When you decide to start your cabinet project, you first need to know the basic materials to use. These materials are as important to the appearance of the finished cabinet as is the workmanship that will go into it. The basic materials you will need are lumber, sheet wood products and fasteners. One good question you may have is, "Where can I find a good selection of materials"? Your first step would be to try your local lumber yard and home improvement centers. If you look into these two establishments you usually will find what you need. If you're looking for hard-to-find items such as hardwood plywood, you can look in the Yellow Pages for specialized lumberyards under "Plywood and Veneers" and also check out "Hardwoods". If you need specialized hardware such as nails, screws or bolts you can look under the specific one you need in the Yellow Pages. Knowing about lumber and understanding it, is a main prerequisite for cabinet builders since wood is the starting point for any building project. For beginners however, this may be an overwhelming task since you have to deal with a huge array of sizes, grades and even species of lumber! Also, you can be intimidated when visiting your local lumberyard by the employees there. Nowadays most employees are pretty helpful, but there's always still the old crusty lumberyard worker that might give you a hard time. If you make sure you arm yourself with a list of products you need and have a basic understanding of the wood industry's "lingo", you should be able to find exactly what you need. Several features of lumber need to be addressed before you should actually go out and buy your lumber. Are you going to use softwood or hardwood? Softwood lumber is taken from conifers (evergreens, pines, etc.) while hardwoods are taken from deciduous trees such as maple, oak, etc. However some softwood such as Douglas fir and Southern Pine can be harder than some hardwoods like popular or aspen. Usually softwoods are easier to work with when using tools, than hardwoods since they're softer. But hardwoods can be more durable and have a greater diversity and richness of grain and texture than softwoods. Also softwoods tend to be more inexpensive and more readily available than hardwoods, so it will be your preference and choice on which type of wood to choose for your cabinet project. Another point to take into consideration is the way the lumber is sold. The common ways are by the lineal foot, the board foot, or by the pound. For the beginners, say you want to order an eight-foot piece of lumber. But you need to know the size of this piece of lumber! Most people assume that a "2x4" is actually two inches thick and four inches wide. But this isn't true! When the board is first cut from the trunk of the tree, this is the true measurement. But then that board needs to be dried and planed (surfaced). Then the same board is reduced to a smaller size, which instead of being a 2"x4" board, it finishes out as a 1 ' x 3 " board. This is necessary information to know when building cabinets, because of the exact and specialized type of the work. These starting points will give you an idea of where and how to start your new cabinet building project. Make sure you thoroughly educate yourself in the art of cabinet building before you start your project!