I know that I'm way late on this thread, but I would like to see what the OP went with.
I have found that red oak looks great painted black. I REALLY do not like red oak. I get horrible 80's flashbacks of red oak and plastic brass-looking trim. But if you take just some rattle can satin black to it and it looks great!
Here is a picture of a clock cabinet that my parents got back in the 80's in red oak. The clock didn't work anymore and we didn't want to pay to get it fixed. So we turned it into a display cabinet or shadowbox type of thing.
I like that with red oak's grain structure and open pores, you can still see that it is real wood, but that ugly red oak look is completely gone.
![Plant Window Building Wood Lamp]()
I have found that red oak looks great painted black. I REALLY do not like red oak. I get horrible 80's flashbacks of red oak and plastic brass-looking trim. But if you take just some rattle can satin black to it and it looks great!
Here is a picture of a clock cabinet that my parents got back in the 80's in red oak. The clock didn't work anymore and we didn't want to pay to get it fixed. So we turned it into a display cabinet or shadowbox type of thing.
I like that with red oak's grain structure and open pores, you can still see that it is real wood, but that ugly red oak look is completely gone.
