DUH! I just remembered the search box and did a search. Oh my gosh there are some beautiful alder cabinet pictures on this forum! Still would love to get some suggestions and or pictures!!! I got so excited looking at the pictures! I wish DH was awake.

Kelly

We were looking at alder for a little while until we saw the cabinets in person at a showhouse. They looked beautiful but upon close inspection were not of the quality that we were seeking. Cabinet designers typically will suggest alder as an alternative (budget-concious) decision to cherry because they have similar graining. I have not heard of someone suggesting alder as a substitute to hickory. Your searches are right...it is a very soft wood. The other fact that we didn't realize until viewing it is that it is very light. The doors felt very unsubstantial...this is the main reason that we chose another wood species. If you are okay with the fact that the cabinets will definitely ding within a few months, then the knotty alder is fine. If not, maybe you should revisit the hickory that you liked at the beginning.

Over on the kitchens forum, there are many threads about this topic. I remember one poster mentioning that she left a ding on the cabinet door just from pressing her finger to it.

Good luck.

Thanks Dixie! I am thinking of having them bring me a hickory and a alder cabinet sample. I really like the way hickory has different shades and colors. I was thinking of going to Lowes today to see if they have alder cabinets just to get an idea. I do not ever remember seeing them but DH said he thought he has.

Budget is an issue, not a huge issue but then again, I have never built a house before so it could be a huge issue! LOL! We have $8,000 for cabinets. One friend told me that was not enough (she has never built a house or owned one so...) and my sister who is a insurance adjuster said it is a good price if we stick with something like Oak or Hickory. She never heard of Alder either.

I did take my plans to home depot to just get an idea of how much the cabinets would be. I had them do a raised panel for hickory and the bid came out to $7400 for all the cabinets in the house. They charged $600 and something just for the freight. The cabinet maker our builder uses is right here in Austin so I am sure that comes into play.

I had myself so fooled with this house! LOL! I thought ever decision was going to be so easy because I "knew what I wanted". Turns out I have no idea what I want especially if you throw me a few different bones to pick! HEE! HEE!

Thanks again! I look forward to hearing from some folks we have the cabinets and how they are working out for them.

Kelly

lindybarts - I really LOVE your cabinets!!! I really like all the different variations in the wood. I love your counter tops also. Is that a butlers pantry in the back? Are those Alder cabinets as well but with a lighter stain?

Thank you so much for posting your pictures! I can't wait to show DH. He said he could not tell by looking at just a door. I really think he is going to love this just as much as I do!

Oh, do you mind if I ask what stain you used?

Thanks,
Kelly

You can typically get alder in two varieties; clear and knotty. This is the wood of choice for our house's millwork (doors, railing, cabinets, window jams, etc); we have a mixture of both. Yes it is slightly soft, but certainly harder than pine and most certainly not a factor in our day to day living. It is an absolutely beuatiful wood. The grain is similar to cherry, but will not darken with age like cherry. It has tremendous depth and warmth to it when stained properly. In my experience this is by no means a "cost conscience" selection; it typically comes at a modest premium.

Hickory (pecan) is nice too - what we have for our engineered hardwood flooring. Note that for solid wood, this wood has a high movement changes w/ humidity. I've seen 18" cabinet doors change width 1/4" from season to season!

buzzsaw - do you mean hickory will high movement with humidity? We are in central Texas and humidity is a big thing here! The humidity outside this morning is 84%!!

I love that you said it has depth and warmth, that sounds just like what I am looking for! I think so far I am leaning towards the Alder. Now to decide between the clear and the knotty!!

Thank you again,
Kelly

In a previous house I had cabinets made from clear red alder, a local hardwood. It was beautiful and held up well even with growing kids. Tom

Alder is officially a hardwood, but it's on the soft end of the scale for hardwoods. You certainly can't dent it with a fingertip, but you can with a fingernail.

Personally I think raw alder looks more like maple than cherry, since it doesn't have the more rust-colored tone of cherry. It takes stain reasonably well, but can be prone to blotching in a hand-rubbed finished - but not nearly to the extent that maple blotches. You can see a little of the blotchiness in lindybarts photo, where it adds a slightly rustic feel and gives that beautiful hand-rubbed look. Looks like lindybarts might also have a glaze?

Personally, if I were using either no stain or a very light stain, I'd go with cherry or maple. For a dark stain, either cherry or alder. Alder is definitely not a cheap wood. I was very surprised when I visited a lumbershop a couple years ago to see that rough alder was priced higher than maple. I would also echo the comment that it's a light wood. I don't have the official numbers, but it appears to be about 1/3 to 1/2 lighter than hard maple. I'm not sure how noticeable that would be on your typical raised-panel cabinet door, however.

Here's my kitchen in alder.

Here's a look at a hand-rubbed finish (alder, again) where the blotchiness is more apparent. You can see that the type and method of finish makes a big difference in the overall look.

Yes, alder can come out slightly blotchy if not pre-treated prior to staining, but it is still much more forgiving in that regard than many other woods. That is the main reason I have such a huge bias against maple because I have seen so few examples of it stained (other than natural) where it was pre-treated properly to elinimate the blotchiness. I have a friend that raves about his birch cabinets, but I think they are down right ugly because of the blotchy finish. Avoiding blotchy finishes is one reason I prefer using dyes over pigment stains; much more even color and depth w/o the stripes.

Some people just see color when looking at wood, but I see texture, grain patterns, depth, etc.

Regarding the pecan/hickory growth, what matters is the changes in humidity; not the absolute RH%. If it stays around 84% indoors all year round, then the wood doesn't change size, but if it ranges down to 25% for periods, then you are asking for trouble IMO. Wood prefers a constant humidity level regardless of what that specific number is.

Right, I forgot to add that you can use a conditioner to minimize the blotching (is that even a word?). That makes it harder to get a really dark finish, but in your case that won't be an issue. On my kitchen cabinets the cabinetmaker used a tinted laquer, which sidesteps the blotching issue, but also hides the grain. Both cherry and maple are also prone to blotching, maple moreso than cherry.

We built three years ago. Ours is a rustic, log-style home, so we wanted the knottiest alder we could find! It is certainly not the cheapest option, and the photos already posted here show just how versatile it is when finished. (Nice pics, everyone!)

I don't have time just now to look for anything specific to the cabinets, but I'll post these two photos - just look beyond the people and the stuff! The first is in our mudroom, which was set up as a "drink station" at a huge family reunion (we fed 50 people!). The second shot was Thanksgiving a few years ago. :-)

Alder may be semi-soft, but we LOVE it! Ours was finished in a golden oak/pecan mixture. (The logs on our bar obviously aren't alder.)

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okwriter your cabinets are beautiful! I love the logs. DH and I always said we wanted love to build a log home in Colorado. I love log homes.
I have printed out a few pictures of hickory cabinets and alder cabinets. Just some styles and stains that I liked. I like how the hickory looks when it is has a more natural look but I love the alder cabinets as well. *sigh* All of the pictures really has helped me sooo much! Thank you everyone! I guess I will ask the cabinet maker to bring me samples of each and we will take it from there :-) I think I need to have our floor and counter top ideas with me.

Thanks again everyone,
Kelly

I am surprised that no one else has found that the alder cabinets are better on the budget than other wood species. Could this be a regional phenomenon? When I was first pricing cabinets, I found across several different cabinet lines that there was a 15-25% savings when using alder instead of cherry and approximately a 10% savings over maple. We were only pricing all-plywood construction so that may have influenced the price differentials somewhat. These prices were not for knotty alder but the regular alder.

BTW, all of the cabinets above look beautiful! And, for the OP- $8K is not a lot to outfit the entire house in cabinetry...it goes fast!!! It sounds as if you rec'd a prelim bid from HD, so maybe you'll end up okay. But, add in any crown molding, rope molding, corbels, light rails, bump outs, better constructed boxes/doors, etc., and you'll be sunk....

I have Hickory in my current house, love them, hope I can have it in the under constrution house, too.

The extreme hardness of hickory makes for a long wearing cab. The natural variation in grain suits my style well, though if you go with a fairly dark stain, it evens out to a large degree.

Dixie, the Alder (Pacific NW) was pretty close to the same price as Cherry. Maybe 3% lower at the most. Maple was a little only slightly lower than that. All three woods were very comparable.

Lindy

Kelly

Forgot to answer your question about the Butler's Pantry. It's the same stain, just looks different from far away. Here's a close up.

Here's some pics of some mostly but not completely finished areas. I wish I could say they are completely blotch free, but they are not...

Also, sorry for the large size. Ick.

okwriter - I love you're kitchen. Especially the party favors on the counter. Looks like you're my kind of party girl/guy.

LOL! Funny thing is, charliedawg, DH and I don't drink! (Well, unless you count that occasional beer - ahem, for medicinal purposes - and the few times a year we pop the cork on some Asti...) But we DO try to accomodate our guests! So yeah, c'mon over. We probably have some of whatever you drink. :-)

Wow!! all are participating. Good to see that. Actually I never used Alder cabinets because it seems me too costly. So, I just can say that I prefer the simple ones much better.

Lindybarts: I LOVE LOVE LOVE your cabinets!!! I remember reading that at first you thought they turned out too dark, but I think they are gorgeous:) Do you mind sharing the color? Is it a custom stain? I would be soooo happy if my cabs turned out 1/2 as nice as yours! Thanks in advance:).

Kelntx: I'm headed to the beach tomorrow after we meet with the cab man. Am looking forward to that cold drink on the beach!!!!
Sandy

Thank you so much Sandy. Yes, hubby and I freaked out a bit after the stain first went up. For those who haven't gone through it yet, don't assess anything until after they take all the paper off and you can see it in better lighting. They are a bit darker than they appear in the photos but we both just love the color now. It's Chestnut but tweaked onsight until we got something we liked.

Thanks again!
Lindy