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Understand the Open Grain Look

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Eliminate the grain or keep the grain? Painting oak kitchen cabinets! #remodel #homerennovision

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What happens here

Begin by understanding the desired aesthetic: an 'open grain look' for your wooden surfaces, such as oak cabinet doors. This means aiming to fill in smaller imperfections and 'pinholes' in the wood grain without completely flattening or eliminating the natural profile of the grain. The objective is to enhance the wood's appearance, making it smooth and professional, but still allowing the characteristic grain to show through, unlike a completely smooth MDF-like finish. The specific product recommended for this is Rener 648 grain-filling primer, which is designed to achieve this balance.

Goal: Distinguish between an 'open grain look' and 'grain elimination' for wooden surfaces.

Tools and materials

  • Oak Cabinet Door — The surface to be finished, representing a common application for open grain finishing
  • Rener 648 Grain-Filling Primer Rener — To fill pinholes and provide a foundation for the 'open grain' finish

What they say

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So, what's the difference between eliminating the grain and an open grain look? So, I'm using a grain filling primer from Rener 648 and it fills the grain. Now, people were saying, "Oh, I can still see the grain." So, this is achieving an open grain look. We want to see the grain. We want to see the profile of grain uh cuz it's nice wood. So, we don't want to eliminate it and make it look like a piece of MDF. But what we do want to eliminate is all the pin holes and stuff that will look

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