Kitchen Cabinet Trends: Embracing the Beauty of Oak Cabinets Once Again

Are oak kitchen cabinets making a big comeback in 2024? I say yes and in this video I will show you why I think oak deserves a second look. In this video we will take a good look at oak as a beautiful and durable wood choice for kitchen cabinets. I hope to debunk the negative connotation associated with oak in the past and how it has evolved to be an excellent choice for kitchens. Stay ‘till the end as I will show you a few ways to pair oak to make your new kitchen standout. Let's dive in!.
Now, let's address the elephant in the room - the negative connotation associated with oak cabinets from the building boom of the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. During that time, oak was overused and became synonymous with an outdated and cookie-cutter aesthetic. However, times have changed, and oak has undergone a transformation that has revived its reputation.
Cabinet manufacturers like Shiloh Cabinetry, have become creative with their oak offerings and offer oak with different sawn options like rift cut, quarter swan, and flat sawn. Each of these cuts intensifies the grain giving the wood a unique appearance. Let’s take a closer look at a few samples in my showroom ‪@waysidekitchens‬ from ‪@shilohcabinetry‬ Let’s also review the finish options by ‪@shilohcabinetry‬ as I think that they have a wonderful selection of stain colors that are beautiful, fresh, and a good choice for many design styles. You'll find a range of options that highlight the wood's natural character.
Oak with whitewash, rift cut oak in Braun, quarter sawn white oak in natural,
Oak has long been renowned for its durability and strength, making it a fantastic choice for kitchen cabinets. Its sturdy nature ensures that your cabinets will withstand the test of time, even in the busiest of kitchens.
I enjoyed making this video discussing some of the many possibilities to create a lovely kitchen with oak cabinets as a two tone kitchen or a whole kitchen created with this beautiful wood that deserves a second look.
As always we thank you for watching and ask you to contact us for further assistance with your kitchen. We are your source for beautiful kitchens in Massachusetts.
I’m Mary Regan! I wear many hats- Kitchen designer, a mother, wife, stepmom, pet mom, actress (ha,ha), video producer, graphic designer, editor, and business owner to name a few. This channel is about kitchens and home remodel. We offer tips, insights, inspiring ideas, and behind the scenes look into my amazing career of making kitchens beautiful. I have been blessed with wonderful clients who put their trust in my hands to transform their houses into a sanctuary to call home. I don't transform these kitchens alone. I have an amazing husband and business partner who is my best friend and counselor. You might catch him on a few of our videos. I think he is beginning to like being in the videos. I recently hired Jackie who is so sweet and a wonderful assistant. I see the potential in her to become not only my right hand, but a very good kitchen designer. She is a wonderful addition to our team. She forces me to take a lunch break as I often forget to eat (ha,ha). My subcontractors are very good too and feel happy to be a part of the team.
If you are in Massachusetts or New England and are looking to remodel your kitchen, I hope you call me to help you design the kitchen of your dreams. I welcome you to visit my showroom in Littleton, Massachusetts or book your in-home consultation. Feel free to subscribe, like, share, and comment. I release a new video every week, so make sure to hit the subscribe button so you won’t miss out on any of the fun. I appreciate the love as I work hard to become your favorite kitchen designer in Massachusetts and beyond.
Take care,
Mary
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[@michaelkagan6910]

My wife and I have actually been looking at Riff Cut White Oak for our upcoming kitchen renovation in the spring.

[@MediumKatie]

I love oak! I must be the only person that refused to get rid of all the gorgeous wood in my home. Natural is always gorgeous.

[@Rflower1]

The video wasn't very helpful because the examples were shown too quickly.

[@tamiz8895]

Bought a home that’s a time capsule from the 80s (side note, I’m 55). Personally, I am glad that it wasn’t remodeled. It has top of the line fixtures for that time and golden oak cabinets in the kitchen (there’s also a bar with mirrors and a golden oak cabinet 😂). The cabinets are in v good shape for their age, I will most likely sand and re-stain bc they have aged so well. Maybe cut out a couple of panels and put glass in some. Just the orangey tint that looks dated and hardware is easily replaced or omitted altogether.

[@TeslaRules1856]

We have wonderful oak floors and oak doors in natural stain in our kitchen and dining area This oak adds a nice touch to the white/blue cabinets we have.

[@Sally-ih6ls]

Slides were too fast, couldn’t get a good look at the colors

[@speechteachfromPA]

Thank you for this video! We recently bought a beautiful home with 90s custom built oak cabinets in the kitchen. The cabinets are gorgeous, but scream the 1990s. I am planning to try to tone down the yellow-orange tone with white wash stain and add some new hardware, lighting fixtures and a new faucet instead of painting the cabinets, and your video helped me to make this decision.

[@marjorieondine9322]

In my humble opinion oak is an ugly wood. The unbelievable ugly trend of the 1990s was a kitchen tragedy with those oak cabinets.

[@bradleymasson1777]

I'm a cabinetmaker in Minnesota. The trend here for many years has been mission-style cabinets with a painted finish. In the more outlying rural areas, they still want red oak cabinets. I do see customers wanting to mix things up a bit. Did a kitchen with mostly white dove uppers and floor to ceiling cabinets, and the island and base units out of wenge. Starting another project soon, again, uppers will be painted and base cabinets will be rift-sawn white oak. White oak is popular now and getting expensive.

[@yushi911]

Love the whitewash oak. I believe that a more neutral backsplash will be great like two finish or two tones white cream tile. I saw a lot of photos of kitchen where the backsplash tiles itself is stunning but add on a big wall, it become very busy. Not that pleasant especially if you have a colored cabinets.

[@bruh_hahaha]

cool. I’ll tell my grandma to save that $20K and leave her kitchen alone. 😎

[@jesussaves7973]

I knew they would!! Glad I kept mine

[@melissahouse3488]

Hello there! 🙋🏼‍♀️ I live in Massachusetts too! In fact, when i saw the snow blow out your window i thought it felt like home! When you shared you are in Mass i was delighted you are close and that explained why it somehow felt familiar to me even just from a window view. I replaced my peninsula top and counters, they are so pretty now!!! Total transformation!!! What was wonderful was that the company which was out of Westfield Massachusetts, turned out to be a teaching contractor, so they teach construction at the trade high school and they did an amazing job with shockingly affordable price!!! They can do it all. Now my cabinets, which is why im here. Refacing is too expensive. Even painting costs a small fortune. My peninsula i started painting not knowing any better. I have a sort of plan for that. A professional wallpaper man is going to wallpaper the bar side, and two sides. So ill apply the neutral pale taupe after prepping, or worse comes to worse remove the doors and put curtains. It's a marvelous unit, OLD, on the highest peak bordering VT & NY. It's GLOOMY almost always, it's grey here nearly all the time. Light, bright shine lifts mood and sells!!! It's been proven in studies. My walls are the most beautiful sea salt pale grey, open concept condo, high raised ceilings with exposed beams classical built structure, very old series of homes converted to condominiums. My counters are luna winter, a sparkly cream & peninsula top i chose white barn, a mat white with tiny bits of "grain" mimicing a birch wood, i wanted light coloring to brighten the place and you couldn't have gotten better results than those!!! I've won some & lost some! I'm great with paper projects, Slavic people tend to like wallpaper because i grew up with it and paints weren't available in my mother's country. I'm not good with painting projects! Neither of my paint projects satisfied me fully or just went bad! I wouldn't mind buying new doors for the top front, i have four large top cabinets. But i just don't know what to do with the rest, it's all that orangy-brown (ugly!) outdated cabinets you featured in the video. Straight from 1990! 🫣😦😵 I'm at a loss of what to do with them anymore. They darken an already dark unit. They aren't in bad shape other than my scratches from my light sanding, I'm looking to apply Refinish-a-Surface, or help them since we never went through with painting them. I gave up after the way the peninsula was turning out. I thought your video would be providing tips on how to make the shinier, glossy, deal with scratches, imperfections, how to beautiful them since i don't think any stains lighten or neutralize. I was a little confused by your video. I like the look of wood if it's done right, in a modern way. Such as wood with a light coat of white stain over it, so im not anti-wood and in fact i have turned against the look of completely covered up paint or attempting it. It's very expensive and won't cover the wood which im fine with but why bother with the expense then? I've been told the orangy tone will eventually show through again, which im hoping i won't be here anymore by that point but i think all i wanted to do was neutralize the tone or play down the orange brown, it has an old dark look that doesn't help the giant open gloomy room and the kitchen is the first thing you walk into. I love the look of wood though and wish there was a solution to my dilemma. It was not a good buy and we are very hesitant to blow thousands painting or staining through the pro we contacted. I am thinking at this point to just find ways to help the scratches and clean/gloss it with new hardware. They kind of ruin a modern facelift with modern sink, after what ive been through i think i hate cabinets. They are really not my friend. It's one of many regrets buying this place. It was in our offer to paint the cabinets because the guy who owned it suggested it to us in an excited way. Our request got blown off, my agent never submitted it and i didn't find out until closing. That was just the start of the endless nightmare. I don't want to get too off track, but if you have any advice please let me know?

[@abhelix]

We have always loved oak for our cabinets and trim. Our last home had oak cabinets, oak floors with granite in the bathrooms & laundry room and granite for the basement floors, mahogany doors, granite countertops and oak trim. We had so many compliments on our home. We didn't do the honey color - more reds and naturals. We are currently building another home and it will have oak cabinets, ceramic tile that looks like marble on all flooring, mahogany doors, granite countertops and of course, oak trim once more. I think that oak and granite are very timeless finishes. 🙂

[@rsky812]

Would you know what the green color is at

[@DisMindy5767]

My husband will be very happy to hear this news. My best friend keeps trying to tell us that we need to paint our oak kitchen cabinets to update it. We want to sell in a few years. He is against painting natural materials such as wood cabinets and brick. The only thing I really dislike is the "picture of wood" side panels on the cabinets and the back and sides of the kitchen island. I don't know what to do about that. I have Bruce hardwood floors in gunstock on the entire first floor. My kitchen table is also oak.

[@patriciagouveia4888]

We are planning to update our kitchen and would consider using our existing custom honey oak cabinets if they could be stained to a different oak tone. Is this possible? The cabinetry is 35 years old and most cabinets are in good condition. Thank you for your video!

[@Readspaidsubscription]

Hi! I’m here because I want to strip the paint from some of my oak cabinets and I’m deciding if I want to keep the top oak and paint the bottom a beige, or the other way around!

[@FXAllThingsFun]

honestly love white and oak combination for cabinets. Thinking backslash with a very subtle green-ish tone would pair nicely

[@trinapenno6554]

My oak cabinet are to dark for me can I use a lighter gel on top to lighten them? I have the ugly arch cabinets