Newbie headed to lumber yard

[Steve Gronsky]

Gentlemen and Ladies,

 

I am headed off to the lumber yard in the morning to pick up the necessary wood to build my first Kreg project.  It is the small bookcase.

 

I've been to Lowes and Home Depot in search of the wood.  I found hardwood plywood in 3/4 and 1/4 sizes in Oak and Birch.  However, I can only find Red Oak, Pine, Aspen, and Poplar to use as the "face frame" material.

 

I like the look of the Birch plywood and that would be my choice.  My question is this ..... can I mix the other "face frame" woods with the birch (and will it look ok) or should I just switch to Oak for the whole project.

 

This may sound silly, but I'm not sure how each of the different woods will take the stain and I want this to look good when it's done.

 

Thanks.

[John Rice]

Each of the woods take the stain in a lot different way. If you are going with a darker color, you should be able to mix the birch and the red oak, but if you are going for a ligher color stain I would stick to the same wood thoughout the project.

[Henry Parslow]

Red oak needs a filler because of its pour's and would look noticeably different than Birch. Pine is soft and blotches when stained unless treated with a sealer. If you can not find Maple which I believe would do what you want, use the poplar but try to keep out most of the green dark wood. Poplar stains well . I use a-lot of Black Walnut in my projects, and I use the Poplar when plywood is needed because it has the grain of Walnut and takes walnut stain very good. For a better Idea of what you want to use stain up some samples to assure the match.

[Steve Gronsky]

Well, as luck would have it, I went to a different lumber yard (SUTHERLANDS) and found Birch plywood in my 2 required dimensions and also found MAPLE for all the "face frame" type stuff. And I saved about $15.00 vs. the pricing at Lowes.

That's what I purchased and I do plan to "test stain" some of my "left-over" materials to get an idea of how it will look when assembled.

Thank you all for your suggestions.