Wood Types & Their Unique Characteristics
We want to help you select the perfect wood for your cabinets. It’s best to choose a material that fits your home’s overall style. There’s a wood type to fit whether you live in a cabin-style home on Lake Minnetonka or inside a modern bungalow in Minneapolis.
Knotty Alder
Alder features a unique wood color, ranging from slightly red to light tan. It also features a fine grain and a uniform texture. Knotty alder typically has closed knots and mineral streaks that occur naturally in the wood.
Cherry
Cherry lives up to its name due to its light pink to dark reddish-brown hue. It’s a smooth wood to the touch and features a uniform wood grain. Cherry wood mellows or darkens over time, resulting in a beautiful finish complete with closed knots and mineral streaks.
Hickory
Hickory is one of the boldest woods available. On one single cabinet door, colors may range from light tan to almost black, creating a unique and almost rustic streaking pattern. It’s also one of the strongest woods, featuring natural pinholes, burls and knots.
Maple
Maple is often the wood of choice for light and airy spaces due to its bright color. Yet, it can also be stained easily due to its smooth texture and uniform grain. Like cherry wood, maple will also darken over time, but slowly.
Rustic Maple
Rustic maple is a strong hardwood with colors ranging from light whites to nearly black. It features bark pockets, mineral streaks, and knots often dark in color, giving it a rustic look and feel.
Oak
Oak features a uniform grain pattern that’s often straight or slightly arched. Colors range from light tan to medium brown or even red. Knots and pinholes may occur in oak, but not as often as other species of wood. Oak is a popular choice for cabinets as it fits well with many different design aesthetics.
Quartersawn Oak
Cut at a 90-degree angle, quartersawn oak wood offers the same features as oak, but with a vertical grain pattern. Quartersawn oak is also highly durable and is known to resist warping. Colors range from light tan to dark, reddish-brown.
