IN ON THE OAK
the return to red oak
A huge design trend over the last few years has been the emergence of oak. White Oak. It is a gorgeous species, I can’t deny that, but I’m here to declare that Red Oak is still a great (and cost saving) option.
Many people are afraid to use a red oak because they immediately picture the honey oak cabinets of yesteryear, as pictured in my parents old kitchen below.
I get the hesitation. And the “Woofs of Wall Street” project was a modern kitchen remodel. I’m sure when you think of modern cabinets, you don’t immediately think of red oak.
You may think of walnut. And I do love walnut. But we had an aesthetic we wanted to achieve and a budget we needed to try to stay within. So we had the millwork sub sample the various options of wood species. Two were in the client’s budget: Red Oak and Maple. Maple has almost no grain, which seems like a good fit for a modern kitchen at first thought. But, maple can also stain very blotchy and that’s not the look we were going for. We love the look of the walnuts and white oaks, and we wanted a strong grain.
We took the samples to be stained and agreed that Red Oak was the way to go.
Things that made a huge difference in the look: the cabinets are fully inset and slab style. We made sure to have the drawers and cabinets grain matched. These details really make the design.
Before we show you the transformation, here’s a few pics of the kitchen before:
And without further ado, the modern kitchen reveal:
We hired Hidden Life Designs to custom build a dining table, matching the grain and stain.
And I think we can all agree, the results are stunning!