Selecting wood for specific finishes?

[klousiajp@gmail.com]

I'm a bit afraid that I might be banned outright for considering this, but I'll do it anyway.

I've been tasked with building a wall cabinet (a couple of drawers, a shelf, cubbies) that my wife wants painted white. I'm working on changing her mind but need some advice on a wood that would finish nicely but won't cost $28 a board foot in case I decide to pick a different battle and just paint the thing.

My initial thought was to just go with poplar and maybe do the draw fronts with some exotic like purpleheart. I'm worried that a finish on the poplar wouldn't look good enough to actually sway her and might do damage in the long run. At the same time I'm not real excited to buy a bunch of quarter-sawn white oak or some spalted maple only to slap a couple of coats of latex on there and call it a day.

Any suggestions? How have you guys talked clients down from the paint ledge?

[Vic]

Buy a small piece of some nice wood, put a nice finish on it and let her see what wood can look like. If she still opts for paint, you wont be out much. Even straight red fir is beautiful and not very expensive.

[reforzar]

There are some battles not worth fighting. I have bought poplar to paint it. It takes the paint well and the wood isn't super expensive.

[thewoodwhisperer]

Can you get some alder? Alder can be pretty cheap and looks a heck of a lot better au natural than poplar does. Bit of a catch-22 here eh? You don't want to use an expensive wood just to cover it up, but the real cheap woods probably won't convince her. So my vote is alder.

[petersb]

I'm a bit afraid that I might be banned outright for considering this, but I'll do it anyway.

I've been tasked with building a wall cabinet (a couple of drawers, a shelf, cubbies) that my wife wants painted white. I'm working on changing her mind but need some advice on a wood that would finish nicely but won't cost $28 a board foot in case I decide to pick a different battle and just paint the thing.

My initial thought was to just go with poplar and maybe do the draw fronts with some exotic like purpleheart. I'm worried that a finish on the poplar wouldn't look good enough to actually sway her and might do damage in the long run. At the same time I'm not real excited to buy a bunch of quarter-sawn white oak or some spalted maple only to slap a couple of coats of latex on there and call it a day.

Any suggestions? How have you guys talked clients down from the paint ledge?

What color of paint is she wanting????

You could use a dye to color the wood or the finish and have the grain show through. Even if she wants white, you could do a whitewash look also and still show off the wood.

Just some thoughts.

[AceHoleInOne]

Here is a table I made years ago from poplar (note the green heart and white sap wood) stained with a plain oil stain. I had since chemical striped, then used an NGR dye and oil stain to replicate a "cherry" type color.

If you go with quality finishing products, they will do a good job for you. But I must caution you, these results were achieved using spray equipment.

-Ace-

[klousiajp@gmail.com]

Thanks for all of the advice. I'll see what I can come up with. Wish me luck.