Wood Species for Cabinets: 7 Woods by Hardness and Price

The wood species for cabinets that most US cabinet shops offer are maple, oak, cherry, hickory, walnut, birch and alder. The best one depends on whether you will paint or stain, how hard the kitchen is on doors, and budget. For each species below: character from Oldenkamp Cabinets, side hardness at 12% moisture from the USDA Wood Handbook (Table 5-3b; higher resists dents better), and the 4/4 lumber price per board foot from The Wood Yard in Concord, Georgia, list updated September 2026.

• Hard (sugar) maple - fine, even grain, creamy white to light tan; strong and stable; best for paint or light stain, blotchy under dark stain. 1,450 lbf; $8.35.
• Red oak / white oak - prominent grain, golden to medium brown; takes stain very well; can look dated if not styled carefully. Northern red oak 1,290 lbf, white oak 1,360 lbf; $6.10 and $10.00.
• Black cherry - smooth grain, reddish brown that darkens with age, often left natural. 950 lbf; $6.75.
• Hickory - dramatic light-to-dark streaks, minimal staining needed, harder to machine. Shagbark hickory 1,880 lbf; $6.00.
• Black walnut - deep chocolate brown, usually unstained, shows scratches more easily. 1,010 lbf; $16.50.
• Birch - fine grain like maple, pale cream to light brown, the budget option for paint. Yellow birch 1,260 lbf; The Wood Yard lists birch only as plywood.
• Alder - soft, even grain, stains well and can imitate costlier woods, but dents more easily. Red alder 590 lbf; knotty alder $4.30.

Retail cabinet prices depend on construction and brand far more than on lumber cost, so use these numbers to rank species, not to price a kitchen.

Oldenkamp's rule of thumb: for paint, choose maple or birch, because their smooth, uniform grain disappears under paint; for stain, choose oak, cherry, alder or walnut, which take colour evenly and show their figure. The trap is dark stain on maple or birch, which tends to blotch. If you want a dark finish on a fine-grained wood, test on an offcut first; our oak vs maple page explains why the two woods take stain so differently.

Cherry and walnut change colour with time. Oldenkamp notes cherry darkens naturally, which can surprise owners who picked a light sample.

Wikipedia notes that most commercial cabinets have sides, backs and bottoms of plywood or particleboard, with solid wood mainly in doors and face frames and MDF used for shaped and painted parts. So "should I use MDF or plywood for cabinets" is really a question about the box and the painted door panels:

• Plywood handles moisture better, which matters under a sink and near a dishwasher.
• MDF is dense (standard boards about 600 to 800 kg per cubic metre) and gives a hard, flat, smooth surface that takes paint well with no grain showing, which is why painted shaker panels are often MDF. It holds screws well in the face but can split when screwed into an edge without a pilot hole, and low-grade MDF can swell and break when soaked (Wikipedia).
• Emissions. MDF and other panels made with urea-formaldehyde binders can release formaldehyde for months after manufacture; ask for panels certified to low-emission standards.

Our types of plywood page explains veneer grades and bond classes.

The three grades of cabinets usually named are stock, semi-custom and custom. Wikipedia describes stock cabinets as pre-built for fast delivery, usually a week or less, while custom-made cabinets can take four weeks or longer and are the most expensive choice; semi-custom sits between, with standard boxes and more size and finish options.

Grade names are marketing, so check construction instead. The Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association says only KCMA-certified cabinets have passed 14 tests under ANSI/KCMA A161.1, including a 600-pound load test, covering structural strength, doors and drawers, and finish durability, and that 40% to 50% of cabinets fail their first certification attempt. Face-frame cabinets have narrow hardwood strips framing the box opening; frameless cabinets drop the centre stile and use the space better (Wikipedia).

Open a door and look at the edge and the inside. A solid door shows the growth rings running through its edge; a veneered panel shows a thin face layer over a core; a printed or foil door shows no real grain. Then read the face:

Using Oldenkamp's descriptions:

• Prominent, visible grain in golden to medium brown: oak (red oak more reddish, white oak more neutral).
• Fine, even grain in creamy white to light tan: maple; similar but paler cream to light brown: birch.
• Smooth grain in reddish brown that has darkened with age: cherry.
• Dramatic light-cream to dark-brown streaks in one door: hickory.
• Deep chocolate to purplish brown: walnut; light brown with a reddish undertone, often with knots: alder.

WoodLens can name the likely species from a photo of the door face or an unfinished edge. The species pages for hard maple, black cherry, hickory and alder show what to compare against.