Kitchen Island Top Questions

[Joel H.]

I am building a Kitchen Island for a friend. He said he won't be cutting directly on the top but it will naturally be subject to liquids that could be spilled on it. He wants it to match the color of his cabinets - which I am planning on using dyes to match.

1. What do you consider the best wood to use for the top?
2. What finish do you recommend?



Pic of the color on a door.

TIA,

Joel

[Scoony]

Kind of looks like the cabinet is made from poplar.

I would use Hard Maple for the top, but I would leave the natural color, but thats my preference. If he really wants the top to match, you could use a water based dye, but you would have to seal it with a good durable top coat.

[Joel H.]

The remainder of the island is going to be poplar because he wants it painted black. Makes it simple. I agree on the natural look and I'm still going to try to talk him out of the color matching.

Hard Maple is a great choice. Is there a good darker wood that might come closer to matching his cabinets?

What topcoat/finish would work best?

Thanks, Joel

[Splinter Puller]

dye on maple will work. I just finished a kitchen where the cabinetry was maple dyed dark. It took a few light spray applications to get the tone even but it turned out great.

As far as your wood countertop. I've also had great luck dying budget white birch butcherblock. These are sold for a quarter the price of hard maple and have held up great. Birch is pretty ugly and soft so I first applied a couple wash coats of weak glue sizing to stiffen the surface. I then sanded and applied a few coats of dye. These were followed up with a few coats of waterborne poly. I used alcohol solvent dye so this is why I used satin waterborne poly. It worked great, was cheap and still looks good.

[Joel H.]

I really like the look of that peninsula top. The darker wood offsets the rest of the cabinetry. If I do color the top, I'm thinking I need cherry (reddish) and a dark brown combination of some ratio. Being an island and standing alone it won't have to perfectly match and the sheen will probably be much more subdued.

A WB poly sounds like a stable topcoat that should easy to maintain.

Thanks for your input.

Joel

[jteneyck]

If you decide on cherry for the top, you can easily stain it dark. I stained this cherry vanity to match the color sample in front of it.



The stain was a custom mix by SW of one of their BAC Wiping Stains. Great stuff. The topcoat was GF's Enduro Clear Poly.

Having said all that, I would try to convince the customer to use a wood whose natural color most closely matches what they want.

John

[Joel H.]

Good suggestion, and one I personally like. It might be much better and easier to use a wood that is already a close match and use toner/dye to bring it home. Any ideas on species that meets that criteria?

One the other hand, I like the idea of taking the picture to SW and getting them to match the color (can they do that from a picture?). Then use something like hard maple for the top. I do have some nice scraps of quarter-sawn white oak, cherry and a few others I could try the stain on too.

Thoughts?

Joel

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> He wants it to match the color of his cabinets

Are the "cabinets" shop-made or factory-made?

Then use the same wood as the cabinets. Different woods will color differently and you will have a problem matching the color.

[Joel H.]

Yes they are shop made - local cabinet shop. I'm just not sure the wood used for the doors/faceframes would make a good top for the island. I could ask though.

Joel

[woodguyatl]

A large commercial top manufacturer uses Waterlox. Not my favorite though. I have used both a post-cat lacquer (ML Campbell Krystal) and a 2-part polyurethane (both Chemcraft and ML Campbell) with excellent results. Have had a few tops out there for several years with no issues.