alder vs cherry cabinetry
Comments (18)
Buehl
16 years agoRelated Discussions
alder vs natural cherry cabs
Comments (12)One question is what's going to be the lead actor, so to speak, in your kitchen's appearance and what are the supporting actors. Cherry (or that great knotty alder just above) wants to take the lead. The color and grain variation within the wood, the changes over time ... lots of drama. I've just built a kitchen with a lot of cherry, and that means the other elements are fairly muted. The excellent alder cabinets a little farther above are a bit more like supporting actors. If something else in the kitchen, like the countertop material, or those amazing handles, is doing the aesthetic heavy lifting, then alder works very well in a background role. If you go with cherry, you might ask if you can help pick out wood, especially for inset panels. With a little looking you can find nice figures -- a few examples here: http://www.woodenconcepts.net/Recessed_Panel_Cope_and_Stick_Doors.html...See MoreAlder/Maple/Cherry/MDF
Comments (6)Ball bearing drawer guides are ubiquitous now; it's tough to buy cabinets without them. BUT there are many types of glides that use ball bearings, with a wide range of quality and usefulness among them. There are cheapie glides that cost only a couple of dollars per drawer and do well enough, but only allow you to pull the drawer out 3/4 of its length so that stuff in the back of the drawer can be hard to reach. At the other end of the scale (~$30/drawer) are glides that are completely concealed under the drawer, allow you to pull the drawer all the way out so you can access the very back of it easily ("full extension") and have a mechanism that gently closes the drawer for you so that it's impossible to slam. In between those price points are slides of varying quality that are full extension but that are mounted more conspicuously (some people think they're unattractive) and lack the soft-close feature. If this is all new to you, you might want to spend some time browsing threads on cabinetry in the Kitchens forum. There are lots of options to choose from, many of which are worth the upcharges that inevitably go with them. If you don't yet have a detailed cabinet design and are just asking cabinet makers for guesstimates based on room size or linear feet of cabinets, then the prices they are giving you probably don't mean much....See MoreCabinet Doors in Kitchen: Cherry wood vs. Cherry plywood?
Comments (16)It shouldn't necessarily be possible from a couple feet away to tell whether a given board is veneered or solid. Edge banding is typically a disaster waiting to happen and should be avoided at all costs. MDF panels, if you go that way, can be edged with solid wood, a much more robust solution. With solid wood every board is different, and care and attention has to be paid to color and grain matching. (With factory-made cherry cabinets this is frequently, and glaringly not done, then the differences are badly disguised with stain). Plywood will typically be more uniform and free from sapwood. The style of door is the primary consideration. Frame and panel doors with raised panel have to be made from solid wood, Slab doors can be done either way. Frame and panel doors, if properly made from well seasoned wood almost never warp. Slab doors will be more prone to change shape with changes in humidity. Some pieces of plywood move more than solid in my experience, other less, and sadly I don't know how to predict which is which in advance. Veneer comes in a myriad of forms, either rotary cut or sliced, The sliced veneer can be laid up in random, repeating, or bookmatched patterns to achieve the look you want. A specialty plywood supplier will have all of these options available for a common veneer like cherry. A cabinet maker can also make shop-made veneer to exactly match solid wood parts, assuming he has the sequential boards cut from the same log to permit precise matching. There's no end to how crazy you can get if you're really fussy about color and grain in cherry!...See MoreMaple vs. Cherry Cabinets
Comments (27)DH has been a professional woodworker for 35+ years and I do some wood turning for fun, so I see a lot of wood. We get our wood by the tree. Cherry will have more color variation between trees, some more red toned and some with more gray tones, though all will be in the same color range. It will also have more color variation within the wood, sometimes (though not always) with small darker flecks. It darkens quite a bit between freshly finished wood and wood that has had longer term exposure to UV. DH puts pieces in the sun to darken some before sale, but they will continue to develop deeper color over time. As others have said, it is a softer wood, so a bit more prone to dents if you bump it with something hard and being less dense will move a bit more with changes in humidity IME. Cherry is a very "flat" wood in the way it naturally reacts with light, consistently without much reflection of light from within the wood. Maple (as someone above suggested, be sure to get sugar maple AKA rock maple as opposed to one of the softer maples) will be blonder in color, so the finish used will effect its final color more. Since you have decided on the cabinetmaker and finish already, I would ask them if any older cabinets with your chosen finish can be viewed in person. Some finishes add more color, and some will yellow more over time, but IME the maple wood itself changes very little after the wood is dry. IME maple grain can vary some as can the figure (tiger maple, birdseye maple and flame maple can all occur in any of the maple species) so there may be some interesting grain or subtle reaction with light in some of your wood even if it is basically straight-grained and without figure. IME real wood visually can't be mistaken for anything else. Veneer is real wood, however, and used well is beautiful, so I don't understand your reference to maple looking like veneer. In addition to the particular qualities of the wood, look at how the color of the woods integrate with other colors in your home. IMO maple is a bit more neutral and cherry a bit more distinct in that there are some colors which it doesn't look great with such as tan-grays or pink....See Moremeg711
16 years agominnt
16 years agowhenzuc
16 years agokitchendetective
16 years agoshezzy_in_sj
16 years agoThis is my alder kitchen in a medium-deep cherry-mahogany custom color.
It's not super formal, but it's not down-home rustic either.
Up close, I love the grain. Yes, this is knotty alder, and the knots allow for a more casual feel, but it doesn't scream country.
As far as the softness goes, I am not experiencing the "fingernail makes a mark" situation. My upper cabinets have yet to get their pulls on (actually not sure if I even want them on) and they have taken a pretty good beating. I don't have any dings, really. Yes, if I did get them they would add to the "character" of the cabinets, but I ain't seen nothing yet in two years.
lindybarts
16 years agoWe went with Alder because we wanted something more brown and not red hues. We love the look of ours but I have to say that softness is an issue. We've dinged up a few cabinets already and it's only been 2 months. I'm still glad we went with the Alder but you have to be a little more careful with it compared to the Cherry!
whenzuc
16 years agofishpants
16 years agolindybarts
16 years agosanborn5
16 years agolindybarts
16 years agohapyfrustrated
16 years agoJulie B
16 years agomnhockeymom
16 years agoI have cherry now, stained a chocolate brown, and also had it in another kitchen stained a dark brown as well (see pics below). Have to say, though, that I also had alder in my mudroom, family room, laundry and boys' bedrooms in the last house and I loved it - used it both natural and stained and never had any dings or dents with it. (Alder pics below, too). If you're having trouble choosing, have a sample door made up for you out of both woods - that's how I ended up w/ the cherry I have now and I couldn't be happier - much less stressful than worrying about it, especially since it's such a big investment!
Former Kitchen w/ Dark Brown Stained Cherry on Perimeter:
Present Kitch (under construction) w/ Chocolate Stained Cherry:
Natural Alder Family Room (Former House):
Stained Alder in Basement (Former House):
Julie B
16 years agomnhockeymom
16 years agoYes, you're exactly right, they are the same stain but the flash makes them look different in that pic - maybe a better picture would be the one with my towel holder niche...
I am getting window treatments put in tomorrow (I hope) so I'm planning on posting the whole kitchen soon!
kompy