Majjie's Blog

I've been talking to kitchen suppliers recently and have visited a few cabinetmakers to talk about the sorts of kitchen they can make. I've always been a bit sniffy, in the past, about cabinets (carcasses) and painted doors made out of pine ... but I'm beginning to change my mind ... I think!

I wrote a blog some time ago, called All About Walnut ... because there were so many different colours and appearances for both real and pretend walnut ... and came to the conclusion that it was all very confusing. Well - exactly the same could probably be said about pine. I've already come across several different sorts of pine, in my designing career, but my recent research unearthed some strange statements, such as: "Southern yellow pine is a typical redwood" and "white pines are soft and yellow pines are hard" ... but isn't pine a softwood?

knotty pine

Many upmarket kitchen suppliers don't use pine - they use birch ply or mdf for cabinets - and tulipwood (a hardwood) for painted doors. That's because pine has some disadvantages:

1. it tends to have a lot of resinous knots - which affect the smoothness of the finish - and the resin can bleed through paint
2. pine is more prone to movement than hardwoods are - with changes in the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air 
3. it's a relatively soft wood, prone to denting and damage (and - in case you think that's a self evident statement - let me point out that soft balsa wood is technically a hardwood!)
4. pine needs to be treated with preservative, before staining or painting, if it's likely to be exposed to damp (but that's mainly relevant for outdoor use) or termites (not likely in the UK!).

There's more than one sort of pine, though. Pine is, indeed a softwood, but the timber trade talks about soft or white pines ... and then hard pines, also known as yellow pines, pitch pines and redwoods. 

Whitewood (white softwood), or spruce, or deal, comes from the tree species Picea (in the family Pinaceae). There are two main species; Picea sitchensis (Sitka spruce) which is the main commercial tree grown in the UK (although not originally a native - it comes from North America) and Picea abies (the Norway spruce) which is very similar. The fir tree, Abies alba, is also used to produce timber called whitewood, white deal or silver fir ... and there are some true pines which produce what is known as white or soft pine, such as Pinus sibirica (the Siberian pine). Whitewood is very cheap ... but not suitable for good quality furniture.

Douglas fir is not a true fir in spite of it's name (the firs are all Abies spp) - it comes from the tree Pseudotsuga menziesii - a false hemlock. The timber from the Douglas fir is very strong, though, and I've heard it recommended for furniture by at least one cabinetmaker. (It's also known as British Columbian pine, Columbian pine and Oregon pine).

The harder pine timbers generally come from true pine species - the genus Pinus. There's American Southern yellow pine (or American pitch pine, longleaf pine, Carolina pine, Southern pine, pitch pine or longleaf pitch pine) which comes mainly from Pinus palustris but also from some other species ... which is different from Western yellow or Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) ... but both are strong timbers and very resinous.

Then there's Canadian yellow pine or Quebec yellow confusingly also known as Eastern white pine. It comes from the tree Pinus strobus and is known for being more stable than other pines with fewer knots and less resin - although it's also the softest of the pines. It's used in this country for pine doors for kitchens, and for free standing pine furniture ... real pine finishes, in other words, rather than painted furniture.

Marpatt's Antique Pine kitchen door is, I believe, made from Canadian yellow pine
(but don't quote me on that!) - it's a classic door that's been around quite a few years.
The white ceramic handles date this picture - but imagine it with some contemporary
handles and it would still make a good looking kitchen

The type of pine that seems to be used the most, for high quality kitchens, is Scandinavian redwood (also known as European redwood, Russian pine or Swedish pine ... or, indeed, Scots pine - when it's grown in the UK) all of which come from the species Pinus sylvestris. It's a slow growing tree producing wood with a tight grain and higher density than whitewood pines, making it inherently more stable and less likely to warp or twist. Most of the wood is ethically grown too.

I also came across another pine recently ... one that I hadn't seen before ... called radiata (from Pinus radiata or Pinus insignis). It's also known as Monterey pine. It's a fascinating story. As it's name suggests, Monterey pine comes from a small area of California where the tree doesn't, now, grow very well at all. It was only when some trees were exported and grown in temperate climates in other countries, that it was recognised as an extraordinarily fast growing tree, suitable for producing timber. It's now the dominant timber plantation tree in New Zealand and is also widely grown in Australia, South Africa and Chile.

radiata pine

Because it's so fast growing and has been selected to reduce knots (fewer branches), the wood has a fine straight grain, without the characteristic swirling pattern of a lot of pine wood. It's very stable - for pine - holds screws and nails very well, and also accepts stains and finishes well ... making it suitable for staining in imitation of other, more expensive timbers, such as walnut or cherry ... as well as for paint finishes.

So why should you consider pine for your kitchen. Well it's advantages are:

1. it's cheap
2. it's cheap ... no, I'm not being facetious (well not very) ... that's the main reason for using it. You can get a handmade, bespoke kitchen at a much more affordable price, if it's made from pine. Just make sure it's one of the good pines - and not a really cheap but inferior whitewood. And if it's a really good quality, bespoke kitchen with a stained or painted finish - then don't expect it to be very cheap!
3. it's also easy to work with - but that's more of an advantage for the cabinetmaker than the end user
4. it's easy to find sustainably sourced pine
5. a lot of traditional small cabinetmakers have used pine for their furniture for years. It tends to be the newcomers who use the MDF, the birch ply and the tulipwood. Pehaps that's because the traditional guys know their wood and select exactly the right pine for the job!