A kitchen upgrade is a massive and expensive yet gratifying task. It increases functionality and convenience, boosts the aesthetic appeal, and can even raise the home price if you decide to sell down the line.
While appliances and other technological enhancements are easy to pick, the situation is different with furniture.
People’s choices often boil down to stylistic preferences and the current interior design industry trend. Taking this approach, even if it means sacrificing quality, can be a costly mistake.
Excellence never went out of style, making a solid wood kitchen is one of the best choices for furniture even today. Let’s explore the features that make this material so universally valued and how you can benefit from using it for your remodel.
1) The Sturdiness
Cabinets are the kitchen’s workforce, setting the foundation for all the other components you plan on adding. As such, they require the most significant chunk of the available funds during the renovation process.
You’ll save a lot of money in the long-run by ensuring these pieces are high-quality and durable, though. You can always repaint or restyle them later for a fraction of the cost.
That’s where solid wood comes into play. This dense material is immensely durable. Unlike MDF, which consists of small wood chunks, resins, and glue, this natural substance is all about sturdiness.
It doesn’t crumble or deteriorate with age or impact damage. It isn’t that vulnerable to water ingress, either, not swelling or crumbling due to kitchen humidity. As long as you get a water-resistant coating, there won’t be any staining to worry about, either.
Finally, it’s hard to damage wood permanently. If you nick the door, for example, superficial damage is easy to sand away. Add a new coat of paint to refinish it, and your cabinet will look brand-new.
2) The Aesthetics
Wood has been a staple of interior design from the get-go, and it remains one today.
Its versatility makes it the ideal material for everything from tables to closets and cabinets, adding a warm, inviting feel to any room. Simultaneously, there’s an air of luxury and quality that any metal or industrial substance is yet to reach.
It fits with any aesthetic inclination, too. For example:
- Combine wooden furniture with warm colors to achieve a warm, familiar look in your kitchen.
- The juxtaposition of darker cabinets and gleaming stone countertops make the room seem slick and modern.
- Lighter furniture in a small, stuffy kitchen makes it appear more spacious and brighter.
Trends come and go, but quality stays a staple of any design worth the effort. Solid wood is the ideal foundation for the kitchen of your dreams. Once you have the cabinets and the countertops down, add details to personalize the space.
3) The Variety
Trees exist in numerous species, leaving you spoilt for choice. The diverse characteristics of different varieties will determine your new kitchen’s look and utility, though.
The Type
Manufacturers make a distinction between hard and soft wood. The former comes from broad-leafed trees, while woodworkers chop needle-bearing evergreens for the latter.
You get higher density from hardwood, but it’s also often more expensive because these trees grow slower. Softwood is more sustainable and eco-friendly but doesn’t offer the same sturdiness. So, consider the sustainability-durability relation when making your decision.
The Color
All trees have natural color variations, from lighter maples to the darkest cherries. If you’re striving for a natural appearance, all you need to do is add a transparent coating to enhance the tone, reduce the irregularities, and create a balanced look.
You don’t have to keep the original color if you’re going for a more playful, stylish aesthetic, though.
The Grain
The grain is an umbrella term that describes the log’s overall alignment, patterns, and textures. Finer-grain trees produce smooth and versatile materials, while rougher surfaces draw more attention to themselves.
4) The Customizability
Working with wood gives the manufacturer a lot of freedom in making the furniture piece exactly how you imagined it. Apart from the variety of shapes, depths, and sizes, cabinet makers can use a wide range of trees to build your cabinetry. Options include:
- Soft and with a subtle grain pattern, Alder is a pale pinkish-brown tree ideal for rustic designs.
- This hardwood is durable yet uniform and light, creating a slick, clean look.
- Smooth and dense, birch is quite versatile in its range of cream to yellow hues.
- Very hard and heavy, oak comes in red and white varieties, blending with multiple styles.
- The cherry tree color deepens as it ages, making the material seem unique with every passing year.
- This wood is among the strongest and heaviest materials in a wide array of shades.
Moreover, if you’re not the biggest fan of a natural look, staining it with color and gloss often does the trick. You could even paint it bright yellow – it all depends on the effect you’re looking to achieve.
5) The Value
Finally, there are good reasons to choose solid wood even if you don’t plan on spending the rest of your life in your current home.
Once you enter the housing market, you’ll soon learn that the kitchen is an essential feature informing homebuyer decisions. These cabinets last for decades, which is a huge selling point for potential future owners.
The combination of stylistic appeal and durability make wood a desirable accessory, instantly upping your home price and getting the investment to pay for itself.
Final Thoughts
Wood is a beautiful material that creates a warm, homey effect in any kitchen. At the same time, it doesn’t require heavy maintenance and frequent renovations after the initial purchase.
Although it’s a bit pricier than the alternatives, try to think of wooden cabinets as an investment. They’re there to stay for years to come. The best part is, they’ll transform with your preferences without losing the qualities that made you choose this material in the first place.
