For cabinets under 30", furniture board covered with melamine is a fine choice. Unless you're using it as a pantry with lots and lots of canned goods. Then, I'd say 24" would be the limit to the span. Or, if you want to pay the upcharge, plywood covered with melamine is also a good choice as it doesn't deflect as badly as furniture board and thus is more suited to span longer distances. Even so, I wouldn't want to span wider than 36" without being 3/4" material instead of 1/2". In either case, the melamine will be more water resistant and durable than a wood surface.

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 wouldn't want a melamine or laminate drawer in my kitchen or bath....that is, unless you are planning on going with a modern frameless cabinet? That would be OK. In my first house back in the 80s, I had Neff in my bathroom. White slab laminate cabinet doors. Box and drawer boxes were all white laminate. It was beautiful. However, if more traditional, I'll always go with wood dovetailed. There really isn't much price difference at all...which is one reason cabinet manufacturers quit offering melamine drawer boxes. I just did a quick price quote on drawerdepot's website. Cost of a basic 5/8" melamine drawer box (no guides) is $51.75. For 5/8" maple wood dovetailed drawers is $79.86. So that's a difference of about $28 per avg size drawer. Let's say you have 10 drawers...that's only an increase of just under $300. Why would anyone want melamine over maple?

Melamine is a wonderful material for the insides of cabinets and has been for decades. I'm not familiar with this particular one, though. My choice would still be maple. :) If the white isn't exactly the same, it'll just be a mismatch, right? So the maple will complement the paint instead of being kinda close-ish. And honestly? Wood looks more high end than melamine even when it isn't. Neither of these is going to be waterproof but both should be fine with normal kitchen duties. When I had custom painted cabinets made, though, the insides were painted to match. ETA, look at them and see what goes better!