Congratulations on having made a cabinet manufacturer decision! It's a great feeling and Lowes is known to be helpful if a problem arises with interfacing with Kraftmaid etc. Thirty cabinets is a lot. Should you wish, I believe the evidence for furniture board as an alternative to plywood is well established in it's favor. With painted cabinets, a wood door with veneer center helps protect against cracks in the stiles due to expansion, contraction of the door wood. So a veneer central panel is also a strong consideration. "I would like to be able to paint them down the line." One thing to check into is if Kraftmaid uses POC paint technique: post catalytic opaque conversion varnish. This is the most durable cabinet paint finish currently used, but it's not easily touched up. For that reason too, I wonder if it would be able to be painted down the road with good results. Hope this helps a little, and that others will weigh in on this issue. This post was edited by SparklingWater on Sun, Mar 31, 13 at 20:50

We bought our house when it was 15 years old, typical early 90's kitchen with 42" oak cabinets, 4" ceramic tile backsplash, black appliances. A previous owner had replaced the solid surface countertops with Uba Tuba Gold granite, but graciously left the God awful solid surface sink. They also replaced the original freezer on top fridge with a barely functional side by side. We did a facelift when we moved in 5 years ago, replacing the white with hunter green rope trim backsplash with tumbled marble and dark bronze accents. We also replaced the polished gold hardware and faucet with oil rubbed bronze, cut the wall to the dining room to allow for more clearance for the fridge door, replaced the dishwasher and replaced the flooring in the entire house. We just finished our major renovation last month, completely gutted the 20 year old kitchen. The only thing left of our old kitchen is the Travertine flooring and Graff faucet. Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen reveal

I'll resurrect an old thread to provide perspective from 12 years later. The house I'm referring to is located in north west Mississippi so it does get moderately humid here - inside is usually 50%-60% RH during the summer. I built our house 12 years ago and used 5 1/4" MDF baseboard identical in profile to what you'd find at lowes/homedepot. I did not have them paint all sides (probably should have). In the wet areas near the shower and tubs, I should have used wood - I'm not sure if painting/priming all sides would have made any difference. When water gets behind or under MDF baseboards, they will eventually blister, bubble, and crumble. The base 'cap' was integrated (very common) on ours and seems to be less tolerant of bumps and bruises than I'd expect wood to be. Our house is high traffic with lots of kids and there is one narrow hallway where several pieces of the "ridge" on the base cap have chipped off. The painters I used were good not great. They used a Sherwin Williams product for the trim which I believe is supposed to be a 'fast coat' and from what I can tell, they did one coat. I repainted all the baseboards in prep for selling with the ProClassic and I can tell the difference - they look much better. The painters also did a terrible job of sanding the nail holes - lots of tiny bumps where the nails are. Had I known/seen it, I would have made them re-do it. That said.. after 12 years, we are relocating and it wasn't hard to touch things up. I wouldn't hesitate to use MDF again, but I learned a few lessons: - Allow MDF to acclimate to the room (they did this on mine) - Prime the back/sides that are not already primed - Glue all outside mitered edges - Proper touch up on filling nail holes - Sand well before painting - Use a high quality finish and take your time doing it - Use wood in areas prone to heavy moisture like bathrooms.

JDS - Why is MDF not a good choice with the sharp edges? This stuff feels pretty solid to me. I know that MDF and water don't mix well but I'm not putting it anywhere that it will be exposed to water. Wood mouldings are about triple the price and I can't find the same style in wood. Copying this design would have to be custom made and that will cost even more. Sombreuil - I don't know what you mean by exposing end grain. I assume that doesn't apply to MDF since there is no grain? But what about wood baseboards and casings? At the dawn of carpentry they probably couldn't manufacture or cut baseboards and casings as precisely as is possible today. If I were to use wood, is there any reason not to make the baseboard and casing the same thickness?