Real wood or wood-look veneered cabinets?

10 years ago

We're just starting to shop for kitchen cabinets. I love the look of real wood veneered flat slab doors. We went with Semihandmade flat sawn walnut doors over Ikea cabinets in our master bath. The walnut is extremely warm and the horizontal grain matching adds a custom feel.

Now, we've moved on to the kitchen cabinets. Our kitchen designer is suggesting one of the wood look lines (similar to what you see in the high end European kitchen lines like Poggenpohl or Snaidero). She says that these engineered materials will hold up far better than a natural wood veneer, like walnut.

We have a toddler and a retriever, and my husband (the main cook) isn't exactly gentle in the kitchen, so durability is extremely important. We hope to use this kitchen for the next 20 years. But, we also don't have $50k to spend on cabinets alone.

I could settle for the wood look if it truly is more durable. What's the story? Does it depend on the quality of the materials, or is one generally better than the other?

(I Google searched for past threads on this topic, but mainly found solid door vs. veneer, not this topic. I expect that this has been discussed, but couldn't find anything on point.)

Thanks in advance!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

PRO
User
10 years ago
I have clients who have used both of the materials you described. No one has been unhappy with the performance of either option. Higher-quality manufacturing techniques are going to give you better long-lasting results either way. If you decide to go with the fake wood, you definitely want to get the cabinets where the possibility of delamination is covered under the warranty of a reputable firm.
chisue
10 years ago
I'm putting laminate 'bamboo' doors on our old kitchen cabinets at our vacation rental condo on Maui. They look *better* than real bamboo! Same surface both sides. I'm going with vertical striation, but horizontal looks good too.

This is a 9 X 9 "U" shaped kitchen with uppers on two walls. $3800 installed. I furnish door and drawer pulls. (Everything costs more on Maui.)
Related Discussions
Real wood next to vinyl 'wood look' tile?
Q
Comments (17)
I have to agree with the majority here and say my preference would be to avoid putting any material that is faux next to it's real counter part. Fake travertine tiles next to the real stone, laminate with a granite look next to a granite counter, and vinyl wood look next to real wood flooring. I think each has it's own place and look nice on their own, but they shouldn't be installed next each other. I also have to agree about the wood floors. We have Brazilian walnut in our kitchen and it's held up great. Our electricity went out once for 4 days, the fridge leaked water all over the floor and we thought for sure it was going to require replacing. Within a matter of a couple of days, it had dried out completely and looked good as new. I love having the wood in our kitchen and doubt I'll ever have anything else. If the only reason you are putting vinyl in your kitchen is because you don't feel it's a good fit please reconsider; I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
...See More
Do I use wood look tiles , laminate or real wood for stairs.
Q
Comments (8)
OK...now to the MEAT of the issue. By 'rugs' I assume you mean wall-to-wall carpet. Ok. That means you have a house that has a second floor (can we assume wood joists for the second floor?) that has been BUILT to handle carpet. Carpets are light. They HIDE tremendous amounts of errors that the builders caused when building the house. At this point I would ASSUME the upstairs needs strengthening BEFORE tiles can be installed. Bathrooms are different. They have extra support because they are full of heavy things (tubs, showers, sinks, cabinetry). That means the bathroom floors are strong enough to handle tile. The rest of the upstairs is NOT strong enough for tile (if you have concrete then you can ignore this thread). Tiles are HEAVY. They will cause normal wooden subfloors to bend. Tiles don't bend...they crack. Their grout cracks. Then the pop up. Now you have a HUGE mess. The installer will have to do the math for the joists + subfloor thickness. That math will tell him/her how much THICKER the upstairs subfloor has to be. You will then pay for the new plywood for the upstairs. You will pay for that plywood to be installed (can be $2/sf for material + labour). Now you can install the tile. Tiles normally sit 3/4" thick once installed. That is VERY THICK compared to your carpet. Now the subfloor thickness is added to that. It is possible the upstairs floors will rise by 1" - 1.5". That means your stairs are going to get messed up. And now we have a BIG expensive problem. And that's just for the stairs. Imagine how big of a step down you will have into the bathroom. And the doors will have to be taken down and trimmed. If you want an easy to care for surface, you should look at laminate or vinyl plank flooring. Tiling the second story of a home can be VERY expensive. So expensive that most people do NOT try it. Be VERY aware of what you ask of your house. It was NOT built for tile upstairs. It was built for carpets...The stairs could be a nightmare you never ever want to experience. Their costs are extreme. Having to 'fix' a stair that is out of code can double, or even triple the cost of the project. No. I am not kidding. We've seen $15K spent on bring the stairs up to code in a situation like this. And then you have to pay to have a floor put on them.
...See More
Do Interior MDF Doors with Real Wood Veneer Exist?
Q
Comments (10)
An 8’ solid wood door could easily be 8’ 1/2” in summer and 7’ 11 1/2” in winter. A properly constructed paneled solid wood door is not going to move anything close to that. Flat sawn white oak has a dimensional change coefficient across the grain of 0.00369. That means if you have a 5% MC swing (which is way high for a home) you will see a total change of less than a 1/4" assuming a cumulative rail heights of 12". In other words your door is likely going to go from 7'11 7/8" to 8'0 1/8". Wood is incredibly stable longitudinally, so the height of the bottom and top rails and width of the left and right stiles are really all that matter. Of course, if you are looking at slab doors my response would be different... To the OP, yes people make veneered doors, but the more edge profiles your door has, the less sense it makes to veneer it. Just like cabinets many doors will have veneered panels and wood rails and stiles as that is pretty easy to do. Slab doors will almost always be veneered and some simple craftsman styles are also mostly veneered. However, once you start adding in lots of rails and stiles, veneering starts making less sense, it just isn't worth the effort to do all that edge banding.
...See More
Can you do faux wood look flooring with real natural wood cabinets?
Q
Comments (5)
Go to a real flooring store (not a big box store like Floor & Decor) and take a look at high quality SPC (luxury vinyl plank with a stone core). Today's higher end SPC versions really do an excellent job of mimicking real wood, and in many cases it takes a very discerning eye to tell the difference. Despite knowing that for my scenario a SPC would be best, I temporarily listened to people here who kept insisting that engineered hardwood is much superior. I went to a flooring store to compare the SPC I was thinking about with engineered hardwood. Unless I was willing to spend at least double the cost of my higher end SPC, the engineered wood didn't have nearly as nice a look and it needs more care and babying. This comes from someone else in Florida. We aren't right on the water but pretty close to it, and we have a cement slab. I didn't want tile because it is so hard on your back. I am putting in natural maple cabinets with Karndean SPC flooring in a French oak. Also, our association has warned homeowners who are on the first floor with a cement slab (like we have) about problems other owners have had with engineered wood and moisture. The color I have chosen probably wouldn't work for you because it is too close to the color of your cabinet, but I thought I'd show you an example of their products. They have some truly lovely, very realistic products.
...See More
RChicago
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks, very helpful. Especially about noting the warranties.

We're looking at a custom guy, too, whose work I've seen and it's good -- but I'd be concerned about warranty issues down the road.

Given that we're going with flat slab doors, the kitchen designer will also price out a custom shop, as she thinks it may be price competitive given that we're going with such a simple design.

What I'm hearing, though, is that natural wood veneer shouldn't be more susceptible to delamination, chips, peeling, dents, etc. than the fake wood laminate?

On the more affordable end, I really like the look of Semihandmade and smile everytime I see my new bath cabinet. And I drool over online photos of Henrybuilt, Kerf, Build LLC's SPD, and others outside our price range. I don't have the same emotional response to the wood look cabinets. Just for ideas, I've been in several of the high end European showrooms, and while they're sleek and well done, it's not the same as real wood.

I was going to convince myself to go with the fake wood if it would be more durable, but if I can have real wood (probably walnut or teak, likely grainmatched vertically), that's my preference.

Would appreciate any other thoughts or advice, thanks.
Fori
10 years ago
Fake wood looks bad. :)

Think about your bathroom cabinet--don't you want something as lovely in your kitchen?
PRO
Joseph Corlett, LLC
10 years ago
The problem with real wood is that it grows on trees. It has all kinds of knots and things that a picture of real wood doesn't have.

I've got some IKEA "Ebony" in my living room that looks better than the real thing.
ajc71
10 years ago
Can't beat real veneer, the important part is the edgebanding...we spec all our veneer doors with 2MM solid wood banding, instead of veneer edging

RChicago...just googled BuildLLC and spent 30 minutes reading their blog, absolutely fantastic! Now that is how a cabinet should be made....!!
Bunny
10 years ago
We went with Semihandmade flat sawn walnut doors over Ikea cabinets in our master bath.

How do you get the two materials' wood color the same? Do you have to stain the doors to match the Ikea cabinets?
RChicago
Original Author
10 years ago
We bought kitchen cabinets from Ikea for our bath -- with all Ikea components except for the doors and toe kick. The Semihandmade doors work with Ikea door and drawer hardware. We went with cut out notches in the doors rather than handles.

We've been extremely happy with the Semihandmade cabinets and they were easy to work with.
crl_
10 years ago
Linelle, ikea kitchen cabinets are frameless so the doors and drawers cover the cabinets completely when they are closed. (The cabinets actually only come in white and birch, at least they did when we last kitchen remodeled.) Ends would need to have a cover panel if exposed.

Real wood or wood-look veneered cabinets?

Comments (9)

User

chisue

Related Discussions

RChicago
Original Author

Fori

Joseph Corlett, LLC

ajc71

Bunny

RChicago
Original Author

crl_

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Real wood or wood-look veneered cabinets?

Comments (9)

User

chisue

Related Discussions

RChicagoOriginal Author

Fori

Joseph Corlett, LLC

ajc71

Bunny

RChicagoOriginal Author

crl_

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

RChicago
Original Author

RChicago
Original Author