What is Oak is not Cherry

Customers often mistake a wood's color for it's wood type.  For instance, a lot of people think the following piece is cherry because of it's reddish color:

From Out Country Hearts Furniture Website

However, this is not the case.  This large dresser with dual armoire top is actually made out of solid oak and stained with a popular color called "Harvest".

As the photo below show, oak has a very heavy grain, while cherry's is much finer and wavier.

Oak on the left.  Cherry on the right.

As my January 9th blog post shows, oak can be stained an enormous number of different colors.  The same is true for cherry.

Here are two American-made chest of drawers that arrived at Our Country Hearts for customers:

Can you tell which one is cherry?  And which one is oak?

Look closely at the grain and you can tell that the one on the left is cherry, while the one on the right is oak.

Complicating matters even more is the fact that there are many different species of each tree and each species will have it's own unique characteristics.  At the moment, most of the oak furniture at Our Country Heart's is made from Red Oak.