I am looking to create a spa like feel for the bathroom. I've got store-bought premade teak accessories in areas where it's absolutely necessary, like in the shower bench & bath mat where it will get wet. But for vanity cabinet, I would like to create a similar look with less expensive wood. What would be the best combination of wood and stain to recreate the teak look?
It sounds like you are going to build the vanity cabinet. Unless you are building a very large vanity cabinet, the cost of real teak is not especially high, compared with say high grade oak or cherry. At least not where I live. I say build it out of teak if that is what you want it to look like. Teak is pretty unique, I can't visualize staining an inexpensive wood like pine to look anything like actual teak. Any tropical hardwood that looks anything like teak, say cumaru, ipe, or mahogany, is going to cost at least as much as teak per board foot.
I am looking at a year old price list from the lumberyard that I go to. Cherry $5.25BF Oak white rift and quartered $5.90
Teak $20.75 per BF!!!!!!!!!!!
Teak plywood good one side in 1/2" or 3/4" runs about $150 for a 4'x8'. That with a minimum of teak hardwood trim might be affordable. It's hard to get the teak look without the teak
I live in the Boston area. Quality black cherry hardwood runs about $8 bd ft planed, similar for walnut. Teak runs about $10 per board foot, ipe is about $8 per bd foot. A sheet of 3/4 inch cherry veneered plywood is about $115 (I just bought one), while the teak would go at least $160. So if you use quality hardwood, you cannot save a significant amount of money with anything that is close to teak in appearance. If you want to build out of pine or spruce, sure you can save money, but not hardwood. I suspect the prices are not too different in San Francisco.
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