Why have melamine or whatever on the plywood at all? Why not just the veneer?

No to particleboard, yes to plywood and then as ideagirl asked why not veneer?

Thank you for all these response, I really need the help & support!

wizardnm-are you saying you chose melamine instead of a maple veneer? Are you sure yours are melamine covered plywood (not particleboard)? (I thought our cabinetmaker was explaining that plywood would require after market application of the melamine rather than purchasing sheets of a ready-made material, hence my confusion)

RE: why no veneer? Our inset cabinets will be painted (off white) so I think the cabinetmaker is trying to give me the look of a light colored interior as we've got some glass front upper cabinets.

A lacquer finish on the plywood would just have the natural (ply)wood color coming through and since our cabinets will be painted rather than stained, seems odd to do a wood veneer.

We are doing painted T&G beadboard for our backsplash, so I suppose we could use that to back the glass front cabinets, but then we'd still have the insides and shelves a different color if we went with the lacquered plywood

I've been told plywood doesn't paint well/hold up well (compared to melamine or vinyl) as a cabinet interior so I'm just feeling a bit stuck.

Folks with painted cabinets, what are you interiors made of??

We have cream painted maple shaker cabinets. The interiors are maple veneer. The interiors of the glass cabinets are painted the same colour as the exterior. Our boxes and drawers are 5/8 plywood with veneer along the edges.

I'll try to explain better. My cabinet maker ordered the melamine in sheets that he attached to the plywood. He also added the banding to all exposed plywood edges.
The backside of my doors are all vaneered to match the outside. I wanted the melamine for durability and ease of cleaning. When I found that I could order the gray aluminum look I really got excited. We discussed dovetail drawers but they would have had to have been the solid maple and varnished or painted. He also assured me that the way he puts the boxes together, with the type of glue he uses, they are actually stronger than dovetailed.

I wonder, is your cabinet maker is just trying to take the easy way out? Sounds like he doesn't want to apply the melamine in his shop.

Here's a couple of pictures to show how mine are.

Nancy

Particle board and other non-plywood materials gets a bum rap from a lot of people on here. Frankly, you can mix the two types of cabs based on use and expect equal wear from both types. We have plywood boxes for our upper cabs where they have to take a load. For the base cabs we used a mixture of 3/4 MDF and plywood based on usage. Most of your base cabs are just sitting there, sandwiched between other cabs and fastened to the wall. other than the door swinging open not a lot is happening and I would expect a cab using MDF or particle board to last just as long as a plywood box.

We had MDF cabinets for almost 15 years. We don't baby anything and they were in perfect condition when we took them out. In fact, they're in someone else's kitchen right now.

Our new cabinets are wood with painted interiors (Kennebec hand paints the interiors of all of their cabinets). They are only a year and a half old so I can't speak to how the paint finish will hold up but my guess is that it won't be as durable as the melamine inside our old ones. However, they can always be repainted if they start to look beat up.

I love this forum, thank you all so much for your responses!

wizardnm-Thanks for posting those pics and clarifying your cab construction. You know, I'm not sure how to answer your question if my guy is trying to "get out of" applying the melamine as his shop. He indicated he'd priced having someone else apply it and when he got the price, it put the material way ahead price wise of the other choices.

johnnyl53 and cheri127, your posts are really putting my mind at ease RE: particleboard. I know the majority of cabinets are probably constructed with particle board, but it still helps to know that others have chosen them and that they'd held up well.

I saw a sample of the vinyl covered plywood and didn't like how the edges could already be separated from the plywood core. By contrast the melamine covered particleboard was adhered perfectly and seemed like it would clean up nicely.

I also had a chat with the cabinet guy about my various concerns...

RE: formaldehyde outgassing, he emphasized the the exposed edges of the materials are when the materials outgas the most (i.e. at the shop during fabrication) and he felt that those edges are then contained pretty well with edgebanding and/or the solid wood door faceframes. (I guess similar to if you have asbestos or lead paint; it's ok/safe to seal them in with paint, but cutting into them/creating dust is the hazardous part.)

RE: particleboard vs plywood, he feels both have sufficient strength/longevity in terms of resisting shelf sagging etc, but that plywood had the upper hand as far as impact resistance. (e.g. you throw a baseball and it would dent the particle board more easily than plywood.) Given that these are combined with the solid wood faceframes, I'm not sure whether that is even an issue I need to worry about.

At this point (unless I get some more feedback here otherwise) I'm inclined to go with the formaldehyde free melamine coated particle board. He's estimating it might be $100-150 dollars for the formaldehyde free materials, which is worth my peace of mind about that issue. I know the melamine will clean up well/be more easy care than the vinyl or painted surfaces. And by choosing the melamine particleboard I won't have to worry about whatever aftermarket adhesive chemicals would be used to bond the melamine to a plywood core.

Thank you all again!

I was hoping for a more direct answer. Which is more durable, plywood ( with traditional finish) or plywood with melamine coating? Does any one know. I expected maple plywood in my new kitchen cabinets and got plywood covered with melamine. the manufacture claims melamine is better than plywood. Is it???

If anyone who has commented can mention where they got their cabinets that would be really helpful. I am trying to find a frameless all plywood cabinet with the insides of the cabinet melamine and if possible even the insides of the drawers lined with melamine for easy cleaning (but I dont want particle board drawers). If such a product exists or anyone has that --please post what brand or cabinet maker.

Just remember it's an issue of QUALITY of material. Good particleboard is better than thin chintzy plywood (I have both). Whatever you veneer with, you need to ask about the thickness and maybe even take a sample home to play with.

My particleboard frameless 1989 Kraftsmaid cabs have laminate exteriors and a melamine interior. I put dishes away without worrying if they're not completely dry. I love not having to use shelf liner; I've yet to see one that didn't become totally icky after a few years.

Marks and stains, whether exterior or interior, come off with a spritz of cleaner and a green scrubbie, at most. Usually just the sponge works fine.

Sometime around 2002 I toyed with the idea of replacing my kitchen cabs. I went and looked at the St. Charles line of frameless cabs, a higher end than my Kraftmaid. I was really shocked at the poor quality melamine and laminate used.

The one disadvantage of particleboard cabs is that if your door hinges work loose - I have a very, very bad habit of leaning on my doors when I bend down - you need to repair the holes with epoxy filler before drilling new ones.