Beech Kitchen Cabinets
You have a wide variety of choices facing you when you are deciding on new kitchen cabinetry. There are different styles, finishes, and materials that you can choose from to create the new look for your remodeled kitchen. Oak and maple are popular choices, cherry provides a distinctive look, and hickory offers durability, however there are drawbacks to each of these wood options.
Cherry can be expensive and its color can fade over time, maple can be difficult to stain consistently, and hickory may not provide the coloring that you desire.
Beech wood is gaining popularity in the United States for use in cabinets. It offers benefits to the homeowner in areas that many other wood choices lack. It provides an appealing look, takes finish easily, offers fewer defects, and is competitively priced in comparison to similar materials.
Beech Kitchen Cabinetry
Beech has a similar look to hard maple, soft maple, and birch. The sapwood of beech is white with a reddish cast, while the heartwood ranges from pale to dark reddish brown. It is a uniformly colored wood that has a close-grained, fine, and even texture. The grain of the wood gives beech a distinctive look from oak and other materials.
The emergence of beech in cabinets came about with changing tastes and styles. New homeowners, seeking to distinguish their kitchen space from others, started using lighter wood choices for their cabinets. Stephanie Happer, Director of Marketing for Weyerhaeuser says, “There was a point in cabinetry here when the look became whiter and clearer. That’s when maple and then beech became important.”
The lighter, fine-grained nature of beech wood fits directly into contemporary design directions.
Finishing Beech Cabinets
Due to its close-grained pattern, beech takes finish well, making it is easy to paint, stain, or bleach. In comparison, hard maple’s grain patterns can often make finishing difficult and inconsistent.
In addition to garnering its own headlines in cabinetry, beech can also be disguised using certain finishes. According to Doug Martin, President of Sales and Marketing for Pollmeier, “Beech takes a wide variety of finishes without being obvious about the species under that finish.”
The ease of finishing and the versatility that beech offers makes it a more and more popular choice for new homeowners.
Fewer Defects
Beech also offers a material that is less likely to result is defects within the manufacturing or finishing processes. In this way, there is less of a chance of receiving a defective piece within your finished cabinets. “Board by board, it has fewer defects, from nature or induced in processing,” says Martin.
If you plan to refinish your cabinets, beech will provide wood that sands smooth and to a high polish. This is unlike other material that may splinter or tear out while being refinished.
Beech Kitchen Cabinet Prices
Even though the majority of beech is imported, it is still price competitive with other similar species of wood. The availability and quality of beech allows the price to remain low. In addition to its low price, you will be receiving a strong, dense, and easy to finish material.
Beech cabinets offer many advantages over similar wood materials. It is gaining popularity in U.S. construction as styles continue to modernize and homeowners seek for a new and distinctive look for their kitchen cabinets. Beech fits well with almost any style and can be finished to match any color pattern, making it an ideal choice for your new kitchen.