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Category Archives: Cabinets

Cabinet Wood Species Explained

Wood Species

Alder

Alder is an even textured hardwood with a soft, straight grain, similar to Cherry and Maple. Alder is naturally a pale color, with reddish-brown, tan or yellow notes. It accepts stain well. Alder is a versatile wood, with natural small pin knots and rays as characteristics. Alder will lighten with age and exposure to light.

Birch

Birch is a medium hardwood with a straight grain and a fine texture. Similar in appearance to Maple, but accepts stain unevenly due to various density changes in the wood. Not recommended for darker stains, but is a good base or light, solid color finishes.

Beech

Beech is a heavy and strong wood, with good strength properties and an even, fine texture. It has a fine, tight grain that accepts stains well. Beech has a density that is similar to Maple. It is often steamed during the drying process to bring out a pinkish-red color in the naturally lighter wood. Beech may have light mineral streaking.

Cherry 

Cherry is a moderately hard wood, with medium density and reddish undertones. Generally has a fine texture with a straight grain, although it can have naturally occurring small knots, pitch marks and worm holes. Cherry accepts stain well, and is known for being especially sensitive to both natural and artificial light, causing the wood to darken and redden over time. 

Hickory

Hickory is a tough and dense wood, known for its strength and highly contrasting light and dark streaks. It is a dense wood with a medium coarse texture. Hickory accepts stain evenly, and certain stains will amplify the vivid grain patterns. The finished look is usually described as “natural” or “rustic”.

Maple

Maple is a heavy, fine textured wood with a smooth and even grain. It is a dense wood, with a smooth, uniform appearance. Occasionally Maple will contain slight mineral streaks that tend to darken with stains, and darker stains may appear blotchy. Maple is quite versatile and works well in many styles and finishes.

Oak

Oak is an extremely strong hard wood, with a coarse texture. The texture of the wood will vary depending on the age of the wood. It has an open grain pattern that is very evident when a solid color finish is applied. Oak accepts stain well, and may include random knots and mineral deposits.

Rustic/Knotty Woods

Wood species with natural random characteristics, such as Alder and Cherry, will frequently have a separate sub-category listed as “Rustic” or “Knotty”. This sub-category will feature lumber selected with more of these natural elements, such as knots, wormholes or mineral streaks, for added character. 

Quarter-Sawn Oak

Quarter-Sawn Oak is a very stable wood known for its prominent high ray fleck that exhibits a beautiful grain pattern. It has a uniform straight grain structure.

Painted Finishes

Craftwood (R. D. Henry Exclusive)

Craftwood doors and drawer fronts are 1-Piece MDF construction. This eliminates the potential for cracked joints on doors and fronts. However, Craftwood has a limited selection, only available in select styles and colors.

MDF Paint (R. D. Henry Exclusive)

MDF Paint doors and drawer fronts are constructed of Paintgrade Maple rails and stiles, with MDF center panels. The use of MDF Paint minimizes the potential for cracked joints on doors and fronts. Used with painted finishes without aging/distressing.

Paintgrade 

Paint-grade hardwood (typically Maple) is used for the rails, stiles and center panels. Due to wood’s inherent nature to expand and contract, cracks at the joints of doors and fronts are more likely. Paintgrade doors are available for all doors, fronts and edges, and can be used with aging/distressing techniques.  

If you want to see and touch all of these different wood species for yourself, visit Our Showroom at 38200 Van Dyke Ave. in Sterling Heights.

The 6 Different Levels of Cabinets

1. RTA (Ready to Assemble)

These cabinets come flat in a box and are ready to assemble (RTA). They are a very low grade, low quality cabinet line offered by many many companies to keep costs down. Even below builder grade standard. Understandably, these are cabinets I would put in a home if I was flipping it.

Image courtesy of the Home Depot

2. Big Box off the shelf cabinets

These come in standard sizes. They are more along the lines of “grab and go, hope they fit”. These cabinets are meant to have one little trim piece on the top. They are massively produced overseas which also helps keeps cost down. You can do what the TV people do and buy the cabinets raw wood and paint them. There is no longevity for looking good. In other words, short term cabinets. In this scenario a middleman company is taking RTA cabinets, putting them together for you, and shipping them fully assembled.

3. Standards

A lot of cabinet companies make the box and they get the doors and drawer fronts from another company. This is why you can’t deviate from the standard width. This is a big bulk of the cabinet companies out there.  In this scenario, general contractors will order cabinets from a supply warehouse that sells basic cabinets and sizes to the contractor which then marks up their costs and sells it to you. 


Image courtesy of R.D. Henry & Co.

4. Custom cabinet manufacturer 

These are companies who makes their own boxes, drawers and drawer fronts. They have their own kniving machines that router out the edges of the doors to give you different style options. You can get custom heights, widths and depths.

5. Cabinet maker

Next is a cabinet maker who comes to your house and builds them custom for you.

6. Amish craftmanship

These would probably be the highest quality you can get.

Conclusion

At Kopke, we order Level 4 cabinets from companies such as R.D. Henry & Co. and that is a big reason why our Kitchens are able to be fully customized to your needs and design style. And why the quality will last the test of time!

A Beautiful Kitchen Before & After in Milford

Last week, I was invited to this beautiful home in Milford, Michigan that Mr. & Mrs. V. had completely custom built for themselves. It was just gorgeous, every detail! We were lucky enough to get to work with them on designing their kitchen.

Mr. V. had contacted us through the Custom Cupboards website. He had done some research, and knew these were the right cabinets for him. We designed the kitchen with him, using these beautiful grey cabinets as the starting point.

Below you will see the Before & After photos of this kitchen transformation:

Here is a close-up of the backsplash, granite counters & cabinets:

I love the design elements that the homeowners brought to this space- most especially the wooden beams on the ceiling and this light fixture:

Custom Cupboards is the brand we sell most often – they are of the utmost quality and style, and can be completely customized to fit your design and functionality needs. You may not have known, but most cabinets only come in standard sizes and depths, which can be very limiting to the design possibilities.

Want to see what your house could look like with a custom kitchen? Have our designers sketch up a 3D rendering! Want to see more photos of this beautiful kitchen? Hop on over to Houzz.com. See you next time!

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