How to save money on cherry cabinets

[Matt Newton]

I'm in the process of redoing my kitchen using cherry face frames. I took a look at the cost of a 3/4" sheet of cherry plywood, and nearly lost my dentures (if I had any). I think I read somewere that you can use another species with a stain to get a resonable facimile for less money. Please oh wise and wonderful finishers, please let me in on the secret so I can stay married to swmbo. If no answers are forthcomming, please let me know of a good attorney in NH because these cabinets will be getting done. (I talk a good talk huh?) (she's not around)

Thanks
Matt

[Nancy Laird]

Matt, you can try birch ply, I think the grain patterns are close enough for your purposes. May I suggest that rather than make your boxes from plywood, take a look at double-sided melamine in white or almond. Easier to clean and after you put on the cherry faceframes and doors, only you and LOYL will know that they aren't solid cherry. Any exposed ends of the cabinets can be covered with cherry veneer and finished to match the rest of the cabinets. We did that with red oak in our kitchen, and people are surprised when they open the cabinets and they are so light and "airy" on the inside.

Nancy

[Joe Chritz]

You can stain birch close.

I tried it a while ago on a kitchen a friend was doing and he ended up springing for the cherry ply. My friend is a very experienced woodworker and we were unable to get it close enough for either of our tastes.

You shouldn't need very much unless you have lots of exposed sides. I used two sheets of oak ply on the last kitchen I did with lots of scrap left over. That included an island which oviously has both sides exposed.

Show her how much raised panel sides cost and she should be happy with the cherry ply.

I know the wood costs sting some but on such a large and valuable project the cost is a one time thing. You should recover the costs in added home value several times over.

Joe

[Steve Schoene]

Yeah, matt, but you left it here for her to read at her leisure.

Alder, soft maple, even poplar can be dyed and stained to give a credible version of cherry. It will have the advantage to not darkening over time as cherry would do. You will need to work out the finishing schedule on scrap. The best time to do that is before you start making the piece. It's a particularly good idea to have the "client" sign off on the finish before you don it.

[Terry Bigelow]

The number one alternative to cherry in looks ALONE is without a doubt Alder. It has similar grain and has the pinkish/red cherry color. Not to mention I pay $2.00 BF for it. I have subbed it for cherry when a customer wants the look not the price of cherry. Only one problem...the plywood is outragous. I pay $100.00 a sheet for 3/4" ply. Not a good alternative to cherry considering I pay roughly $62.00 a sheet for cherry 3/4" ply. But if you're making face frames why use ply? I build euro style "frameless" but when I do use face frames(i.e. bookcases,etc.) I use solid wood. I've never heard of using plywood for face frames. If I understand you correctly I would use solid alder. One other thing, the problem with using birch as others have suggested is that it has a yellow tint to it which can be a problem trying to match. I guess it really depends on your stain though. Hope this helps.

[Dan Gill]

Do the carcasses need to be cherry? Nancy suggested melamine, but you could easily make the carcasses out of a less expensive ply and the contrast might look great. We did this with our cabinets. The doors, end panels, and face frames are red oak, but the carcasses are a maple/birch ply that our local big box had. (This is far better than the stuff they have now). It saved us almost $20 a sheet, and I think it looks great. I even edged the shelves with red oak and that looks good, too.

[William Watson]

I just finished remodeling our kitchen and built cherry cabinets. I saved a bundle by using cherry for doors and birch/maple ply from the Depot for the carcasses and shelves. I built end panels for the exposed cabinet ends from cherrry. I used white oak for the cabinet face frames. Since the cherry cabinet doors cover the oak face frames, the oak is not visible until the door is opened. Save your money on the hidden stuff and spend extra on the the stuff you'll see. Also, I personally like having lighter wood for the carcasses/shelves - when I open the cabinets they are brighter than then they would be if I had used cherry throughout! I can send you a couple of pics if you'd like...

Bill

[William Watson]

almost forgot...by building them this way I can simply build new doors/end panels in 10 years when my wife is ready for some other design in the kitchen...

Bill

[Hal Flynt]

Hijack

Terry,

Where do you get Alder for $2/bf?
TNX

[Terry Bigelow]

Hal, Atlanta Wood Products (AWPC) here in GA. One of the bigger lumber yards in the south. They have something like 500,00bf of sloid lumber plus sheet goods, veneers and mouldings. Outstanding prices and open to the public. The $2.00 bf price is "our" price through our cabinet business account but I don't think the price would be much higer for you(maybe .20-.50 higher?). Anyway they stock ANY and ALL the species you can imagine domestics and exotics. Not sure about anything other than local sales though. They deliver to our shop which is about 45 minutes from them but I don't know about anything farther. If you are local (even somewhat local) I HIGHLY reccomend a trip there. M-F 8am-5pm and SAT. 8-12. If you buy lumber anywhere else and you live close you'll kick yourself for not going sooner once you go!http://www.hardwoodweb.com/distribution/awpc.cfm

[Ron Brese]

Matt,

If you want it to look like cherry then use cherry. For the time and money you will spend making something else look like cherry you can buy the cherry ply.
People often underestimate what finishing material cost when attempting something like this only to find out that using the correct material to start with would have been cheaper and faster in the long run.

The other problem when doing a rather involved coloring process is this: What someone can accomplish on a small bit of scrap, and what they can accomplish on a larger scale piece can be two totally different things. So if
you persist to do a look alike finish then ask yourself while you are doing your finishing test on scraps, is it feasible to do this on a larger scale.

I have done finishes on small pieces that I know would have been almost impossible to do on a larger piece with good results. So tread carefully.

Ron

[Jeff Monson]

I agree with Ron, I did my kitchen from maple and cherry, I had a hard time paying for the 3/4" cherry plywood but in the end I'm glad I did.
You will most likely only be doing this project 1 time so do it right.
It cost me around 450.00 to upgrade to the cherry ply but after its done
there is no doubt I would do it again.

[Mark Engel]

I don't mean to hijack... But.

Is everyone using 3/4" ply to build the carcases? My kitchen has Merillat cabinets that were all built using 1/2" MDF. (Real junk). When I built some additional cabinets to match, I built the carcases using 1/2" oak plywood. They are extremely strong and quite stiff.

I have a local plywood dealer here in New Ipswich that gives me pretty good prices. I paid $46.00/sheet for the last batch of 1/2" oak ply.

[Mark Engel]

By the way Matt. If you want I can check with my plywood guy to see what he can get and what he would charge for cherry ply. I have purchased some from him in the past but I can't remember how much it was.

Hampton looks to be about an hour and half from here.