Choosing cabinet woods and finishes

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Through the years, we have acquired the knowledge necessary to recommend the perfect materials, stones, tiles, knobs, and stains to meet our customers' needs. With this information, we are able to guide our customers in making educated choices for their home renovations.

The wood decides the finish more than the finish decides the wood. Cherry is the clearest example: it is mild to work, it takes a clear finish beautifully, and it darkens noticeably in its first year of daylight, so a cherry kitchen chosen from a fresh sample will not look like that sample by the following summer. Customers who expect the change are pleased by it; customers who do not are not.

Maple is dense, pale and close-grained, which makes it the usual choice under paint and a difficult one under stain, because a tight grain blotches where the colour soaks unevenly. A conditioner or a toned finish rather than a penetrating stain solves it. Oak sits at the other end: an open grain that takes stain evenly and shows it, with a strong figure that either suits a room or dominates it. Walnut brings colour of its own and rarely needs much help beyond a clear coat.

Painted work is a construction decision as much as a colour one. A five-piece door made of solid stock will show a fine line at the joint between rail and panel as the timber moves through the seasons; that line is normal and not a fault, but it is the reason a flat or one-piece door is often specified when a perfectly uninterrupted painted face is wanted.

Among the clear finishes, a catalysed or conversion coating is what most cabinet work receives, because it cures hard, resists water and cleaning products, and keeps its sheen at the places where hands land. Oiled finishes are repairable and feel superb but ask for maintenance in a kitchen; lacquered work is easy to spray and easy to mark. Sheen matters as much as the chemistry: a high gloss shows every ripple in a surface and every fingerprint, while a satin or matt finish hides both and is easier to touch in later.

Hardware is the last material choice and the first thing anybody touches. A knob or pull is worth handling in the hand before it is ordered, and worth checking against the door thickness and the way a finger actually approaches it, wet or dry, in the dark.

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