Wood Comparison

18 Red Colored Woods [You Didn’t Know]

There are many colors of wood, depending on the tree and depending on the type of treatments and processes it receives. Today we want to fill your day with red and talk to you about those wood classified as red colored woods because that is the natural color that the wonderful trees from which it is obtained give them.

Red wood has a great resistance to humidity, fungi and pests, and to deformations. It is generally a very dense and hard wood to work with, found in dark and reddish hues.

Let’s start loving red colored woods right now!

Red Colored Wood List
1. Cedar wood
2. Walnut wood
3. Redwood
4. Red Oak wood
5. Mahogany wood
6. Acacia wood
7. Cherry wood
8. English Yew
9. Doussié
10. Merbau
11. Red pine
12. Meranti wood
13. Larch wood
14. African Padauk wood
15. Red Alder
16. Pink Ivory
17. Desert Ironwood
18. Bubinga wood

Red Colored Woods

Here is a list of natural red colored woods:

1. Red Cedar

The types of red depend on the tree from which the wood in question is sourced. Cedar is perhaps one of the woods best known for the red color it provides.

It is wood with red and brown tones, being the species that comes from the Pacific the one that presents a more reddish hue.

Red cedar wood is relatively soft wood, it has a straight grain and a slightly aromatic smell. Is used mainly to make outdoor furniture, since it can be used in humid environments without decomposing. In addition, it is very robust, which is why it is excellent for garden furniture.

2. Walnut

In the types of red color woods, walnut wood is one of the most beautiful for lovers of dark reddish wood and texture, as the grain of walnut is remarkable (and beautiful). Its color is darker than that of red cedar, it even tends to be purple at times.

This wood is used to make furniture, but also for floors and walls, as it resists cracking and shocks. Today, in addition, it is widely used for luxury coatings, cabinets, doors and ornaments.

Want to know more about walnut wood? I’ve compared walnut with maple to see which one is the best type of wood for furniture, woodworking and outdoor use!

3. Redwood

The redwood could not miss from the list of red colored woods as is the wood of the American sequoia trees. It is called (also botanically) Sequoia. As a bald cypress species, it is distantly related to the yew tree, which is also very old .

However, it’s the lovely subtle reddish hue that really elevates this wood. You can still use stains and paint, but its color and grain is so pretty that many carpenters usually use it as a simple water repellent primer.

It is an aesthetically very attractive wood thanks to its reddish color and high quality, since it is characterized by its resistance to rot and humidity. It is a perfect wood for almost any purpose, standing out as interior furniture, doors, windows and carpentry in general, as well as for interior cladding.

4. Red Oak

Oak is a tree that provides two types of wood: red and white. Red oak wood is considered one of the most resistant woods that can be found worldwide.

The red oak has a pale reddish brown color, usually, although sapwood tone varies from light gray to red, while the heartwood can acquire a light brown color. The bark usually has a shiny striped surface.

 Its hardness sometimes makes it a bit difficult to work with, but the furniture that is obtained from it is fabulous; as well as the furniture and coating made with this dark wood that if something has it is hardness.

Red oak is used primarily for interior joinery, especially wooden floors. In addition, it is highly valued in the decorative veneer industry. It is also used in cabinetmaking and in the manufacture of plywood. 

Its woody radii and its color are recognizable on doors, fences, pallets, parquets, friezes or moldings. As for alternative uses, it is also used to build musical instruments, veneers, turns, boxes, coffins or platforms.

I’ve created the best comparison between Oak and Mahogany to show you the pros and cons of them. This will definitely help you choose the best furniture!

5. Mahogany

Mahogany wood, like red cedar wood, has a hue ranging from reddish brown to dark red. This dark wood is tropical, intense, fine-grained and naturally resistant to woodworms.

Because it is an easy red wood to work with and it is one of the favorites of cabinetmakers who, of all wood colors, prefer red.

Furniture made of mahogany is great because of the beautiful shade that that varies from reddish brown to dark red with fine grained.

It is a sturdy wood that is easy to work with and is a favorite of cabinetmakers often used for floors, decorative uses, furniture and doors.

6. Acacia

Acacia grain patterns are unique, with colors ranging from golden tans, deep red, lighter shades of brown and acquiring natural reddish tones as it ages.

Its color also matches various types of styles, valuing more traditional and classic environments to relaxed or modern ones. 

You might, for example, have a beautifully crafted dresser in your dining room to organize the dishes. Or enhance a modern room with boldly designed chairs.

In principle, the same color tones always match each other with types of wood. However, strong contrasts of dark and light wood can also be beautifully combined, actually there are hardly any limits nowadays. It should be noted, however, that you should not mix styles, completely or not at all should always be the motto.

This wood is practically unassailable by woodworms. It has a thin and compact fiber, which also makes it resistant to humidity and shocks and tends not to deform. It has red, golden and orange undertones.

There are more interesting uses and facts of acacia wood. I’ve written an in-depth article about acacia wood!

7. Cherry wood

It has a golden honey color, tending to reddish. It tends to oxidize and turn brown. To the touch it has an almost satin texture. It has a medium hardness and is not suitable for underfloor heating.

Among the various types of red wood, the cherry tree is one of the most prized for its beauty. Because of it bright red color the cherry wood is used for the manufacture of luxury furniture or high-quality items.

To make the color turn red and make the sapwood uniform with the heartwood, it is steamed or immersed in lime water. The flame design is obtained with the tangential cut, due to the fact that the vases are more numerous at the beginning of the ring. 

Used for fine furniture, cabinet making, turning, cabinetry, floor strips (parquet) and sometimes musical instruments.

Due to the quality, cherry wood is often expensive and medium-lasting type of wood. It is currently used in the production of furniture, chairs and all kinds of coverings.

8. English Yew

Yew wood is red in color, compact, fine, and highly elastic. branches of the bark is very soft.

In its natural color, yew wood is red to brown. In terms of its characteristics, it is a very dense wood with little shrinkage, with high mechanical resistance (namely flexibility), formed by distinct, very thin growth rings and a uniform texture.

Yew wood can be easily worked (at least when the grain is not irregular) and has good bending properties.

This wood, when dyed black, looks very similar to ebony – dark, heavy and precious wood, much appreciated in the furniture manufacturing.

You will be amazed on how much packed information you will find in this article I wrote! It is a complete guide on 65 different types of woods with their pros, cons, uses and colors!

9. Doussié wood

Doussié is classified among the hardest, most compact, very resistant red woods and is essentially used for the construction of floors thanks to its price, well balanced with respect to the quality offered.

The natural color of the Dousié ranges from brown, to reddish, or even to light yellow and do not change dramatically when the wood is under the effect of seasoning.

Doussié is widely used in the construction of floors in sports facilities, gyms, velodrome, shops and for those structures frequently exposed to the elements .

Doussié can be found on the market in the form of solid wood, used for exterior and interior carpentry work, such as in the construction of stairs or compasses.

10. Merbau wood

Originally it has orange hues, which darken to a darker red to brown color. 

Solid wood is brown to red color (sapwood is light yellow; fresh solid wood has a yellowish to orange brown color, blackens to copper brown), cantonless. The wood color of the sapwood is clearly displaced by the solid wood.

Merbau wood is one of the red colored woods with excellent characteristics of stability and hardness, with yellowish tinged fibers that tend to alternate and even disappear with oxidation. Very suitable for substrates with underfloor heating.

Exotic essence with high hardness and impact resistance. It is also used as an industrial parquet. Ideal if you have underfloor heating. It comes from Southeast Asia and Indonesia, has a reddish-brown color with yellow streaks.

11. Red pine (Scots pine)

Red pine is a light wood that has a traditionally reddish tone with whitish yellow sapwood and reddish-brown heartwood, with very fine and regular rings, without veins. It takes on a characteristic honey color when sealed. It is a rather soft wood, which can be worked in any direction, making it ideal for furniture and furnishing accessories.

Red Pine is worked quite easily, but due to its knottiness the peeling and shearing operations are not practicable. Furthermore, the joints with nails and screws do not have a durable seal

Their very aromatic scented wood is used as furniture and wood carving, it has a yellowish red core and a narrow yellowish sapwood; it is soft, light, durable and easy to work with.

12. Meranti wood

In the common Red Meranti, the heartwood is pale pinkish-brown to red-brown. Darker woods usually also mean harder qualities and better properties.

An extraordinarily vivid type of residual wood that naturally has different shades of color in the composition. Sapwood color varies between pale red and greyish red. Heartwood color ranges from salmon to bright purplish reddish brown.

As a rule, the light and medium-weight Meranti woods are easy to work with and do not cause any problems. Pores only need to be filled before painting.

Meranti is a wood without knots. It has good stability, provides good thermal insulation and a good level of safety.

The most valuable quality is the red Meranti and is often used as a substitute for Mahogany.

13. Larch

Larch has a heartwood that varies in color from yellowish to reddish to orange-brown . The sapwood, which is usually only two centimeters wide, has a pale reddish color .

The larch is a wood generally regarded as very valuable, with reddish and yellow color. Particularly resistant, it is especially suitable for external coatings, considering that it tolerates humidity and water well.

This wood is highly valued for the quality of its fine grain as well as for its pinkish-brown color often veined with reddish-brown.

Larch wood has been known since ancient times for its durability and strength. Due to its easy processing, its beautiful deep red color is appreciated in carpentry work, especially for outdoor use.

14. African Padauk wood

The heartwood color of African Padauk is a beautiful bright orange, also known as coral red. When exposed to light, this shade quickly discolors to a pale reddish-brown and in the long run to black-brown. 

It is a wood with good mechanical characteristics. The polishing powders are irritating with the possibility of pigmenting neighboring woods (in various combinations). Quite suitable for subfloors with underfloor heating.

Drying quite slowly, with little loss of quality. Applications: veneer, floors, mouldings, furniture, bar and counters, floors, lathes and sculptures, billiards, billiard cues etc.

15. Red Alder

A particularly famous variety of alder is the red alder, which produces distinctly colored woods. In fact, the wood color is red when freshly harvested, although it becomes intense yellow with aging. 

Many furniture manufacturers like to use red alder, and it is also suitable for smoking. The durability of wood is also a precious trait; alder wood is resistant to rot and insect infestation, which is why many people have historically used it in foundations.

16. Pink Ivory

Pink ivory is a type of wood, and not from elephant tusks or hippopotamus teeth. And as its name suggests, pink ivory has very original reddish to pink tones . This African wood is very pleasant to the touch thanks to its extremely fine grain . 

It is a rare and precious wood, once considered the “royal wood” of the Zulu tribe. Indeed, only members of the royal family were allowed to own pink ivory. Its colors make it a highly sought-after wood, although it is difficult to work with due to its hardness.

Pink ivory is a rare and precious wood, used to make luxury items. Coming from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa it has a magnificent red to pink color and properties more similar to ivory than to wood.

17. Bubinga wood

Bubinga is an African wood, rare and expensive, which comes mainly from Gabon and Cameroon. This wood can present a wide range of shades, ranging from rosé to brown. The wood often reveals red, almost purple , very marked and elegant heartwood . It can in particular be used for the manufacture of folk or acoustic guitars.

Conclusion

Red wood is a natural and renewable material that has recently become very popular among the various colors of wood, but also, coming from nature, it is completely recyclable.

Thanks to its general hardness and resistance, red wood is usually used in the structural and construction sector, although it is also used for furniture. Red Oak, cherry, red cedar, and chestnut are some of these dark woods that everyone recognizes and longs for in their home.

Adrian Tapu

Adrian is a seasoned woodworking with over 15 years of experience. He helps both beginners and professionals expand their skills in areas like furniture making, cabinetry, wood joints, tools and techniques. Through his popular blog, Adrian shares woodworking tips, tutorials and plans related to topics such as wood identification, hand tools, power tools and finishing.

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