The boards are oak, and dress at a finished dimension of 3/4" x 6 1/2" wide. Since I built the entire box from scratch, I chose a board width that would work out to give me equal widths on all boards (I had to buy boards 7 1/2" wide and cut them down to the 6 1/2" width.) I precut all the boards, and then gave them two coats of stain and 6 coats of Varathane---You want to be sure and do the Varathaning AFTER all the sawcutting is done, so as not to leave any unfinished surfaces (oak is a real bugger to soak up ambient humidity/moisture and swell, if not sealed from the air.)