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Cabinet Interior Material Question

13 years ago

Looking for more cabinet advice. We are doing paint-grade maple cabinets. My cabinet maker just called asking if we want the interiors of the cabinets to be the white melamine coated material (like IKEA type stuff I think), or maple with two coats of poly. Since it's to be painted, there will be color variations.

This is mostly for the bottom drawers (we are doing open shelves instead of uppers) and pantry cabinets. Thoughts? My KD said to go with the white, but my husband says if we are having a cabinet maker do custom cabs, they should be wood.

Thoughts?

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Comments (4)

formerlyflorantha
13 years ago
Find out if there is a difference in thickness of the materials. We had an option like this but didn't know that one material added thickness, throwing off my interior drawer measurements.
artemis78
13 years ago
We did the maple with poly, and I think it's fine---especially with drawers, you really don't see it. On the cabinets with glass doors, the interiors were painted to match the cabinet color (originally supposed to match the wall color, but we didn't make up our minds on a color in time!)
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User
13 years ago
The white melamine makes the interior brighter and it's easier to find items. It's also smoother and more water resistant which makes it easier to clean.
sombreuil_mongrel
13 years ago
My Conestoga RTA cabinets have plywood interiors that were pre-finished in a very tough, smooth conversion varnish. It's better AFAIK than brush-applied finishes. The plywood is available thus prefinished on the good side. If your builder wanted to, he could probably source it out.
Almost anything is better than melamine board.
He could also use MDO plywood, prepared one side with a primer-coated resin-impregnated paper. very good substrate for painting upon.
Casey

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