From contributor G: Soft maple will actually absorb stain, thus making it easier to get deep colors. Or if you are looking for a more rustic look, order knotty wood doors in Maple, Cher… Therefore, if you prefer bright kitchens, choosing a lighter stain for your cabinets will ensure you maintain that open, light-filled look. Many people prefer to use soft maple over hard maple for their customized furniture because hard maple doesn’t work well with stains and isn’t as versatile when it comes to creating customized pieces. 1×2,3,4,6,8,10, and 12 inches at 3,4,6,8,10 and 12 ft lengths; Easy to paint and stain. LONG story short, yes. My shop makes kitchen cabinets as our principal business. Wood cabinets: oak vs maple. This will surely help you make a choice. See More Helpful How-To Articles If this is your first project, I highly recommend starting out with pine, and planning on a rustic or distressed painted finish. The woods are very similar but try to run a piece of soft maple through a joiner set for hard maple and the fuzz will tell the tale. Great Resistance We believed that when we asked for maple that we would automatically get the harder variety, and for obvious reasons. Soft Maple is generally around 25% softer than Hard Maple and therefore accepts stain differently. Soft maple in my opinion stains better than hard, but still blotches like crazy. Deborah Armstrong: Yes it is.Karl Yeh: It is, obviously.Deborah Armstrong: And very heavy.So, again, sometimes you might want to use a plywood if you were having very, very large cabinet doors, cause it's much lighter.It's cheaper. Silver and big-leaf maple are softer and not as dense as the harder red or sugar maple and machine more easily, but are still harder than poplar. In either case, extremely sharp, premium blades and properly aligned equipment can minimize tooling issues. Pros of Maple Kitchen Cabinets. "Hard maple" is the common term for two species of maple trees: Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and Black Maple (Acer nigrum). It was hard maple – tough and durable, the kind of stuff they make the first few feet of a bowling alley out if, not to mention the pins. We've done about 50 kitchens by now using the poplar, and I haven't seen any problem like you mention. And it goes straight from small tables to cupboards to beds. Have you ever felt raw maple vs raw poplar? To answer this question and aid in the cabinet door selection process, below is an overview of the main similarities and differences between hard maple and soft maple. The term soft maple is a bit of a comparative misnomer, as soft maple is harder than many other hardwoods (such as cherry). For both painted and stained cabinets, the maintenance is fairly easy; wipe the surface with a soft cloth to remove most debris and dust, and use a wood friendly cleaner for more stubborn stains. Durability - Maple is a strong and sturdy wood that resists scratches, dents, dings and cracks. Be sure to check out the bottom of the page to see maple kitchens for some design inspiration. If you have decided to change the look of your kitchen, then the cabinets are maybe the most important step. Hard Maple is the best wood available for paint-grade cabinet doors. Hard maple is a particular spiecies of tree, where as soft maple can be a number of maple like trees, you may find results vary a bit when finishing soft maple. Paint Grade Hard Maple. Anyone have a preference? A big concern is the white cabinetry that will be exposed closest to the cooktop splatter and how it will hold up. April 9, 2008, KnowledgeBase: Cabinetmaking: Custom Cabinet Construction, KnowledgeBase: Finishing: General Wood Finishing. On soft maple, growth rings tend to be less visible. They were in great condition, but just weren’t ma’ jam. Best offers for your Garden - https://amzn.to/2InnD0w-----How to Tell the Difference Between Hard Maple & Soft Maple Trees. So, definitely, you should give more info about what kind of furniture you are talking about. From contributor K: Soft maple will blotch with stain, more than hard maple. It does tend to be more expensive but will require less sealer or primer than the softer woods. However, we’re not friends because you enjoy my short stories… When we bought our home 4 years ago, I knew that the maple cabinets wouldn’t be sticking around for long. Maple is a very hard wood. Because, I would think for MDF, I'd want to use MDF for everything unless it's cost prohibitive. Open grain wood has a rougher look and likely needs filler to look great when painted. HomeAdvisor's Painted vs. Stained Cabinets Guide compares paint and stain for kitchen and bathroom cabinets, including pros, cons, costs, and types like gel stain or white paint. For great finishing advice refer to Bernie Bottens’ wood finishing blog at http://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/wood-blogs/fine-woodworking/custom-bernie-bottens/Blotching-A-Woodworkers-Nightmare-151897695.html#sthash.1HUESgQY.zQ7tiwEb.dpbs. When making solid wood doors you would need to make the frame around the door out of 4 pieces, and add a center panel which must be a little smaller so it can float inside the frame to compensate for any shrinking and swelling. Soft maple varieties are more comparable to birch in hardness and application than hard maple. This gray coloring makes Soft Maple a much better paint grade option than stain grade, as the streaking may show through lighter stains. Hard maple has one size of ray while soft maple has two. 1450 Hard Maple 1290 Oak 1260 Birch 950 American Cherry 950 Soft Maple 540 Poplar 380 Eastern Pine . Hard Maple is the best wood available for paint-grade cabinet doors. Common Name(s): Soft maple Botanical Designation: Not a distinct species of maple. LONG story short, yes. A few of the most common of the “soft maple” species are: Soft Maple: Scientific Name: Average Dried Weight (lbs/ft3) Bigleaf Maple: Acer macrophyllum. That is why, together with the maple cabinets, it will create not only a refreshing natural look but also a calming one. Hard maple grows more slowly, which makes the wood harder but also increases the time to harvest and makes it more costly. On these, I used hard maple, but didn't really like the color. You want your kitchen cabinets to have an elegant finish and that their looks should endure for decades. For both painted and stained cabinets, the maintenance is fairly easy; wipe the surface with a soft cloth to remove most debris and dust, and use a wood friendly cleaner for more stubborn stains. Expect a wide range of color throughout the entire order. From contributor K: The heartwood varies from light to medium reddish-brown. You can achieve this by having maple or oak used for the cabinets. Hard Maple grows more slowly than soft, so typically the grain is close together due to close growth rings, and the growth rings are more pronounced than on soft maple. You can also paint them in non-traditional colors for a uniquely-styled kitchen. The cabinet is made of some … Wrong again. It’s best to build out of tight-grain woods to avoid this. Silver maple is soft compared to sugar (hard) maple, but that isn’t saying much. Hard Maple vs. Soft Maple "Hard maple" is the common term for two species of maple trees: Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and Black Maple (Acer nigrum). Soft Maple also exhibits mineral streaking in the wood. And lighter.Karl Yeh: So, could you have, some more of the frame of the cabinet would be MDF, and then the doors would be plywood?Deborah A.: You could. The Spruce A subtle blush color like Farrow & Ball's Pink Ground is a beautiful complement to the honeyed tones of maple cabinets, and the barely there pink color will read as fairly neutral in a kitchen. We always used soft maple for painted units, but switched to poplar for financial reasons. Yeah.Most people don't use plywood though [00:02:30] for the outer part of your door. Soft maple will blotch with stain, more than hard maple. With that said, 90% of what we've built in the last year has been with soft maple. We welcome your feedback and would love to see photos of hard or soft maple projects you have completed. Find out which is better for the grade or type of wood like oak, cedar and mahogany. Soft Maple (950 on the Janka Scale) gets its name because it is less dense than Hard Maple (1450 on the Janka Scale). Painted cabinet doors often incorporate solid maple frames. White Oak and Rift White Oak are showing up in more cabinets lately and we’re loving the warm, inviting look it bri… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…, TaylorCraft’s new IE14 inside edge is a show stopper! Expect a wide range of color throughout the entire order. Maple is another popular variety of wood for kitchen cabinets. Maple Cabinets . The wood is strong, stiff and shock-resistant. Of course, it hasn't been 30 years yet, but I think that the poplar is just fine. There are two types of maple used for cabinets: soft maple and hard maple. Instead, it is a soft one. Cons: It’s a very soft wood, marks easily. General Characteristics of Soft Maple are: generally straight grained with sapwood that is light blond, sometimes with a grey cast, with occasional dark brown flecks and heartwood that varies from light to dark reddish brown. The atmosphere in there becomes subtle because of the wall tone. There are a few things that you need to consider. Stained cabinets can be washed with soap and water, while painted cabinets should not be washed with water unless the paint used is considered “washable”, otherwise you could damage the finish. Soft maple can actually be one of several species of maple with big leaf the predominant species in the Northwest, and red or silver maple on the east coast. It’s best to build out of tight-grain woods to avoid this. When you get the hang of this (which doesn't take long), you'll find it's a really pretty finish that accents rather than obscures the grain. If it dents easily it is most likely soft maple. Soft maple machines more easily and doesn’t show burn marks as much as hard maple, however it can fuzz when machined if the tooling is not really sharp, so it is not preferred by wood turners. Furthermore, some maples produce a bird’s-eye or curly wood, which is high prized for its beauty. Hard maple is commonly used in the manufacture of flooring, furniture, cabinets, billiard cues and other finished wood products. Maple vs. MDF. Maple vs. Alder Kitchen Doors. If you want to see the proof, you can check out the photo of a contemporary kitchen above. Compared to sugar (hard) maple, cherry and walnut are softwoods too. Ask Kylie: Will My Painted Maple Cabinets Really Last? 01 of 11. 2 Maple Kitchen Cabinet Finishes. Unfortunately, It’s also the most expensive of the paint-grade woods costing about 2 1/2 times the price of Soft Maple. Here are a couple of kitchens completed using TaylorCraft Cabinet Door Company’s Select Hard Maple cabinet doors for inspiration: Heide Osborn As I always say, “furniture” is a very big word. There are a number of solutions to this issue, from sanding and material selection to pre-stain conditioners or shellac. Pros: It’s cheap, and versatile ; Easy to cut, glue and has good nailing and screw holding properties; Comes in a wide range of widths and lengths. Birch Cabinets vs Maple Cabinets. Compared to birch wood, Maple wood is a stronger and denser wood type which is known to receive a wide range of stains such as dark and glossy finishes. Soft Maple is less dense than Hard Maple with similar grain and figure. I'm about to find out. The investment you'll make in your new maple wood cabinets will vary depending on the size of your kitchen. It is easier to shoot toner over either maple than to stain it. Which base material makes the best painted […] Maple is a relatively inexpensive hardwood, although bird's-eye, curly, and burl varieties can be expensive. Maple Cabinets guide goes over the pros and cons of each type of wood species and the cost you'll typically pay. Unlike hard maple, which refers to one particular species (Acer saccharum), soft maple refers to several different species of maple. We use poplar mostly. Maple lumber has a beautiful wood grain and is a popular choice for cabinets and furniture in the home. The light-colored wood is used for furniture, flooring, cabinets, charcoal and firewood. Hard Maple works well; stains and finishes nicely. Natural grade is recommended when natural color and grain variations are desired or acceptable such as when used with medium to dark stained finishes, however even with a darker finish, some color variations from stave to stave may still be visible due to variations in material composition. Soft maple (Acer rubrum), also known as red maple, silver maple and swamp maple, grows mainly in Canada and the Eastern United States and is not as heavy as hard maple. Tip: With natural colored maple, exposure to heat and UV rays will deepen its signature honey color. Poplar is a hard wood, but a soft hard wood. General characteristics of Hard Maple are: light blond in color with creamy white sapwood with a slight pinkish cast and heartwood that varies in color from tan to dark reddish brown. Normally a good clean cut with a sharp knife/razor helps this process. You can also choose from a broad assortment of specialty woods such as Alder, Bamboo, Hickory, Pine, White Oak, Red Birch, Walnut, and MDF. Pre-boring is recommended when nailing and screwing. Hard maple is commonly used in the manufacture of flooring, furniture, cabinets, billiard cues and other finished wood products. Natural grade is recommended when natural color and grain variations are desired or acceptable such as when used with medium to dark stained finishes, however even with a darker finish, some color variations from stave to stave may still be visible due to variations in material composition.. General Characteristics of Soft Maple are: generally straight grained with sapwood that is light blond sometimes with a grey cast and with occasional dark brown flecks and heartwood that varies from light to dark reddish brown. Hard maple or sugar maple trees produce a high quality timber and yield maple syrup. For a stain color, [00:03:30] and you want to see wood grain. Hard maple comes in at 1450 on the Janka Hardness Rating Scale, which puts it at the upper end, and makes it a preferred choice for flooring, baseball bats, bowling alleys, violins and butcher blocks. See How to Paint Kitchen Cabinets Avoid oak plywood; no amount of primer or paint will fill the pores in oak. They need to be durable and beautiful. I have to do some built-in cabinetry in stained maple for a client, and I don't know if hard or soft maple would be better to combine with maple plywood. A standard 10- by 12-foot kitchen equipped with top-and-bottom maple RTA cabinets can run from $2,500 to … My shop makes kitchen cabinets as our principal business. Benjamin Moore Kittery Point Green HC-119. The wood polishes well and is suitable for enamel finishes and brown tones. Through this baking process, these cabinets have the look of white painted wood but with the durability of Thermo Foil. Paint-review wood has a tendency to be of the more tightly grained assortments, for example, hard maple, soft maple, pine, and poplar, among others. You can achieve this by having maple or oak used for the cabinets. If blotching is a concern, try a light seal coat to even it out. Paint-grade wood tends to be of the tighter-grained varieties such as soft maple, hard maple, poplar, and pine, among others. Hard Maple is prized for its cream to white colored sapwood and light red-brown heartwood. What is the appeal of maple, I guess over MDF? Stained cabinets can be washed with soap and water, while painted cabinets should not be washed with water unless the paint used is considered “washable”, otherwise you could damage the finish. Deborah Armstrong: Again, yeah, you'd use maple if you want to stain. This grade is recommended when using a natural to light stain color. Natural Hard Maple will be clear of pronounced defects but will possess inherent characteristics of the species in which only the extremes will be removed. Since poplar and maple are hardwoods, they will also resist warping and shrinking, and should stand up to wear and use better than a soft wood. Wood cabinets: oak vs maple. five piece painted wood kitchen door. I would not use it for a painted product. However, from time to time, you may want to change the color of the paint or stain on items made of maple, and you'll need to know how to properly do it in order to achieve the best result. Soft maple 4/4 lumber retails on average up to $1.50/bf less than hard maple and dealers report fair … Soft maple is used for furniture, kitchen cabinets, doors, musical instruments, turnings and millwork. Open-grained wood has a rougher look and likely needs filler to look good when painted. Soft Maple is an excellent material to choose when purchasing custom furniture for your home or office. Differences Between Hard and Soft Maple Find out exactly how each maple species stacks up—and how to tell most species of soft maple apart from hard maple. First of all, soft maple and red maple are typically the same things. The wood has a fine uniform texture and is generally straight-grained, but may also include small amounts birdseye, curly or fiddleback figure. Maple is a strong and durable wood, but it is also reasonably priced. Both types are widely available and can be bought as lumber, veneer, and turning blocks. 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