Wood species for cabinets?

[simpsongal]

I'm planning on a mix of wood and painted cabinets for our kitchen.  Leaning towards a mid to darker tone for the wood.  Thoughts/experiences with different woods?  I'd LOVE walnut but the price may be out of budget (I think it's a 27% mark up over the base price).  We got oak cabinets for our mudroom, largely a budget decision.  The stain was a little lighter than I had hoped, I don't love them but they're fine and strong.  But I wouldn't do oak again (besides our floors are red oak anyway).

Cabinet guy is trying to sell me on Hickory in a darker stain (most hickory pics show the grain prominently but the darker stain seems to hide the variation).  I don't mind seeing the grain, I like it to an extent.  There's also maple, alder (knotty and less so), etc.

Thoughts?  Experiences?  Susie I think you said your dad knows a lot about cabinets and making them? 

ETA: I'm going to see if I can make the walnut happen in our budget - I love that grain and that way I don't have to rely as much on a darkening stain.  Will report back!

[Susie]

I have a strong bias toward cherry (wood species, not stain color) myself, largely influenced by my dad's work.  It's a hard wood that holds up well around moisture and heavy use.  So do certain others (maple, hickory) but cherry is the right balance for me of look and durability.  

Maple is really really light, so you're relying heavily on your stain color for the end result, unless very light is the goal.  That means if the piece ever gets scratched, it's a really light wood that will show through.  The scratch will be more visible than a species where the wood and the finish are closer to one another.  If you're in a room with a lot of natural light, also, the stain will fade over time.  There are some beautiful figured maples, like curly, tiger, and quilted maples.  I have a couple small end tables that my dad made for me of those, but they are $$$, and he hand selects the pieces.  

Hickory is very hard and durable, but personally I don't love how very variable the grain pattern is.  It's a very specific look, and can be a little busy for me.  A dark stain would mitigate that, but it would run into the same concerns as on maple on the lighter areas.

Alder is nice, but I've never personally had any furniture or cabinetry made of alder.  It is a little softer than some of the other species you are considering, which is why my dad has always encouraged me in a different direction.

What I like about cherry is that the wood itself darkens over time with natural light, so if there is any stain, the wood darkens as the stain lightens, and it stays more "net same."  (Less so if you use that really red 90s-00s "cherry" stain, but I'm sure you wouldn't anyway!)  A lot of the wood in our house is unstained cherry which has darkened (faster and more than I even expected) over the last couple years.  The grain is more visible than maple but less so than oak.  When we had our floors done in cherry we asked that the very white heart wood pieces be used in closets/etc. since they aren't my favorite.  We've also bought dining chairs made of cherry and finished without stain, and I really like the tone.

ETA: in this picture, the floors and chairs are unstained cherry, the table and the foyer cabinet (wayyyy lower right) are pieces my dad made of cherry with stain, and the piano is maple with a stain that is now very faded and uneven. It’s an old piano, previously my grandparents’ and then my mom’s, but definitely some lessons to be learned from it!  I'll see if I can get a better pic of that later.

[momin2013]

We went with maple in a medium charcoal grey stain when we built 7 years ago and I love them. They look the same as when we moved in, so I’d say they’ve held up pretty well so far!

[litasail]

I think Alder can be a really good substitute - cabinetsofthedesert.com/clear-alder-and-knotty-alder/.

[simpsongal]

This is very helpful guys! Susie my in laws have knotty cherry cabinets - they're beautiful and aging very nicely. You're right about considering relying too heavily on the stain - esp since it's a heavy use/high light area (we're adding windows).

[Susie]

Here's a good example of the fading we see on the piano stain.  You can see exactly where would be covered by the keyboard cover, and therefore didn't fade the same was as above.

We're living with it, partly out of sentimentality, and partly out of the tremendous task it would be to disassemble an instrument to refinish.  It doesn't get much sunlight in its current location.  But definitely not something I'd want to see happen on cabinets near a window.

[glw]

We went with hickory and are very happy with it after 7 years. Quartersawn oak would have been our first choice, but it was too expensive.

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[treedimensional]

Great subject! I agree with everything Susie said. I like a very smooth, even tone, very low contrast in the grain. It came down to maple and cherry, and I chose cherry in a rich neutral brown stain.

[EvieEthelGarland]

We are redoing our kitchen soon (hopefully!) and are doing rift sawn white oak. I was hesitant but we used it for project in the living room, with the promise that if I hated it, the facing would be replaced. I love it and it's not something I see very often. The grain pattern is much finer than traditional oak. I think it is going to be a lot more expensive, but DH is building the cabinets himself so hopefully that'll offset?

[dancingirl21]

We are doing our kids bathroom and will have a 96” vanity. We are using rift sawn white oak. It’s so pretty. No pics yet, but we went to the place that made our kitchen cabinets (we did painted maple for those) and that’s what we chose.

[dancingirl21]

ETA: not OP, but I mentioned above we would be doing rift sawn white oak.

Coming back to say we ended up ordering hickory instead of rift sawn white oak for our bathroom vanity. The oak was almost too perfect looking in the darker stain color I wanted. Hickory has just a touch more variation. I just seriously hope the color isn’t all over because of too much variation in the wood.

Here’s a sample of the color we are going with on hickory. We will not have any knots or holes in ours, and went with a straight shaker style.

[momin2013]

Love it! I love grained wood (as you can see from our choice of maple), I just think it adds so much depth and character.