I have original painted white inset cabinets in my 1927 home. You can see the seams where adjacent cabinets join but there's no cracking in the paint, and that's in a house that has had almost 90 years of settling! I love them and am planning to have additional custom cabinets made to match the originals for the rest of the kitchen.

When we moved into our house 12 years ago the previous owners had replaced all off the cabinet doors and drawer front with raised panel painted mdf doors with a thin edge profile that a local custom cabinet company made for them. I thought there was no way they were going to hold up. 2 kids, 4 dogs, and a cook who does not baby her kitchen later the doors look fabulous! Most of my friends know that I'm in the planning process of redoing the whole kitchen. I hosted my book club last week and one of the ladies commented on how pretty my "new" cabinets were thinking I'd already redone them. I can't comment on ikea mdf, but if you can find some good quality doors I wouldn't shy away from mdf.. These haven't dented, warped, shown water damage or anything I thought they would do. There are a few small chips where silverware got slammed in a drawer etc. but nothing out of the ordinary for a 12 year old painted kitchen.

we lived in our last home about 10 years. White painted custom made cabinets. Not a single crack in paint that entire time. FWIW.

When we sold the house, they looked like brand new.

My house was built in 1949 so that's 66 years of settling. We have the original, built-in cabinets in the laundry room including one wall with floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinets. They were last painted in the early 90's. Not a crack anywhere.

MDF is a fine material to use in cabinetry. I have had a number of custom cabinet makers counsel me on the stability of MDF. If you are planning on painted cabinetry, MDF is the way to go. I've used it in a number of homes and have been very satisfied with the results.

I had the same concerns with my white shaker cabinets when I made the decision more than two years ago. Prior to my remodel I had painted our old knotty pine cabinets white (sanded down first, multiple coats, etc. - we did not skimp on labor) but the wood was pine which is soft so the paint chipped and cracked after only a year or so. We lived with it nearly 10 years before finally saving enough for the remodel so you can imagine how bad they looked. Way more shabby than chic.

My aunt has had the white MDF cabs in her kitchen about a decade (Home depot) and they are decent...but you can difinately see wear and tear not just in the paint but in the wood. The edges on her workhorse cabinets like trash and pantry are peeley and frayed looking.

I went with Home Depot Kraftmaid white shaker. Two years into and and LOTS of wear and tear (three young kids that literally smash, climb and hang off them) and they still look brand spanking new. We strategically waited for one of their big promo sales I think we got 30% off all cabintery so we did a BOATLOAD of cabinets including tons of drawers, high end add-ons and a pantry for a touch over 10K two years ago, Worth checking out.

What is the truth?
Do you really feel someone's going to bother to lie?

This topic has been beaten to death.
It depends upon quality and usage. Done.

It's like asking someone if something is actually/really spicy? No one has the same taste buds, nor has someone eaten the same things you have the ENTIRE day. It's all relative. And sometimes relatives.

I have white painted maple shaker doors with MDF inserts. If you get your nose right up to the places where the trim is joined you can see a faint line/crack. It is not noticeable and I do not mind. There are no other lines or cracks in the paint surface (catalyzed-something paint). Three years old and tough as an old boot.

:) Sorry I'm new on here, and my google searches produced a lot of old threads. I havent found any complaining on painted cabinetry, but found a few re:mdf. I just really am trying to figure out the difference in how they wear. I will have a very heavily used kitchen with kids, dog and lots of houseguests. I've had one kitchen and bath place say, oh white you will need to do thermofoil, and then had a cabinet guy showing me an rta line specifically steer me away from the doors made with mdf! Quite contradictory, especially coming from 2 cabinet people. I have zero experience with painted cabinetry, so have no basis for expectation of wear.

Ainelane will you getting a painted mdf door or thermofoil? I guess I thought all mdf doors were thermofoil!

Linelle can I ask what brand of cabinetry you purchased?

CEFreeman, if you don't want to participate in a thread because you feel it's been "beaten to death", then feel free to opt out. Probably every topic on here has been addressed at one time or another. It doesn't mean that someone who hasn't been participating for a long time and so hasn't read the exact posts you have, should be made to feel bad for asking a question. After all, isn't that why we're here? To help each other out?

I stand corrected. It was thermafoil (thank you brightshinynew) that my aunt used that peeled and frayed over tome. Stay away from thermafoil. The price is temtping but you'll be sorry.

brightshinynew, I kept my old builder's grade orange oak boxes because my layout wasn't changing and I was trying to save a buck. :) I got new doors, drawer fronts and end panels from Decora. They are paint-grade maple with MDF inserts. Doors/panels are shaker and drawers are slab. I bought through my KD and altogether didn't cost much over $1K. I paid 4 times that to have them painted. It seemed like a lot at the time, still does, but the quality of the paint job is so good that I know it was money well spent.

Good luck to you!!

This post was edited by linelle on Wed, Feb 4, 15 at 11:49

Rule #1: Wood normally shrinks and swells over a season's change of temperature and moisture.

Rule #2: Coatings don't move as much as the wood does. The more elastic the coating, the better that it hides #1. You will always be able to see where the different parts and pieces of a door are joined. It's never invisible.

Rule #3: Miters show wood movement way than do a mortise and tenon door. Stay away from a mitered door in paint. Period.

Rule #4. The visible lines will be more noticable to you in the obsessed first stage of trying to keep your new kitchen pristine. After a while, not so much. After a while longer, it'll be "what lines".

brightshinynew -
I will be getting painted MDF doors. Not Thermofoil. From the research I've done, Thermofoil is not a product I'm interested in at all for reasons of durability.
A painted MDF door will be exactly as durable as a painted wood door (but without the paint cracking/movement issue) - which is to say that it boils down to the quality of the finishing process (but that's a whole other topic!)

I want to point out that a lot of people on the web who give advice (I don't just mean here, but everywhere) do not know the difference between MDF vs. particleboard vs. melamine vs. laminate vs Thermofoil. They just hear these terms and lump them all together in the "not real wood" category.
When you hear horror stories about MDF, people are actually talking about particleboard. Stories about cabinets "disintegrating" are referring to cheap particle board cabinets that had some sort of laminate surface which became compromised and then the material starting falling apart. This is not MDF.

MDF is used by many of the top end European cabinet lines. For example, Siematic is a German line whose cabinets cost more than some people's entire homes and their painted cabinets are all MDF.

I would guess that the reason cabinet makers are telling you different stories is to steer you towards whatever they are used to dealing with. If a cabinet shop doesn't offer MDF for painted finish (a red flag in itself for me) then they will try to scare you away from it.

You are right to post your questions here. That's what this board is for.

Thank you all so much! This has been extremely informative and has definitely help clarify quite a few things. Now on to researching different manufacturers....as well as getting through my bath remodel. :)