For starters, it'd be a lot of work to glue up the pine into the sheet sizes you'd need to create those many, larger pieces for all sides and backs of the boxes...then planing, etc, so they are a smooth piece. Also, plywood or the engineered sheets are generally more stable in terms of expanding and contracting. Just my 2 cents from being married to a woodworker. He could do a much better explanation, I'm sure.

As rhome410 explained, large flat pieces of cabinets that are constructed of plywood or other types of particle-type boards are much easier to construct - which in turn equals cheaper. Veneered plywood looks nearly as good as solid wood on exposed cabinet ends. Plywood (et al) are much less likely to present warping/movement problems over time than solid wood.

If you wanted to DIY and use pine, or any other kind of boards, you'd need to buy several thousand dollars of woodworking equipment (and a bit of practice and skill) - a good table saw, jointer, planer, clamps, big FLAT work bench, and spend a lot of time doing the final sanding. Just to create a single big flat piece of wood that is less optimal for the purpose than the $90 piece of veneered plywood you could pick up at the lumber yard.

If DIY'ing board construction was cheaper AND better - you can bet that a lot of us (even WITH those tools) would already be doing it. (And so would the pros!)

I think pine, especially knotty pine, which is the "cheap" option, would be worse. Soft wood--you bang into it & it'll dent--isn't what I'd want for edges that take the kind of banging you get in a kitchen.

Me, I like pine for things like painted bookcases, because I can put them together fast, and they are bound for the kid's rooms/school where they're going to get abused no matter what, and nooone will care, slap another coat of paint on. For casework, I like birch or maple ply. Well, indoors, at least!

Rhome's right about the work involved & the stability issue is significant--wood expands & contracts with moisture. Try looking at a wood floor in New England in the summer vs. winter, there are reasons we all have base moldings covering a gap! Plywood doesn't do that (much), because they lay the plies perpendicular to each other so it won't happen. Sure, it can be done, you just have to know what you're doing with regards to only gluing long side to long side.

Oh, plus the fun of trying to find pine that's actually straight & doesn't cup or twist on you. If you're buying from one of the big boxes, you're probably better off with ply.

Though if cost isn't deciding, you could try poplar--cheapest hardwood, paints up reasonably. It'll still take forever mating the boards into 24" pieces, etc!

Thank you!

This is what mostly prompted the question (see link).

The door inserts look like plywood but the rest looks like wood to me though I might have been misled by the planks on the sides (IF they are planks). The frame looks like hardwood to me.

Aslo, IKEA VARDE cabinets (I have been considering) have pine frame and that was the second reason for my question.

I was not going to make the side and back walls from planks myself, of course. I guess I was hoping I could buy them somewhere - IF all-wood option was a viable one.

My bedroom maple dressers are all wood (I think), so I know it can be done but the question is if it SHOULD be done.

From your answers, I conclude that it shouldn't. Well, a 8'x2' piece of plywood is $40 at HD (i.e., cheap) but I am a little concerned about formaldehydes in them and VOC.

Shouldn't I be?

Here is a link that might be useful: [Hard maple kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/rustic-hard-maple-kitchen-traditional-kitchen-toronto-phvw-vp~475468)

That photo is a good example of frame & panel construction, or how multi-piece doors are constructed and how (usually) better and fine furniture is put together. Very high end for a kitchen. Lots more labor intensive. A common way to cheat the look is using doors applied to end panels.

The thing with using applied doors to cheat the look is that, after your eye is trained to spot it (which doesn't require much effort), it starts to look silly and kinda' cheap, just the opposite of the intention to create a higher end impression.

ci_lantro,

What do you mean by "using doors applied to end panels"?

When you attach a "fake" door to the cabinet side?

There have been a lot of pix lately of cabinets with "fake" doors (i.e., panels that look like doors where there is no opening) to balance the real ones. I thought they looked nice. But I think you are talking about something else.

I was referring to when a door is stuck onto the end of a cabinet run to create the impression of frame & panel construction.

Like this:

To my eye, it looks cheesy & fake. I'd much rather just see the actual side of the cabinet w/o the faux embellishment. YMMV

Cabinets are not constructed with solid wood for a reason. Wood is hygroscopic and absorbs and releases moisture with the seasonal changes. Large glued panels of wood will have each individual element in that panel expand and shrink slightly differently. That produces cracks over time. A fine furniture maker can pick wood from a single tree source, carefully match the grains in opposing directions to counteract the movement better, and create you a fine furniture cabinet. But, you're talking 10K per cabinet to have something like that made to those standards. It would be unimaginably labor intensive and resource greedy. And then, when it was installed, you would have to treat your home like a museum with very very careful temperature and humidity control. That at least is among the more doable of the elements as more and more homes are actually addressing the full spectrum of climate control in their interiors rather than just blasting heat at it in the winter and opening windows in the summer.

Thank you, everybody!

I just wanted to make sure...

Good to know Lowes has no/low-VOC plywood!

The plywood that my cabinetmaker used is furniture grade & he didn't get it at a big box store; I'm certain that's what's used for the cabinet box shown in the hard maple kitchen. Furniture grade ply can be had in a variety of veneered hardwoods & looks nothing like ordinary zebra-striped plywood.

I was in the high end cabinet business for 20 years. I have seen solid wood doors grow as much as 1/4" with high humidity. The reason most cabinet doors are made as raised panels is that the largest portion of solid wood is the panel-which will grow the most. There is a recess inside the four frame members which allows the wood center panel to grow without splitting the door apart. I have seen some flat solid wood doors, but they are a problem waiting to happen if there are humidity swings. The factory that I represented was considered one of the finest in the country. They offered plywood construction and MDF construction. Most people opted for the plywood. The funny thing is that the owner of the company felt that MDF made a better cabinet. The wood veneer lied on the MDF smoother and the MDF was more stable than the plywood. That being said, there are different grades of plywood and MDF, so keep that in mind. Solid wood cabinet boxes are a huge mistake unless the sides are raised panel.

drachiele, I understand the door point but might you expand on your last sentence a bit?

"Solid wood cabinet boxes are a huge mistake unless the sides are raised panel."

Yes, please!

Sure! If cabinet sides are made of solid oak, maple, etc. the wood can expand as much as 1/4" in 24". Solid wood is not stable enough to use as a solid 24" slab or even a 12" piece for a wall cabinet. When solid wood is required, generally, a raised panel design is used so that the four frame pieces are small and will not noticeably grow. The center panel can grow, but there should be room inside the groove in the frames for the center panel to grow without breaking apart the frame. Did that help clarify?

Fine furniture is made of veneers and press boards for a reason, solid wood cracks with changes in temperatures.

Particle board is the cheapest material for cabinets and what they usually use for the inside walls, but I'd at least get that them made with all plywood construction which is stronger.

Let's say you want to add pull out shelves or screw organizers into your cabinets, you can't do that with particle board and long shelves made out of it always warp.

Also, if you try to screw anything into the particle board, even a water small filter, it will constantly rip out. Our cabinet now has half a dozen holes and the water filter is just hanging there. I'll have to hire someone to mount wood in there to screw it to.

I recently had window seat cabinets made for a 10 ft long niche and opted for all plywood construction.

He's basically saying to construct the sides of the cabinet just like you would a door---out of several strips of much smaller wood joined together in a panel and then that panel floats free within the narrower stiles and rails. That's furniture maker territory, but some makers are offering that type of construction for appearance sake on end cabinets that will show. No one does the backs out of a beauty panel, even furniture makers---unless the piece is designed to be viewed 360.

"Also, if you try to screw anything into the particle board, even a water small filter, it will constantly rip out. Our cabinet now has half a dozen holes and the water filter is just hanging there. I'll have to hire someone to mount wood in there to screw it to."

Particle board and MDF aren't great for holding screws. However you can improve your success rate by using the appropriate type screw for the job.

Here is a link that might be useful: Confirmat screws for MDF and particle board

"Fine furniture is made of veneers and press boards for a reason, solid wood cracks with changes in temperatures. "

Moisture content, not just temperature.

And fine furniture does not use veneer core plywood, but lumber core.

No "fine furniture" should contain "press boards" for anything structural, and even them thin plywood is preferred.

Part of the 'trick' to designing fine furniture is allowing for the movement of the material that WILL happen.

That is why frame and panel construction was developed.
The panel is smaller than the frame enclosing it and has almost all of the movement.
The frame is stronger and smaller in section so it does not move more than the wood can absorb internally without breaking joints.

Even actual plywood sheets change size as the moisture content varies.

A tight frame around a sheet of plywood will fail at the corners as the plywood swells if clearance is not built in.