White oak, with an expert finisher bleaching and color washing. And a waterborne Italian 2K matte coating. That’s a super expensive high end look. Most local custom guys won’t be able to duplicate it.

Definitely White Oak in those pix. Very popular in higher-end design nowadays, vs. Red Oak which has always been around. Red Oak is difficult to stain without some of the yellowish/reddish tones coming through.

Just my opinion. Is it possible to actually find a showroom with the finish you want on display. That you can point at and say that is what you want?

Trying to copy something from a photo seems too unpredictable.

When we needed a linen closet built, we went to various showroom and actually saw the workmanship and finish.

We went to one place where you could pick what white you wanted and I did not want to do it!

Shiloh River Rock looks SIMILAR to that....but not white oak...it's poplar.

Shiloh Cabinetry: Square Flat Panel Flush Inset: Arctic & River Rock · More Info

Here's a listing of General Finish colors on oak and maple. The one that appears close is Natural water based gel stain here on oak. A water based matte clear coat wouldn't add yellowing. European oak may be an option tp consider. Woodcraft has General Finish products.

uh, if your cabinet maker doesn't know what that is or how to get that stain, you better find someone else. If he's getting yellow on a natural white oak wood, he doesn't know what he's doing. What species of wood is he sampling it on? do you have pics?

that example you posted is white oak with a natural finish. (it's not bleached, as mentioned above. you don't need to bleach natural white oak for that look)

Also Looks like a plain sawn cut. (there are diff ways they cut oak to get the grain)

if you want less graining, you'll need a rift sawn cut.

this is rift sawn, white oak, full inlay cabinet door.

just to show you natural oak, these are a few boards I cut and fit to make a new desk top. this is what raw, Plain Sawn, white oak looks like. a natural oil finish like Bona or something similar will give this look

if you want it a little darker, play around w/some stain colors.

why not look at Restoration Hardware or Signature hardware vanities to start? they have similar wood options.

Not just white oak. These are custom stained alder.

San Blas · More Info

I like this stain color, I was looking for the same. May be this color

or some combination with darker similar ones?

For the people criticizing the cabinet maker - we don’t know what budget constraints @Katie Neuner has given him. All these suggestions of white oak, and rift-sawn white oak, don’t take into account that is about the highest-priced cabinet wood there is. Add to that the OP’s pictured cabinets which appear to have a wash which needs to be applied perfectly, which means $$$.

The OP has not let us know what wood the carpenter is using for the unsatisfactory samples. It could be that whatever wood he is using is all that the budget allows, and that it‘s not he doesn’t understand how to achieve the pictured results.

white oak is not that expensive, and certainly is NOT the highest priced cabinet wood! I've worked with it many times on my projects. It's only slightly higher than red oak, which is one of the basic woods. Rift Sawn white oak would be a tad more expensive, but certainly way cheaper than walnut, cherry, birdseye maple, teak, etc. (Shannon, go visit a lumberyard and look at the prices. white oak is rather inexpensive)

Any carpenter worth his salt knows what white oak looks like, and how to achieve that finish. I also asked OP for those exact questions (what are the samples, what kind of wood is he doing and lets see pictures).

You don't need a white paint wash to create that look, but using a white stain would mimic that picture. it's a white wood stain that 'whitewashes' the wood.

however to keep it from looking like something from the 90's, it would have to be used sparingly.

Another option is to ceruse the oak w/liming wax to create a similar look.

a finisher could use the white stain on raw white oak with a raised grain, do a quick wipe on and wipe off, so that the majority of the stain stays in the grain. when quickly wiped off, you get a slight white wash look, but more of it adheres into the grain.

Cerused White oak. (can be done w/liming wax, or even that White Stain, which I've done on white oak myself) This is a process where only the grain receives the white stain, and the rest of the wood stays like it is.

In fact, the more I look at OP's picture, the more it looks like Cerused oak. Like this one:

Cerusing is a very tedious process which would cost more in labor. I've done it on 5 or 6 pieces of furniture. this is that raw oak I posted in my first comment, with a gray stain, and liming wax used for the ceruse technique

Amateur junk grade products with oak flooring grade wood and “carpenters” will not get that level of work. 🙄🙄🙄 That combination is exactly why she is having the issues she is having now. She is dealing with a pretend custom cabinet maker.

Thanks for all the advice. Cabinet maker is good at what he does, we do have budget constraints and have just started the sampling process. I also really enjoy this kind of stuff and like to be involved in the process.

Cabinet maker is using white oak, but it’s not rift sawn, I’m guessing this could the issue. (He didn’t have rift sawn on hand) Here are two recent samples, the row of four is samples of our flooring, the bottom two are the cabinet stain samples. The lighting makes the flooring look yellow, but it’s Kivi Stone by Real Wood Floors and is an engineered European white oak.

I’ve read elsewhere to add in some white paint with the stain color to help reduce the yellow appearance. Anyone ever heard of this?

Stay in your lane. If he can do it, he will, and won’t need any input whatsoever. So far though, he is a faux custom guy.

Custom is not a synonym for quality.

Burger King makes custom hamburgers by leaving off the onions and adding extra pickles. That is the level of a whole lot of guys in the cabinet industry. They order parts and pieces, assemble them. and make nothing. They have no real finishing skills outside of applying a totally inappropriate opaque product. Since “everyone” wants white paint, it’s been really easy for them to bluff their way through. Staining is a world of difference more difficult. Those guys can’t cut it.

Plenty of manufactured custom cabinets offer that finish. If your guy isn’t as expensive as they are, there is a reason.

what stain is he using? and what colors are they? let's start there.

there are plenty of stain colors (or aniline dyes) that don't have a yellow base to them.

if you want to get close to your wood floor colors, he should be using a regular walnut color. Provincial is a tad darker. Antique walnut. All of these lean on the ashy side of brown, w/no red or yellow tones.

adding white paint w/the yellow stain will only make it a lighter yellow. Blue cancels yellow. green cancels red. that's why you want ashy-green browns when staining red oak. it cancels the 'pink' tone of the wood

But white oak isn't naturally yellow, so I don't know why he's getting such yellow results. I'd have to see what he's using.

if he's using something like honey, honey maple or light oak, then that's the reason you've got yellow