White Oak Kitchen Cabinets
The popularity of white oak kitchen cabinets has been steadily on the rise. With its hardness and durability, white oak is a great material to showcase the natural beauty and texture of wood. White oak is a perfect fit with the organic modern style, lighter neutral colors and the natural woods being requested for home designs and makeovers.
Why More Designers Are Choosing White Oak
- White oak is a species of oak that is lighter in tone. Being that white oak color tones can vary from whitish grays to lighter tans it pairs very well with so many other neutral colors and pallets.
- White oak is really beautiful. It has a subtle but noticeable woodgrain that adds a ton of character to a kitchen. With its light color and clean lines, white oak can go modern, traditional, or anywhere along the way. It’s truly one of the most versatile cabinet materials.
- You want tough? You got it! White oak is extremely tough. It can handle the wear and tear of heavy cooking and the tough use of daily family life. So you don’t have to worry about scratching and dinging your doors and drawers when you make dinner!
- White oak has a Janka hardness rating of 1360, which falls in the medium range for American hardwoods. The Janka scale measures a wood's resistance to dings, scratches, and dents by determining how much force is needed to embed a steel ball halfway into a piece of wood. Red Oak, the most common wood used for cabinets, is slightly softer than White Oak at a rating of 1290!
- This isn’t white oak’s first rodeo. Woodworkers and craftsmen have been using white oak for years. Long before there were influencers there were cabinet makers using white oak to craft beautiful kitchens. It looked great then and it will look great years from now.
White Oak For Any Cabinet Door Style
The crisp and clean look of white oak makes it a great choice for virtually any style of cabinet door or drawer front. The straight, linear-looking grain patterns gives the warm organic feel of natural wood that is also uniform and balanced.
Rift sawn or Quarter sawn white oak? The Cut Makes The Difference
If you’re looking for straight, linear-looking grains in your natural wood cabinets, you might be looking for quarter sawn or rift sawn white oak. There are three ways a log can be milled into lumber: plain sawn, quarter sawn and rift sawn.
Quarter sawn and rift sawn oak both offer straight grain patterns and are very similar but have a few differences that set them apart.
White Oak Cabinets: Types Of Cuts
Rift Sawn
- Has the straightest grain pattern than other grades of white oak
- Has less color variation than other grades of white oak
- Less common milling method due to the amount of waste produced
- Usually more expensive due to increased waste
- The most stable type of lumber cut (no twisting, warping or cupping)
- Linear grain pattern on board face with no flecking and minimal variation
Quarter Sawn
- Has a straighter grain variation that plain sawn white oak
- Is known for its “flecking” that is due to the angle of how it is cut
- This flecking usually creates greater variation in grain pattern
- Usually less expensive than rift sawn
- More stable than plain-sawn, not quite as stable as rift sawn (almost no cupping)
Plain Sawn
- Has coarse to medium-coarse grain texture
- Usually contains small, linear pores which makes it a good candidate for staining
- Usually features more color and grain variation as well as small knots
- Produces the widest boards with the least amount of waste
- Typically the most cost effective cut of white oak
Refacing your cabinets with Rift Sawn white oak
Refacing your cabinets with white oak is a cost effective way to bring home the white oak kitchen you have been dreaming of. If you are looking at dramatically changing the look of your kitchen or bath, refacing your cabinets with white oak could be a great option. Since you will only be replacing your cabinet doors, you can achieve the beautiful look of the natural white oak but will only pay a fraction of the cost.
Explore White Oak Cabinet Options With Xpress!
If you are exploring refacing your kitchen cabinets with quarter sawn or rift-sawn white oak, Xpress Cabinet Doors has you covered. Whether you know exactly what you want or need a good cabinet coach, we’re here to help.
Explore all of our white oak cabinet options online or give us a call at (877) 344-8548.
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