It's fine to mix horizontal and vertical grains, you won't even notice it. My bottom cabinets are all drawers and the grain is horizontal (except on the end of the peninsula, like Sochi's). My upper doors are all vertical grain. My cab's are walnut with a walnut stain. Good luck!

I love seeing Sochi's Walnut Cabs! I wish I could use Walnut somewhere!

The thing you have to pay attention is the availability of the sheet size. Most veneers have maximum length that can have a continuous grain line. If your cabinets exceed that length, the cabinet maker has to be talented enough to find another sheet of veneer that can match the grain line and make it look good. What you do not want is an abrupt unmatched transition from one set of drawers to another set of drawers, unless that is what you want.

Work with the cabinet maker that knows how to layout these sheets to get the maximum "look" that you want. With walnut, they need to buy higher grade product to get the beautiful grain/look.

One of the reasons that side panels have vertical grains and drawer fronts have horizontal grains is that they have to be made from different sheets and matching the grains will be nearly impossible and the 'unmatched' grains can be quite noticeable unless they have the "funds" to reject multiple sheets of veneer that do not match the grain! (they either have a huge production OR they buy and not use the sheets...) So this is a bit of 'cost cutting' measure... You will be expected to pay signicantly more for the "matched" horizontal grains on the side panels AND drawer(cabinet) fronts.

For the same reason, the horozontal grains that are matched will/may cost you a bit more than vertical grains since they are easier to run side by side with multiple sheets.

I suggest that you work with a cabinet maker that has experience working with veneer and the look you are aiming. I have seen enough images (with google you see the bad along with the good) where the cabinet maker butchered the job when it comes to running the grains....

One more thing:
Sochi's lower drawer fronts look as if they come from 1 sheet of plywood veneer. They look longer than a typical 4x8 plywood sheet. That means the cabinet maker did something to trick the eye into seeing that the continuous line of drawers are coming from the same sheet of veneer OR he got a longer sheet of veneer plywood. Either way, he "knew" that he had to do that!

PS: those 2 inch spacer/fillers that are in the corners are typically run vertical since it is impossible to match the grain....

Goodluck rockybird.

Thank you guys! Sochi, one of the first things I did before I posted was look up your kitchen. I saw that your grains do go in different directions and it looks fantastic. The cabinet maker already selected (and I paid extra) for pieces that will match for the horizontal run. I think I will go for it!

Hi Rockybird -

as others have mentioned, you might find it difficult to have a run of lower cabs more than 8 feet long horizontally and still have the walnut grain run continuously throughout.

I've got a 12 foot run of quarter-sawn-walnut cabs from Henrybuilt. In order to get around the 8 foot horizontal restriction, what we did was to have a paneled dishwasher w/ vertical grain that bisects the run of cabs. It looks deliberate and perfectly natural, because a dishwasher itself is taller than it is wide.

Thank you jhwu. I see now what you and kaismom are suggesting. Do you think I shouldnt take a chance? I have to call him back tomorrow if so. I already called and said "go for it." He did say he would do his best to match the grains up.

Rockybird -

I think it depends on how wild the graining in the wood is. The wilder the grainer, the more apparent a deliberate mismatch is.

Sochi's lovely cabs (I think) are plain-sawn walnut, and so the graining is pretty wild. I think for Sochi's application, it would be visually distracting to have an intentional visual break since the pattern is so swirly and unique. If you are going with plain-sawn walnut, my guess is that any mismatch on slab fronts will be instantly noticeable by the eye.

My kitchen cabs below are quarter-sawn walnut, and so the graining is more subtle. Because the graining is more subtle, the deliberate break in the graining with the trash-pullout (which goes vertically instead of horizontally) is more muted and less apparent.

I have some cabs in another part of the house which use plain-sawn walnut, so the pattern is a bit more swirly than the quarter-sawn walnut in the kitchen. (alas our plain-sawn walnut is unfortunately not as heroic and drama filled as the veneers in Sochi's kitchen!) For cost reasons, we decided not to try and match up all the grains. So, in order to visually distract the eye from seeing the mismatch in grain, out design called for horizontal kerfs to be milled into the drawer faces, which you can see below overpowers any visual sense of grain mismatch.

jhwu - wow, your cabinets (and your kitchen) are incredible. I love the horizontal kerfs on the drawer faces in your last picture. I love the look, and considered that for my kitchen as well. Maybe my next project.

You're right, my kitchen cabs are plain sawn walnut. Rockybird, if you like the plain sawn/matched look it is possible, as kaismom explained, but your cabinet maker needs to be confident s/he can do it. I took some time to examine by run to see if indeed it is all one piece, or if my cabinet maker just did a great job matching grains. I think it is all one piece of veneer, but I will confirm that. For reference, my run is about 11'2" of cabinets.

Henrybuilt has done some mismatched plain sawn horizontal cabinets, which I like as well, it is quite a different look though.

I just love walnut, plain sawn, quarter sawn, any walnut you can imagine. Can't wait to see your kitchen rockybird.

Beautiful cabinets! Just gorgeous, Sochi and Jhwu. I dont think my walnut will be as gorgeous as in Sochi's and jhwu's cabinets. The cabinet maker did say that he would do his best to match up the grains. He does some very high end expensive kitchens, so I am hoping this means he will do a good job. Should I ask him to stain the cabs a lighter color? He is using veneer and plywood boxes. He wont use solid walnut because he says it warps too much with temp/humidity differences.

{{!gwi}}

I wouldn't stain it a lighter colour, but it is a personal preference. I think walnut looks stunning naturally, and I love the contrast of the wood you show in your picture with the white, gorgeous. Also, remember that walnut lightens over time - unlike woods like cherry that get darker with age, walnut does the reverse. It will never be blond, but lighter than what you started with.

jhwu, who made your kitchen cabinets? They are gorgeous! That's exactly the look we would like for our kitchen.