Leaving aside questions of taste, advisability and AHJ approval, any sort of wood product will show grain when painted, unless you are willing to do a furniture or auto body prep with filler/hi-build primer...more expense than mudding gyp board. If you're sold on the idea, look for "door skins", a thinner plywood available with other veneers besides luaun. They will have (usually) patch-free face plies.(no "footballs")

junicb, You know, I didn't even contact cabinemakers choice; for no other reason than I came upon Cabinet Authority first and Rick said he would give me a discount based on quantity (it's big; whole house) and I have bugged the absolute you know what out of him, nickel and diming my order; I would feel guilty putting him through all of this! We had a foundation overrun in our construction and it's put a major cramp in my kitchen budget, so I'm having to scrutinize every single detail. That said, being a free marketplace and all, I might share my final final FINAL order with the other folks and see how they come in, if I don't like the final quote I get from Cabinet Authority, just to see how they differ. I would love to hear more about this process; are you having trouble sleeping and getting a major crash course in cabinetry components, as I am? My husband thinks I'm a nutcase. Thank God for Gardenweb and its kitchenistas!

If you plan to use a Johnson framing kit, you might take a look at this. https://jhusa.net/1515-ply-34-pocket-door-frame-plywood-clip-set The plywood is 3/4", but it is recessed into the pocket door frame so it doesn't take up additional width space. Then you could put the sheets of drywall over that. One caution: if you put drywall over plywood sheeting, don't make the same mistake I did when I re-did the exterior walls in a room of a mid-1800s house. I covered the interior side of the exterior walls, with 3/8" plywood to give lateral strength, since the original house has no sheathing under the siding, which was nailed directly over the studs. (150 years of lateral movement with wind and ground settling is why the original plaster/lath walls were beyond repair.) I didn't want to rip off the exterior siding and add sheathing, so I installed plywood over the interior side after putting in insulation, and then added sheets of drywall, which came out to identical thickness as the original plaster and lath. My mistake was to smear construction adhesive over the plywood before applying the drywall, because the wall was uneven and the drywall didn't fit snugly against the plywood at many spots. About 6 months after the drywall work was finished, I noticed hair-line cracks developing over some of the drywall joints. Although plywood is supposed to be extremely stable compared to regular wood, there is still a small amount of expansion and contraction under varying temperature and humidity conditions, and the movement was just enough to produce visible cracks. I should have just fastened the drywall at the studs without the glue, as if the plywood sheathing weren't there, allowing some structural movement under the drywall without causing it to shift enough to produce cracks. It's something I live with, since the cracks are very small and hardly noticeable to anyone but me, but I know they are there and they jump out at me every time I look at that wall.

The underlayment will be grade stamped. Read the Armstrong specifications for the type of underlayment required for the warranty to be valid. Lauan Plywood Quarter-inch lauan plywood is a popular choice as an underlayment among remodelers. It has a solid track record and is readily available. All resilient floor manufacturers allow lauan plywood under at least some resilient floor applications and some manufacturers recommend it as an underlayment for all applications. Check with your manufacturer before using lauan plywood. There are two types of lauan: Type 1, with an exterior glue and Type 2 with a water-resistant glue. Only Type 1, which is more resistant to delamination, should be installed under resilient flooring. The “type” is stamped on the very edge of the panel, usually on the 4-foot edge. Three face-grades are available – BB, CC and OVL(overlay). BB is the highest grade and should be used whenever possible. APA’s installation guidelines for 1/4-inch plywood should be followed when installing lauan plywood, but installers BEWARE: Lauan is made under a wall-panel specification of the International Hardwood Products Association (IHPA). No manufacturing specifications support its use or gauge its performance as an underlayment. Wood Underlayments