"blueman" wrote in message
...
Looking for suggestion for a durable stain grade wood for bathroom
vanity top. The bathroom is shared by 4 kids so it gets a fair bit of
use and abuse, including all the usual soap scum, toothpaste, water
puddles, etc.

For durability, I plan to clear-coat the top (after staining) with
several thin layers of West System Epoxy resin & 207 special coating
hardening.

Since I need to stain the top quite dark to match the existing vanity, I
imagine that the character of the wood is less important than durability
and suitability for the bathroom environment.

My initial thought was to use either cherry or white oak -- and was
leaning towards white oak since it is harder and a little less expensive
though perhaps cherry will be prettier(?). My sense is that cheaper
woods like pine or poplar even if I could get away with them due to the
dark stain color, would be too soft.

I'm willing to get a reasonably priced wood since most of the true
"cost" will be my labor, but since it is a kids bathroom and since the
vanity itself is nothing special, I don't want to go crazy on fancy or
exotic species.

Any thoughts?

Hard Maple is really durable, but it doesn't soak up much stain. Poplar is
too soft, but have you checked out Birch, some grades look good and are
better than the softer woods. Beyond that are some of the tropical woods,
hard to work with, hard to destroy.