Kitchen cabinets

[Thomas Prondzinski]

I am currently biding on a kitchen cabinet job and it needs to closely match pine. What wood do you think would look like pine when done, or close to it and be more durable?


Thanks Tom

[Jim Becker]

Um...pine? Really. Why not use the real thing?

If you must substitute, if you can source knotty yellow poplar, it's easy to dye to match an existing work. I did an armoire using some and was pleased with the results.

[Stan Urbas]

Tom, A couple of years ago I had a customer who also wanted pine. I suggest you talk to them a bit to find out why they want pine. I mean, if it's the "knotty pine" look you might be stuck. In my case the clients wanted the color variations they had seen in some pine cabinets. I took them to look at hickory, which has a great color contrast and is at the other end of the hardness spectrum. They loved the hickory, and that's what we used.

I would have a hard time taking a job with a pine kitchen. I did one last year with vertical grain fir and it's the same problem - the wood is WAY too soft and seems to get scratched or marred if you look at it the wrong way. I guess in the future if my client specified either one I'd up the labor cost bu 40% and bid it that way. At least I'd be compensated for the aggravation!

[Greg Heppeard]

I found out that if the customer wants the knotty look and will distress the cabinets, alder is a good choice. Less pitch to deal with and it stains better too. It works a lot like poplar

[Charles Lent]

Tom,

If you are trying to match the look of knotty pine cabinets that were made in the 40's-60's you should look very closely at the wood that was used, as most of these cabinets were made from fir and not pine, and the standard finish that was used on them back then was orange shellac. Fir has a light brown/slightly pink color.

My kitchen was originally built in the early 50's. When we bought the house we loved the look, but the kitchen needed extensive renovation. My uncle (a retired carpenter) clued me in about the wood and the finish that was used back then and I was able to remodel about 60% of our kitchen and get a perfect match to the original untouched areas using fir wood and Zinser orange shellac for the finish. Where I couldn't find the right material in fir (knotty pine venier plywood) I found that one coat of Minwax Puritan Pine stain changed the white pine color to closely match the color of the fir, then followed by several coats of orange shellac. The shellac finish has been so easy to touch up that I now prefer it over other finishes, as blending the old finish with new is so easy.

Charley

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Maple and birch are similar to pine in appearance regarding grain and color.

However, I would have no desire to make cabinets from pine. It's simply to unstable today with the fast growth pine trees that are used now. And, if staining is desired, pine stains poorly even using pre-stain sealers and gel stains.

Lastly, if your clients want clear pine, it's very costly.

-Jeff