I have a new construction house here in the Northwest (kinda entry level house) - the builder let me choose birch or oak for cabinets (kitchen and bath vanities). Price is the the same.
Oak grain seems to me course and rough while birch is fine and smooth but both look fine for me. Color will be lighter with either wood (natural oak or natural birch), for that matters.
Can anyone give some suggestion to choose? Which is better, in terms of durability and later easier resale? (more poeple like the one or the other?)
Most of the cabinet will probably be made of plywood and/or particle board. Only the face frames and door frames are actually wood - IF you're lucky. It probably makes little difference concerning durability as to which wood type is chosen - it's a personal preference thing. I prefer oak, maple and cherry. Birch looks a little bland after a while.
It's a wash IMO for durability... for resale, oak cabinets 'sound' better in a listing than birch cabinets because most people perceive oak as being high end.
Oak tends to be more traditional looking with pronounced grain while birch can offer a contemporary look or traditional look just by changing the hardware.
For my taste, I'd go with birch but that may be because I am tired of looking at my oak cabinets with the cheesy (plywood looking) veneer end cabinets.
SWMBO hated those crappy looking vinyl end panels on the sides of our otherwise solid oak kitchen cabinets, so when I refinished them last year, besides upgrading all the hardware, I wrapped our island and all the base-cabinet visible end panels with solid oak raised panel frames.
On the top cabinets, we felt raised panels didn't look quite right, so I resawed some solid oak panels I glued up to produce a 1/4 " bookmatched thin panel which I applied to the ends. I know that I could have used plywood, but we were trying to get away from that look.
They look great and gave the 17 yr old cabinets a fresh new look with minimum investment compared to new ones.
Good point, that's why I went with Birch and I love it, Oak is very common and kind of commercial, while Birch I think is not, at leas I do not see too many vs. Oak.
Even if I Toss a coin and comes Oak, still I will go with Birch, which aktually right now I am building a big wall unit out of Birch and Maple facing.
Sounds like you did good. Questions: On the bookmatched panels, how did you glue them up - at only 1/4"? Also, how did you attach them to the cabinet ends? TIA. -- Igor
I simply "resawed" some 1x8 oak baords, then ran a thin bead of glue down each (jointed) edge & clamped them up, trying to be careful with the possible bowing. When dried, I ran them through the planer with "bad side up". This got me close to what I needed with my cheap 12" Delta planer (I needed to trm them a bit to fit through the planer, but as I recall, the uppers only needed about 11+ inches of panel). Sanded the good side smooth with 220 & a ROS.
I saw David Marks gluing up some thin boards like this and it "inspired" me to try it.
To attach them:
I first fitted them to each end cabinet - each was different, so I use a LA block plane & scribed to get a tight fit. The stiles of the cabinets extended probably 3/8", so my objective was that the panels should have a little 1/8" reveal when attached and not be "proud" of the end stile. Then, I brad nailed the very top (to be covered by the new 3/4" cabinet moulding) and ran several beads of silicone caulk on the back. I held each in contact with the old veneer PB with Jorgensen cabinet clamps set on each shelf level (use a 2x4 caul to apply pressure evenly) & let set for 4-6 hours.
It worked out really well and looks many times better than the old stuff.
Almost forgot - I finished, stained & poly-ed (?) each panel before installation.
This is a common dilema when building. Same thing with floor coverings, etc... What I would like to know is...who's house is it? Who's going to be living there? Who's paying for it? Why do people choose to go this route when building a home? This whole subject really bothers me. I guess that's why I don't offer contractor kickbacks or discounts in my business.
Resale always has to have some consideration, unless someone will live there until they die and don't care about the estate selling the home.
For the most part, I didn't consider resale when my house was built, except I added two unfinished bedrooms. It would be extremely difficult to sell a $275,000 house with one bedroom. (Maybe not in California, but in this market.)
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