Type of Wood - Mudroom Assistance

[aolson]

Hello,

I am looking at building a pretty simple cabinet and bench for our mud room. I am pretty new at this but have been using Oak for other things in my house and would like to change it up a little bit. The mudroom area is a kind of dark so I was looking at doing a lighter stain so it didn't make it any darker in there.

What type of wood would people use for this project and would also look good with an oak baseboard and raised panel doors that are already present? I was thinking pine or aspen since they seem pretty reasonable? Both pretty soft, but I am thinking about trying to go with a used look for the wood with the nail holes, etc.

The area I am looking at putting this in is 42 inches deep by 36 wide by 8 feet tall. A very strange deep area. I was thinking on making the sitting bench nearly as deep as this spot and then stacking 2 drawers side by side running the width of the area but make them only around 24 inches deep. I would then add two tall cabinets that sit on top of the drawers and run nearly to the ceiling making them the same depth as the drawers. This configuration seems a little strange, but I can't think of a better way to utilize this area. Any ideas or pictures of things maybe you have done that could help?

Thanks for the assistance.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Well, 9 times out of 10 my response to any question about what wood to use is White Oak. The other 1 out of 10 I'll say Cherry.

WO is a good choice for wet environments. Sturdy. Looks good beat up. You can just add a varnish and get a creamy yellowish color or stain it to varying darkness'. If you use quartersawn, you get the addition of some nice grain pattern\figure. Generally available and not outlandishly expensive.

Look at

the cabinet at the bottom of the page for a good idea of a mid range color. This has been slightly darkened.

As always with any oak, even if you are goig with a natural color it is best to put a dark stain over a seal coat so you darken the grain line patterns. Just apply shellac, then (after it dries of course) wipe on a dark walnut gel stain and immediatly wipe it off. This will leave the grain lines darkened. If you want an antiqued look, just wipe less of it off in the corners, crevices, etc. You can really make it look old by doing this and it is very easy to control if you keep it wet while you decide how much to wipe off.

One trick I use to add a faux old look is to aggressively sand out areas where there would have been natural wear, like edges of doors near the handle, table corners, etc. Then when applying the darkening layer, wipe it very clear at the wear areas to look as if some color has been worn away too.

[jo4hn]

[snip] Some years ago in my flatlander days, a fellow gave me his redwood deck (he was putting in a new one). I have built a fair amount of deck or mudroom furniture from it. There was some spalting which is now front and center. Joinery is M&T. Finish is gloss Polycrylic, the first coat being diluted by half. A bit of a rubdown after coat #4 to cut down on the shine a bit. Looks good, wears well. YMMV and mahalo, jo4hn