possible solution from Jorge Gomez at CasaRefined

He stained a vintage red wood bowl to shade below.

https://casarefined.com/3-insane-thrift-flips-you-will-want-to-copy/

A word of advice for those trying to achieve the natural raw oak look. Ask the cabinetmaker (or a wood stain professional) how your wood will age. Wood stains/finishes and the wood itself changes colour over time. What may look perfect today may change as wood and finishes may yellow. The lighter your wood, the more noticeable it may be. That’s why it’s so hard to match older wood flooring, even if it’s from the same manufacturer.

@everpark Did you finish your kitchen?

Almost. I’ll post when I get back home next week. It’s been a long process for sure as i was the contractor.

Cabinet guy just sent an updated sample. Haven’t yet seen it in person, but I asked him to get as close to the square on the left as possible. Pic of the back of the island for reference, with raw wood. He said it’s the lowest gloss finish possible…is it screaming 90s oak??

The low gloss "appears" pretty glossy, but...check it out and save final thoughts for in person.

Can it be matte..? That's my only thoughts?

Wondered how my matte wood would photograph. These are matte.

That makes me feel better - your (beautiful) cabinets look slightly glossy in that picture. I’ll wait to see the sample in person

Raw oak on the bottom. Top is has the clear coat we use on it . No tricks. One step process.

@lgio71 I do not think it screams 90's! Your cabinet face and hardware makes the difference

I would love to see the final color. We are struggling over here.

Will be sure and post pictures when it’s all said and done. The sample was much nicer in person, and completely matte.

I love this! What process did you go with?

We have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on samples to try to achieve the look we want. Too pink, too blue, ugh! My husband took off work this week to help get this decision made and we have gotten nowhere. Just frustrated beyond stressed. It’s been 10 months.

@Samantha Wenner did you use Nona amber seal or intense seal?

@jdesign_gw - I’ve fallen behind on several projects. Are you doing some white oak replacement doors for IKEA?

@thomaspartyof6 - i guess I need to go back through all of these posts and find yours! your cabinets looks great!

dmac1108 - yes. we use select Euro white oak with a finish also imported from Europe which is formulated to give as natural of an appearance as possible. No tricks as refered to in some of the post above needed.

Just a quick update…most of the cabinets were installed today and I love how they turned out! They read a bit more orange in the pictures than they look IRL. Still need to get trimmed out, crown, etc. Sooo happy with them!

These look FAB! 😍

I’ve been following this thread as we were doing the same for our kitchen (white oak) and just wanted to share the outcome. We still have some trim work and caulking to finish up, but very happy with the colors. Sorry pics are a little blurry, they are screen grabs from a video.

Your cabinets look great. Can you share your process?

Thank you. We used Rubio monocoat oil plus 2c in color “natural” for the white oak. The white cabinets are hard maple and are sprayed with Kem Aqua in the color “extra white”

Very helpful thread. Thanks for everyone sharing. Going to try some of the advice!

The Cook's Kitchen: When using white paint for kitchen cabinets, how does one find out what paint should be used according to the KCMA certifications for cabinet rated coatings? Thank you

Igio71 - what did you end up using on your white oak cabinets for stain/ tint etc? We are literally making a desicion today and it’s so tricky. Depending on the sample piece of oak the same stain will look different depending how much pink is in it. We’ve been playing around with minwax pickled oak and natural - mixing them at different ratios.

We actually ended up finding a prefab cabinet sample we liked and gave it to our cabinet maker to stain match. I’m sorry - I don’t know what he ended up doing to match it. Playing around with the white tint ratios wasn’t working for us because of how pink they were turning out.

Thank you so much for your reply. Would you mind sharing the name of your cabinet maker if they are a company?

@thomaspartyof6

Your cabinets are what we are trying to achieve. I keep scrolling on this thread and it’s very confusing. Can you please post your process? Step by step? I would really appreciate it!!!!

@victoriamaire how did y’all decide on natural vs 5%?

@jdesign_gw can you please share the stain that you used on the white oak? Thank you

No stain just clear. its a process we use on the doors we sell.

We are also trying for this look. Does anyone know of a cabinet line that makes this finish, semi-custom, without going through the entire staining process?

I’m in the process of trying to find a similar stain color for my white oak cabinets. Has anyone found a good one that neutralizes some of the golden tones?

Victoria, Beautiful kitchen. Are your cabinets rift-cut white oak or quarter-sawn white oak?

@jdesign_gw - what is the product that you import and use for the 1 step process? Can you share a link? Thanks!

Following

You cannot have expectations that anyone will share proprietary business information with you.

There are several routes to getting this result. All of them involved time and effort to experiment and acquire that experience and judgement that made their process *reproducible* and consistent.

Because there is no shortcut. There is no fail safe simple ”recipe” that someone without extensive woodworking knowledge can use and produce “the same” result. That’s not how this works. This is craftsmanship, and it isn’t a simple push button montage for TV.

You will not be able to replicate a 40K and year of time invested finishing process. Not without showing the same in depth time commitment to understanding how wood behaves in many different circumstances.

lgio71 How did you get the color for your white oak cabinets? We just had the 2 vanities installed but waiting for them to get color on them. We want this color on them? Anyone have any thoughts on how to achieve this look?

thomaspartyof6 I have been following your thread, Firstly thank you for posting your hard work! I am going to take a chance and try replicating it. WIll keep you posted. My one question to you is will it make a difference that my cabinets are already installed and onsite? Here is a picture for reference

This company sells a great product. We are going to be using the vanilla color. https://www.rubiomonocoatusa.com/collections/interior-products/products/oil-plus-part-a-20ml

Is the instagram photo of your vanity with the vanilla color product? Looks nice!

The last Instagram post is not my vanity that has the vanilla color but that is what we want to add. Ours is still in progress…see pic.

Wardah Awan

I woupdn’t think the outcome would be too different painted on site vs offsite.

...perhaps cure-time before using them.

2 yrs later - we wouldn‘t change a thing!

The last picture is not my vanity that has the vanilla color but that is what we want to add. Ours is still in progress…see pic.

this thread has been so helpful, so thanks everyone for sharing their process. I am not only dealing with trying to find the right stain process but also a way to make all the wood more ”even” toned. anyone with a similar experience?

This is how our wall looks like and i would luke to have all the wlld be more similar in tone while keeping the raw wood look

I was told you can’t get it all the same. You have to pick each piece so it can match. We just had 2 bathroom vanities made with white oak and we had this problem.

Hi Kostas, did you have to buy differnt stain colors? how did you solve the problem?

We bought different samples from Rubio (great company) but it didn’t matter if you went lighter or darker with the stain, the darker areas still showed up different. Check out Rubio on Instagram. They have been very helpful. They really tried to work with us but it wasn’t uniform.

HU-71466959, Isn't it the cabinet maker who could help with getting your cabinets "more even toned?" Maybe recutting a door or two? Costly yes, but if it makes you happier then it's worth it. When we did our white oak cabinets, the cabinet maker pointed it out ahead of time that the wood can vary and that they do their best to keep the wood tones consistent. Ours came out really nice, but there are a few doors that I might have "rearranged" a little different if I had that choice.

thomaspartyof6 - I LOVE your cabinets. Can you please tell me what you ended up using for the finish/color?? I have to make a decision very soon. Thank you!!