Poplar price per board foot
Plan on about $3.10 a board foot for 4/4 stock at U.S. retail (our 2026-08 estimate — your yard gets the final word). A typical board, 6″ wide and 8′ long, will run you around $12.40.
Nearly every antique chest of drawers has a secret, and its name is poplar. Open the drawer: the mahogany or walnut is just the face, and the sides, backs, and runners are this humble, greenish workhorse — the hidden wood inside two centuries of American furniture. It comes from the tuliptree, one of the tallest hardwoods on the continent, which is why finding a clear sixteen-foot poplar board is never a problem.
The workhorse secondary wood: cheap, stable, easy to machine. Green-tinged heartwood paints well but looks muddy under clear finish.
Poplar at a glance
| Price per board foot | $3.10 (2026-08) |
| Weight, dry | 29 lb/ft³ · 2.4 lb per BF |
| Janka hardness | 540 lbf |
| Shrinkage, green → oven-dry | 8.2% tangential · 4.6% radial |
| Cost of 10 BF | $31.00 |
| Cost of 25 BF | $77.50 |
What common thicknesses cost
Same 6″ × 8′ board, priced by rough thickness (thicker stock often carries a small premium on top of this — figured on volume alone):
| Thickness | Board feet | Cost | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4/4 | 4.0 | $12.40 | 10 lb |
| 6/4 | 6.0 | $18.60 | 15 lb |
| 8/4 | 8.0 | $24.80 | 19 lb |
| 12/4 | 12.0 | $37.20 | 29 lb |
Will it stay flat?
Docile is the word: poplar dries fast, stays flat, weighs little, and does what it's told. That obedience is exactly why cabinetmakers trust it everywhere the customer doesn't look.
The measured numbers: drying from green, poplar shrinks about 8.2% across a flatsawn board's width (tangential) and 4.6% across quartersawn (radial) — that ratio is why the two cuts behave so differently in your house.
Buying poplar without regrets
Cheap, everywhere, always. You'll see boards streaked green and purple — 'rainbow poplar' — and they're tempting, but the colors fade to muddy brown under finish, so save them for painted work. Which is where poplar was headed anyway.
At the finishing bench
Under paint, poplar is flawless: fine pores, no filler needed, crisp edges. Under clear finish it goes dull olive, and under stain it fuzzes and sulks. Don't ask it to be walnut; let it be the best painted wood in the store.
Sources & further reading
Prices vary with region, grade, width, and figure. Cheaper neighbor: Southern Yellow Pine ($3.00). A step up: Basswood ($3.25).