Cabinet Wood Species Compared: Maple, Oak, Cherry, Walnut, Alder and Hickory

If your cabinets will be stained or clear-finished, the species is the look: the grain, the color and the way both change over the years. If they will be painted, the species matters for a different reason, which is how smooth the surface stays under the paint. This page compares the six woods most often offered for kitchen cabinets and explains what the hardness numbers do and do not tell you.

The six species side by side

Hardness figures are side hardness at 12 percent moisture content from the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook (2021 edition, Table 5-3b). The handbook describes the test as a modified Janka test: the load needed to embed a 0.444-inch steel ball to half its diameter. A higher number means the wood resists denting better.

The cost column is the usual order within one cabinet line, and it shifts with the lumber market and with the grade and cut you choose. The Wood Handbook lists several hickories; shagbark is shown here, and pecan hickory, often sold with it, is listed at 1,820.

What hardness does and does not tell you

On this scale hickory resists a dent about three times as well as alder. That is a real difference on the lower drawer fronts of a busy kitchen, where a dropped pan or a toy truck leaves a mark in alder that it would not leave in maple or hickory.

It tells you nothing about scratches in the finish, water damage, or how the cabinet is put together. A cabinet door is protected by its coating, and the coating is what wears first. The differences between coatings are covered in cabinet finishes explained. Hardness matters far more underfoot, which is why the same table is used in hardwood floors in the kitchen.

The numbers are averages. The handbook's values come from tests on clear, straight-grained samples, and individual boards vary.

Grain: open, closed and how the log is cut

Oak and hickory are open-grained: the pores are large enough to see and feel, and they take up stain strongly, which gives the pronounced pattern people either like or want to avoid. Maple, cherry and alder are close-grained and read as smooth. Walnut sits between.

The way the log is sawn changes the pattern as much as the species does, especially in oak:

• Plain-sawn boards show the arched "cathedral" grain associated with older oak kitchens.
• Quarter-sawn boards are cut so the growth rings meet the face at a steep angle. The grain is straight, and in oak the rays appear as ribbon-like flecks. The Wood Handbook notes that quarter-sawn oak is distinguished by its broad and conspicuous rays.
• Rift-sawn boards are cut to give straight, tight lines with little or no fleck. Rift white oak is the straight-grained look common in current modern and Scandinavian kitchens.

Rift and quarter-sawn cuts produce less usable lumber from each log, which is why they cost more. They also move less across their width with changes in humidity than plain-sawn boards do. The Wood Handbook treats quarter-sawn width shrinkage using radial values, which are lower than the tangential values used for plain-sawn stock.

Color change is part of the choice

All wood changes color with light and time, and a clear finish slows it without stopping it. Cherry is the dramatic case. A new cherry kitchen is a light pinkish tan and deepens to a rich reddish brown, fastest when the wood is new and in the sunniest part of the room. An object left in one spot on a cherry shelf will leave a pale shadow for a while. Walnut goes the other way and lightens. Maple and pale finishes on any wood yellow gradually, more under oil-based coatings than waterborne ones.

Two practical points follow. Judge a species from an aged sample if the showroom has one. And if you plan to add cabinets later, expect new doors not to match until they catch up.

Which woods suit paint and which suit stain

• Painted finish: hard maple, soft maple, birch and yellow-poplar are the usual paint-grade woods because their grain does not telegraph through. Oak can be painted, but the open pores show as texture unless they are filled, which some people choose on purpose.
• Stained, where you want pronounced grain: red oak, white oak and hickory.
• Stained or clear, where you want quiet grain and warm color: cherry, alder and walnut.
• Clear and pale: maple and white oak, with a waterborne finish if you want to limit yellowing.

The wider comparison of the two approaches is in painted vs. stained kitchen cabinets.

What to check before you choose

• Look at a full sample door in your species and finish, in your own kitchen's light, at different times of day.
• Ask what grade of lumber the line uses and how much color variation, mineral streaking and sapwood it allows. In hickory, walnut and cherry this changes the look more than anything else.
• Ask which parts are solid wood and which are veneer, and whether the veneer is the same species and cut.
• For oak, ask for the cut by name: plain-sawn, rift or quarter-sawn.
• Ask how end panels, fillers and crown are matched, since they come from different stock than the doors.
• If you are painting, ask about the frame species and the center panel material.

Who should choose which

• A painted kitchen: maple or another paint-grade wood. Paying for cherry or walnut under paint is wasted money.
• A warm traditional kitchen at a moderate cost: alder or cherry, accepting that alder dents more easily.
• A modern wood kitchen: rift white oak or walnut, usually as veneer on slab doors. See cabinet door styles.
• A hard-wearing family kitchen with visible grain: oak or hickory, in a mid-tone stain that hides wear.
• A rustic or cabin look: hickory or knotty alder.

How wood cabinets sit with floors and other materials is covered in wood kitchens and in mixing wood tones.

Where to go next

Species is chosen alongside door style, construction and finish; the overview of kitchen cabinets shows how the decisions connect. If you would like to compare sample doors with someone who installs them, JDI Construction offers a free in-home consultation. Start on our Vancouver kitchen remodeling page.