# Poplar, Oak or Pine?



## JQMack

I'm about to begin my most ambitious WW project to date - a loft bed for my son. I'm planning on the bed (duh), steps and storage underneath.

I'm stuck on the lumber, looking at oak, pine or poplar. I have concerns about Pine being a little soft. Oak is the most expensive and I've heard mixed things about staining poplar. And part of the project will be plywood panels, so how am I going to match stain and finish colors without using the same wood in both?


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## joek30296

You could use oak plywood and solid oak, both available at the BORG. Should stain and finish nicely.
Just my 2 cents.

Joe


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## mattk8715

Depends on your prefereance. I'm not a huge fan of oak personally, but a lot of people are. Pine is soft. 

Don't get your hardwood from HD, Lowes, or Menards; it's to pricey. Find a hardwood distributor (like Woodcraft) near you and it will be cheaper and you'll have tons more options. For a starter project, Birch would be a good choice. Get the Birch hardwood from a distributor, and some cabinet grade birch ply at one of the big 3.

Just my $0.02 :thumbsup:


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## knotscott

Of those 3 choices, I'd go with oak....pine is soft, and most of the poplar around us has those snot green/yellow streaks through it (it's good for painting, but is hard to make attractive IMHO). Ash, alder, maple, and birch are all decent alternatives.


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## Dave Paine

I am with Matt, if you have a real hardwood distributor, you will find a lot more options.

The plywood at HD, Lowes, etc. will have very thin surface veneer. Very easy to sand through.

Pine is too easily dinged. I just finished some shelves for a friend. They wanted inexpensive, so I made from pine. I swear that they got dinged at times just by looking at them.

Poplar also dings easily.

Why not consider contrasting woods. I like to do this.

I love light and dark, example, white oak and black walnut, or hickory and black walnut.

I also prefer to use the natural colours of the wood. Here is a picture to illustrate.

I prefer to make smaller items like these boards rather than bigger furniture.

Top and bottom are black walnut oriented to display the end grain.
Left and right sides were scrap pieces of mahogany.
Center slab is cherry. Newly sanded. Likely to be darker now. This is likely 2 years old.

Decorative stripe was offcut from another project.


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## Steve Neul

If it were me I would go with oak. Pine is a softwood however poplar is a soft hardwood. There is really not much difference in the strength between pine and poplar. Then poplar is better painted. The color of the wood runs from white to green to black and unless you can select some boards of consistant color it won't stain very well.


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## cabinetman

joek30296 said:


> You could use oak plywood and solid oak, both available at the BORG. Should stain and finish nicely.
> Just my 2 cents.
> 
> Joe


+...I agree. Red Oak is available in solids and in the three plywood thicknesses, and all will finish similarly.









 







.


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## Woodenhorse

For long lasting furniture I prefer hardwoods such as Oak, Maple or Walnut to name a few. But I did make a toy box out of Pine about 20 years ago and it's still in great shape. Sure it has a few dings and such but those are character marks. It's really up to you.


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## BigJoe16

The wood store I love going to is really small and sells good wood cheap. He said he sells oak for 70% off lowes price. Try finding a specialty store. You can save a lot of money and get good advice.


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## JQMack

Did some stain testing last night and decided it's definitely going to be oak. Much easier to deal with than staining the Poplar, and a better final look.

But I did alter the design and found some great hardware from Lee Valley, so I think I can adjust for the increased wood costs.

Thanks for all the insight.


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