Stained and natural wood cabinets in Wilmington

Wood is back, and it is not the nineties

The oak kitchen people remember was orange, glossy and heavily grained. What is being built now is rift-sawn white oak with a flat, almost raw finish — the grain doing the work instead of the color. They are barely the same product.

It behaves better on the coast

A stained door moves with humidity the same as a painted one, but it does not show it. Paint cracks at the joint where a five-piece door expands; stain does not telegraph the same way. For a beach house that sits empty and unconditioned, that is a real argument and the reason we recommend it more often here than a shop inland would.

What it is built from

Stained oak, maple, cherry and hickory. Species matters more than color — the same stain on maple and on hickory produces two entirely different kitchens, and that is the choice worth spending time on.

The honest trade-off

Wood cannot be touched up like paint, and it cannot be recolored later. It is the choice you make once. That is precisely why it is worth seeing the real species under your own light before anything is ordered.

Works with: honed stone, black or bronze hardware, painted islands, panelled appliances.