I've got ovangkol in my primary kitchen.

Chose it because the Jones' don''t have it and probably don't know what it is.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ovangkol

Hickory. Love the interesting graining and non-uniformity. Stain we went with was darker than golden but lighter than espresso.

We have premium hickory. It was a bit of a compromise for me. DH wanted natural character hickory, and I felt it had too much "character" since our kitchen is so large. I really wanted QS oak like our previous kitchen, but DH had his heart set on hickory. So I opted for the premium hickory, which is beautiful, but less expensive than the QS. I let him have his way with the floor which is natural character hickory.

Stain: Sherwin Williams Chestnut

Hardware: Hickory Hardware Studio II in oil rubbed bronze

Price: Oh, gosh, hard to break it down. We have ALOT of built-ins throughout our home, and the total bill was just under $40,000. All custom made by a cabinet maker we've used many times in the past in our previous home.

Painted maple in the kitchen with mid-toned stained maple floors and natural maple cabinets in the bathrooms. I love the clean grain of maple and the fact that there is no orange or pink in the wood.

We went with maple for its hardness and even grain. It's stained "brandywine," which is dark with reddish tones.

Cherry wood, mandarin stain, coffee glaze

I've loved cherry for as long as I can remember and have always wanted a cherry kitchen. The stain and glaze were chosen when I found a door style that was "perfect"...everything seemed to go so well together.

There are so many, many combinations of wood/stain/glaze/other out there and you will only see a very small sampling here even if the thread maxes out!

Wood species: Cherry, maple, birch, oak, mahogany, alder, bamboo, etc.
Stains: just about anything you can think of + Natural (no stain)
Glazes: usually medium to dark browns & black but also grays and others
Paint: just about anything you can think of

Keep in mind that each wood will take a stain differently, so the same stain will look different on different woods.

Have you looked at what various cabinet places offer? Checkout both online and in-person. In-person will be more reliable, but there are only so many places you can visit and most will have the most common woods, etc.

Oh, and some wood species darken with age (like cherry).

I started out with paint grade then panicked that my kitchen would be too white and changed the first two cabinets on either side when you walk in to oak.
I agonized over rift cut white oak or regular white oak, then finally was forced to choose. I chose the rift cut for a more current look. Hopefully I can get the cabinets cerused in place. I figured, if I really hate the oak cabinets, I can paint them white.
Good luck!

We have lyptus. It's hard, beautiful and goes well with our oak hardwood floors in the rest of the house. And it's a sustainable wood (grows quickly and can be harvested every 13-15 years).

Premium QS oak (has extra flecking and gorgeous graining) with a clear coat.

Painted maple.

Natural cherry - chosen for the warmth, color and depth of grain that cherry has when it isn't stained. Also, like that it is a medium tone rather than very dark or very light.

Cherry, too. I don't even know what kind. I've yet to meet a wood I didn't like. And therefore just about my only concern is not to up the pressure on rainforest hardwoods, even though I do really love them too.

itsallaboutthefood--Is lytmus more expensive than, say, cherry? How did you find a cabinetmaker who uses it?

Same as remodelfla. QS W/O with Gemeni Clear Stain.

Black walnut, no stain, lots o poly...

Maple and Lacquered MDF

Cherry with honey stain and coffee glaze. Like Buehl, I have wanted Cherry my whole life. Except for a few odds and ends all of my furniture is now cherry. This is the first that I've used stain though. It is a very light stain. I love native lumber.

Maple, painted.

Natural maple. We have a small galley kitchen which faces north onto woods with just a slider so needed to keep things light. Currently have white (new cabs should be here in a week or two) but wanted a change. Also went with slab doors...was tired of trying to clean food/spills out of the nooks and crannies of fronts with moulding with all the little grooves.

Birch. It was the only option at the RTA shop where we bought. Once painted and glazed, I'm sure they look like any other wood.

sjerin - I got my cabinets from Dura Supreme during a special they were having last year...no upcharge for premium wood. So, my lyptus cabinets cost the same as maple. I think that the upcharge for lyptus normally is the same as cherry although the current promotion they are having does not include lyptus since they are having some trouble getting it from their supplier (I just ordered a lyptus vanity cabinet for our bathroom and wasn't able to take advantage of the special).

I know that Crystal cabinetry also offers lyptus. I didn't price them out though.

We went with red birch, natural color. I also like cherry but felt it would darken too much for the room. I was inspired by a couple of great red birch kitchens here and studied up on the wood. There is so much to learn.

I do love the painted cabinets here, but I grew up with a painted kitchen that had way too many coats of paint. So my dream was always to get natural wood.

Originally thought I wanted painted, after much research & then the showroom of the cabinet maker we chose Mahogany - rift & qtr sawn oak were close contenders

painted maple

Thanks for the info, itsallabout.... Your cabinets are very beautiful!

Walnut, clear coated. It was the same price as alder, stained and glazed from my cabinet maker.

Our order officially went in yesterday - they are going to be painted ash; we didn;t get any choice on wood species. The drawers, however, are solid oak (oiled). We were also going to do oak veneer on the interiors, but they pulled a switch on us - apparently, the oiled oak they initially were using for the interior option wasn't holding up well, so they now do white polished oak instead...which looks completely different, so we went with painted interiors instead.

Just ordered ours a couple of weeks ago. Stained maple -- some chocolate and some yellow; we're still working on the shade of yellow.

Thanks sjerin!

Stained and glazed Cherry.

Red Birch + oil based polyurethane. No stain (i am anti-stain in general)

Tncraft, have these post on cabinet wood helped?

I'm not exactly sure. Our cabinet interiors are birch plywood and our drawer boxes are maple, but the face frames/drawer fronts/doors are reclaimed lumber from old homes/barns so probably oak or pine?

Whatever it is, it's finished with milk paint.

Order just in yesterday. Rift cut white oak with a very light 2% gray stain on the bottom cabinets, and white painted maple uppers (Dove White).

lisa0527, that sounds beautiful. Do you have a sample picture of what the stained oak cabinets will look like?

My just installed cabinets are natural cherry. I chose them because I love the beauty of the natural wood. Although I am attracted to the beautiful white kitchens, a few years ago, we did his and hers baths with mine being painted white and my husband's being stained wood. When they were finished, I loved my bath overall, but missed the beauty of the real wood look in my husband's. As I look at my new cabinets, I am loving the all of the wood grain.

Lisa, I second the request for sample photos of your oak cabs.
I am doing two china cabinets, refrigerator panel and pantry in rift cut white oak, the rest of the cabinets (all lowers) will be painted white. I would like to get the oak cerused, but am not sure if it's possible or practical after they are installed.
I would love to see what a light stain will look like. My kitchen will be finished before yours (hoping to be cooking Thanksgiving dinner in it) but I will be sure to come back and check on your progress.

I don't have a photo but I promise I'll learn how to post one as soon as I have a cabinet to show you. The attached picture shows you 5% gray stain. Mine will be even more natural, with just a hint of gray to keep that nice grayish colour that fresh cut white oak has.

Here is a link that might be useful: 5% gray stain on oak

Thank you all for the info.

enduring... Yes, it's helpful.

Alder caught my attention when I stopped by a showroom over the weekend. Now, I'm questioning if it's a good idea considering nobody here has alder. I was told it's a softer wood. Not sure what that means. Maybe it's a bad thing to have a softer wood for cabinets???

I went with rift cut oak in the "pewter" stain. It's a dark brown with a hint of grey in it.

Here's a photo - but they're covered in dust so you can't really see it well.

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen progress picture

BumpyRoadtoHome... That's stained oak?? Wow! I thought I was supposed to stay away from oak. lol. It just seems like a lot of people hate oak cabinet. I find yours look great though. Maybe because the stain is dark? Hmmm.

It looks darker in the photo because there was no lighting and I took it with my iphone..

But if you go closer, you'll notice that there isn't the typical oak grain which usually turns people off of oak.

Instead I got the rift cut so that the grain is linear and uniform throughout. The good thing about oak is that it takes stain much better than maple, which was important to me when going with a dark stain. I didn't want the colour to look non-uniform or faded in certain spots.

Another photo but covered in dust:

{{!gwi}}

Here's an example of a rift cut oak in a lighter colour so you can see what I mean:

Oh! I forgot to mention the price was 33% more than just getting standard oak or maple. I got maple cabinets stained dark as well but just for the bathrooms.

And if you honestly compare them, the cost wasn't worth the upgrade. If you're going dark, the visible difference isn't much.

cherry with pecan stain

tncraft - We are going with alder. I don't have pictures though as they haven't been made yet.

poplar for the painted cabs, maple for stained cabs

tncraft,

There is lots to like about Alder. It is native and it is the opposite of endangered. It is a softer wood - as is Douglas fir, which is used in some beautiful kitchens shown on this forum (farmgirlinky's for example). Being softer means it is more likely to show dings if banged. I think it is beautiful. A while back Fine Homebuilding magazine had some examples of Alder being used.

This is a link to pictures of Alder and examples with different finishes: http://www.google.com/search?q=alder&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=vY&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=rh_JTsK9L7OK2QWLx6j-Dw&ved=0CEsQsAQ&biw=1216&bih=643

It may be easier just to use the search term Alder in google - This was one of the first sites to come up.

OG

Quarter-sawn oak, with a chestnut glaze. It almost perfectly matches the antique furniture in our dining room.