I can tell you that all italian kitchen cabinetry companies when they have lacquer matte or glossy are always in MDF.
picture is in glossy lacquer

The bumpy laminated cabinets you saw at lowes were probably not mdf, they were probably laminated melamine. I had MDF in my bathroom for years and it looked fine. It took paint well and held up well. It really depends on the door style you want though. If you are looking for a raised panel door, forget mdf because the look like the panel was routered out (which it was). I wonder why they don't want to use poplar to paint? It is satin-smooth and paints very well. I guess the best thing to do is tell them you want to see one of the mdf doors before you make a decision.

redroze...I had the same question...most who sell MDF raised panel looking doors promote the fact that it is one piece (routered out) because typical painted wood raised panels will expand and contract and you'll see the cracks in your paint.

Just depends on what you want. We may replace our cabinet doors (and paint them) and were thinking of wood, but all searches lead us to MDF..there are some MDF doors that are made from more than one piece...just see what you like and whether or not you mind the look of a one-piece door.

I read soemthing somewhere, can't find it now, that said poplar can be used, but it will expand/contract, possibly leading to paint finish problems down the road.

Have you decided yet what you're doing?

Thanks!

We saw painted mdf doors from our cabinetry maker and it looked like solid wood.

We still like the wood look though. Our kitchen will have hardwood floors, the island and desk area will be stained maple with raised panels. But the longest run of counters in an l-shape will be white painted mdf recessed panels. Cabmaker said it would be better to do painted raised doors in wood, but with recessed panel painted doors it's fine to do in mdf.

Like I said, the mdf painted doors looked just great and you could never tell it was wood. So it sold it for me. We have inset cabinetry for both types (painted and stained) and can afford it due to the mdf!!

We have painted raised-panel doors. The cabinet doors are made of several pieces (not routered out), with only the center piece being MDF -- the rest is solid maple. Our KD explained that this is, in fact, a more expensive option because the MDF is more expensive than wood; but because the MDF doesn't shrink or expand with the seasons, there will not be visible cracking in the paint finish. The MDF is indistinguishable from the wood, and the MDF and maple both take paint beautifully.

A friend of mine was re-doing his kitchen the same time as mine, but he went with modern, slab (full-overlay) doors with a white lacquer-like finish. His GC told him that MDF is the ONLY way to go with those; the shrinking and expanding of real wood makes it very difficult to craft doors that meet and close precisely.

Here are my doors (before the horrible window treatments and wallpaper border came down...):