What types of wood are best for beginner projects?

For a beginner, simply taking on a DIY project can be daunting.  Then you walk into the store which can have massive displays of all different kinds of lumber, and it can be down-right overwhelming.  Have no fear! Below are the commonly found lumber types and why they will or won’t work for your project!

Pine – Pine is the likely the most common lumber you can find, and is likely the cheapest option, however, pine doesn’t generally stain well, so it’s not ideal to use for projects that require staining.  It’s also softer than most other woodworking lumbers, so is easily dinged/dented.  If that is the look you are going for (rustic), pine is a great option.

Red Oak – For this price point, I tend to like red oak the best.  It’s durable and has good color whether your polishing or staining, with reddish-brown tones.  Red oak is also very common, and can be easily found at most hardware stores.

Ash – Like Oak, Ash is durable and has moderate grain texture, but is generally a much lighter color wood, with gray tones.  Ash is also commonly found at most hardware stores.

Maple – I like to think as maple as a good middle-ground between Red oak and Ash as far as coloration goes. It tends to be lighter than oak, but darker than ash and is generally more uniform in color (not a lot of grain texture).  It isn’t as hard as oak, so it’s easier on tools when cutting, but still hard enough to be durable for woodworking projects, and it also takes stain well.  This would be my favorite, but my personal preference is to have a lot of wood grain texture, so for that I like using Oak more.  Again, maple is commonly found at most hardware stores.

For a bit more money, you can also try:

Walnut – This is also one of my personal favorites.  It can have a lot of grain texture, including some that are multi-toned, and generally you can simply polish it and bring out it’s natural beauty (see my walnut floating shelf).  If preferred, it also takes stain well and is durable.  It might not be as common as the ones above, but it shouldn’t be hard to find either.

For a bit of a higher price point there is:

Mahogany, and cherry, which are generally used for finer woodworking projects.   These are beautiful options for furniture builds, but I would recommend getting practice with some cheaper options before using these for woodworking projects. 

Happy DIY’ing!