The entire cabinet is rarely made of solid wood. Solid wood expands and contracts with the moisture in the air and tends to pull apart at the joins over time. Cabinet doors are often solid wood, although a solid wood frame with an mdf raised panel in the middle is also common. The raised panel in the middle isn't glued or nailed to the frame, it floats free in the frame so expansion and contraction in this large piece doesn't pull anything apart. Boxes are generally either plywood or a high grade of mdf, also called "furniture board." I suspect that "hdf" is also "furniture board." You will get many arguments on whether plywood is superior to high grade mdf or is no better; that is a different question and not one I consider overly important. If you are choosing a face frame cabinet style, the frame is usually solid wood and the panels can be either solid wood or plywood/mdf. Frameless cabinets ("Euro-style") are usually plywood or mdf. For painting, an mdf door provides you with a surface without any graining, so the paint goes on smoothly. Different woods give different looks: oak shows a lot of grain under the paint and maple shows hardly any. It's a look, that's all. Paint on wood doesn't generally crack, so I don't know what that's about. I have to warn you that I wasn't familiar with the term "hdf," so I looked it up. Most sites that refer to it are from alibaba.com, which is a Chinese super-site that sells one of everything made in the world, or other companies featuring Chinese products. Not necessarily a high recommendation. Last Feb. the question of cabinet materials came up in the thread below. At the time I looked up exactly how the different materials are made. You might take a look. Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet materials

thank you guys..actually i realized that the granite we liked is not Bianco Antico but a very similar granite called Delicatus. I love it! But no matter how many searches I do online, I dont see it paired with antique brown cabinets. I have seen it with almost every other stained cabinet there is but not the stain we are choosing. DH does not want to go darker or lighter on the cabinet stain and thinks Delicatus will go just fine. Our designer is trying to push a more golden granite on us and thinks that I should stick to all warm tones...although she is the expert I somehow feel that Delicatus just might work. It has so many colors in it that I think it will compliment the brown cabinets pretty nicely. But then is the question of the flooring..Dark brown cabinets, Delicatus granite, and nutmeg stained oak floors scraped lightly. Do you think there are too many different colors going on there?

MDF - Medium Density Fiberboard Medium density fiberboard, or MDF, is a composite wood product similar to particleboard. It's made out of wood waste fibers glued together with resin, heat, and pressure. MDF is appropriate for many applications, from cabinetry to moulding, because it is smooth, uniform, and won't warp. MDF has many advantages over plank wood, particleboard, or high density fiberboard. It's very smooth because the wood fibers used in its manufacture are uniform and fine. This makes it have low "tear out," which means that when sawed, the end has a smooth cut instead of a jagged edge. This also means that a coat of primer and a couple of coats of paint take well, leaving an attractive, finished surface unlike other composite wood products. MDF also has a mild reaction to moisture, meaning it won't warp or swell in high-humidity applications like a bathroom cabinet. here are some old links http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/wood/msg0422465719842.html?7 http://www.thathomesite.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg052132034578.html?16 http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg11121915306.html

MDF is fine depending on the brand of cabinets. I'm assuming they mean just the center panels are MDF? I'm in SW Florida and went with all wood because that's what the Amish cabinet maker I used uses. I'm not quite in the house yet, but I knew going in that there would at some point be some hairline "cracking" of the joints. I'm fine with it as to me it's part of the beauty of wood. YMMV.