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painted maple or MDF?

15 years ago

We're about to embark on our first kitchen reno. I'm new to this site so forgive me if this topic has been discussed before. I tried searching and couldn't come up with an answer. I'm wanting a painted shaker cabinet. Our cabinet maker quoted us a price for painted maple. I'm wanting to know why someone would want to paint such a beautiful wood? I'm thinking MDF might be the way to go. My KD said some people want the "prestige" of saying they have an all wood kitchen, but her opinion is that an MDF door when painted is actually better than a wood door when painted because it will not show the cracks. We have extreme temperature changes in our house due to very cold winters and high humidity in the summer (no central air conditioning). I think the cracks would bother me over time. Is there some downfall to using MDF rather than wood that I should be aware of? I saw some samples today and honestly could not tell the difference.

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Comments (4)

lamguy
15 years ago
howdy neighbor, eh.
Minot nd ringing in, the mdf will not crack where there is a very good chance that the maple will show them in the future. We have had a lot of folks have our shop make the cabinets and order the mdf doors for us to paint
laurielep
15 years ago
We went with the wood instead of MDF because our KD said the only real difference we will notice is overtime the MDF will not change color and the wood on the doors will (doors are all wood). He also said that I can take a scratch pen and color in scratches on the wood and I won't be able to do that with MDF. For all I know, he couldn't be BSing me but it was only 10% more for the plywood so we just went with it.
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caryscott
15 years ago
laurielep

I'm confused are you talking about the doors or the cabinet boxes?

leanne 123

The only downside I have heard about MDF are that the exta weight can cause the hinges to fail prematurely, of course screw holding isn't as good in MDF as it is in wood and MDF dents easier than solid wood. Honestly I don't put much stock in any of those criticisms. Given the climate issues none of these would dissuade me from going with MDF.
leanne123
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks everyone for your input. I think we're going to go with the MDF doors. I like the look of it when painted and its a little more economically priced. After my post, I visited a kitchen showroom looking for painted wood cabinets. The set up that I saw showed a lot of cracks, not only in the doors, but in the cabinet boxes as well. Personally, for me, I think that would bother me over time.

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