in Oregon have shut down and the oak boards and trim now come out of the east, it's red oak and what we used to get out here were mostly white oak, no problem as they both stain about the same. I'm just thankful that I have most of the woodworking done in our home, wife does come up with projects, the latest is a book shelf above her work desk, I still may have enough oak boards to take care of that.
 
viking said:
I love oak, built our kitchen cabinets out of oak veneer 3/4" plywood with solid oak trim, all the windows and doors in our main room are trimmed in oak. Two other woods that I have worked with for interior trim are clear pine and poplar, if the clear pine is from local mills, it's probably sugar pine, anyway it's easy to work with and stains well. I like poplar because it's easy to cut without slivering, it takes paint really well and it stays straight after cutting. I've used both clear pine and poplar for shelves. I've not used alder, probably due to the higher cost, out here in Oregon and Washington alder is used in making furniture and cabinets, same with birch. All the better knot free woods have gotten very expensive, most of the oak mills out here in Oregon have shut down and the oak boards and trim now come out of the east, it's red oak and what we used to get out here were mostly white oak, no problem as they both stain about the same. I'm just thankful that I have most of the woodworking done in our home, wife does come up with projects, the latest is a book shelf above her work desk, I still may have enough oak boards to take care of that.
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I had considered using oak for The Hobbit hole but learned that it turns black when steamed to bend archways. So no oak for me.

Ben
 
viking said:
I love oak, built our kitchen cabinets out of oak veneer 3/4" plywood with solid oak trim, all the windows and doors in our main room are trimmed in oak. Two other woods that I have worked with for interior trim are clear pine and poplar, if the clear pine is from local mills, it's probably sugar pine, anyway it's easy to work with and stains well. I like poplar because it's easy to cut without slivering, it takes paint really well and it stays straight after cutting. I've used both clear pine and poplar for shelves. I've not used alder, probably due to the higher cost, out here in Oregon and Washington alder is used in making furniture and cabinets, same with birch. All the better knot free woods have gotten very expensive, most of the oak mills out here in Oregon have shut down and the oak boards and trim now come out of the east, it's red oak and what we used to get out here were mostly white oak, no problem as they both stain about the same. I'm just thankful that I have most of the woodworking done in our home, wife does come up with projects, the latest is a book shelf above her work desk, I still may have enough oak boards to take care of that.
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I love Popular. We used it for our mantle and surround with the wood stove. Dad also made the wife a pie safe from it. Pretty grain and super easy to work.
 
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