Using Wood in The Kitchen

Q: I’m thinking about using wood throughout my kitchen, but want to know how wood will affect the overall look and feel.

A: To start, wood is a great material to use for a variety of your kitchen upgrades, be it your cabinetry, flooring or countertops. You are right that the materials in your kitchen can enhance the overall feel and worth of your kitchen. You’ll also want to keep in mind that if you are using various types of wood, you should use different shades to allow for more contrast throughout your kitchen.

Here are a few questions you should think through before selecting the material and colors for your kitchen when it comes to wood:

1.     What is the particular styling you are looking for?

2.     Will the cabinets, flooring or countertop require regular maintenance?

3.     Do you expect that you will become bored or find that they are out of vogue 10 years from now?

Let’s talk about cabinetry. Your kitchen cabinets will help set the tone for the whole room. The choice of wood will influence the look of your cabinets. To create a light look, we recommend you use a light wood such as ash, beech, birch, oak, maple or chestnut. For medium range, select cherry. For a darker kitchen, choose wood that has some color to it.

Check out one of our favorites, Dahle Kitchen with its beautiful dark wood cabinets: https://liveaco.com/projects/dahle-kitchen

As for flooring, we love wood flooring for a lot of reasons. For one, wood flooring adds warmth and texture to any room, and it brings a natural, organic feel to your kitchen. Paired with white cabinets, a wood floor can create a beautiful contrast to rest your eyes on. If you’re thinking of putting a wood floor in your kitchen, you should also consider laying it throughout any adjoining rooms, and possibly even your entire first floor. This will give the effect of spaciousness and create seamless transitions when you go from room to room. As far as durability, we have plenty of recommendations of both types of wood flooring and finishes that will serve your needs and ensure that your floor can match the demands of kitchen use.

You can see one example of warm brown hard wood floors in the Clouse Kitchen: https://liveaco.com/projects/clouse-kitchen

Countertops can come in a variety of material types as well. If you do go with wood, you’ll find that they can last quite a long time and are easy to clean and repair. The downside is that some woods may not withstand excessive exposure to water or household chemicals.

To sum up, you can and certainly may want to use wood as your material for your kitchen to create an overall look and feel of warmth and positive energy. You can take a look at a few of our favorite wood-inspired kitchens here.