Painted Maple/Plywood Cabinets Vs MDF
Momofthree Ma
4 years ago
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Comments (28)
Momofthree Ma
4 years agoherbflavor
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Plywood vs. MDF
Comments (4)No, no. MDF, especially furniture grade, has its place. There are certain issues--for instance, I believe plywood fares much better in a flood situation, and it's easier to find low to zero VOC in plywood. MDF is also very heavy in comparison. Either can be clad in laminate, but MDF isn't so good just varnished and left nude. That's talking about what to use for the boxes. MDF is, however, very flat and regular and straight if you want slab doors, can be more easily bent for curvy cabinets, and is the optimal substrate for laminates and veneers as well as lacquer....See MoreCabinets - do you know about alder and MDF vs plywood box
Comments (16)Something I left off of my last post to another thread similar to this one only asking about Kraftmaid. There are truly differences in the types of each. I would choose furniture grade board over Chinese plywood for instance. I have not checked yet to see if the all ply Mid C cabinets I'm looking at are chinese plywood. Likely they are cause the price is so low! Anyway we missed this at the home expo in March, but my sales guy told me they were there and had a goldfish bowl with both plywood and furniture board soaking for 2 weeks. They displayed it at the expo inviting everyone to try to break the furniture board, and no one could do it. The plywood was a total mess. It just depends. Whatever you get make sure it's the best quailty and I would think you'll be fine. I noticed for instance that the KM furn board was thicker and appeared to be better quality than the Mid C furniture board....See MorePainted MDF doors vs Painted Maple
Comments (38)I'm resurrecting this thread...have a slightly different question in addition to all of the issues already discussed. I'm going to order from Conestoga I think. I'm replacing white thermofoil doors which are 20 years old and haven't really faded, but there are a few where a candle or the toaster got too close and caused some minor melting....Most people think they look nice, but in my mind they are still "cheap". The uppers are 42" I'm going to stick with white and just buy doors to match the existing boxes which are fine. Also, I have granite and it's hard to find someone willing to remove it to install complete cabinets. My question is....will a mapleframe/mdf center FEEL like a real wood door? Will it feel different than my thermofoil? I'm talking in terms of both surface and the weight in your hand as you open and close it. Will the outside edges and the panel raise etc be sharper than thermofoil? If I get mdf center will I still have the defined edges I am looking for. If you've had thermofoil you will know what I am asking. I'm toying with getting 5 peice mdf...but don't want to lose the wood look or feel... I think the mdf center is my best bet. My husband is what I like to call..anal...pretty sure he will be bothered by cracks, but he doesn't want the fake plastic look either. Pretty sure all wood is not a good choice for me, too bad because I love wood... The style I am leaning toward is https://www.cabinetjoint.com/cabinet-door/monarch-square/ but I am also toying with shaker style. Wondering if the shaker trend is headed out....Also considering doing a grey island by applying end panels. Guess I could start a new thread for those questions....See More"Semi-custom" Cabinets - MDF / Plywood dilemma, conflicting advice
Comments (17)This has been discussed longer than I've been around here. (more than a decade) First you are much more likely looking at furniture board-aka particle board than MDF. The vast majority of cabinets do NOT use MDF but an enormous number of KD's, salesman, even contractors will refer to it as MDF. (but depending on type of each they would be on practically equal footing with particle having an edge over most of what is actually used for MDF in cabinets-there are over 100 variations for each) I currently only have one brand of frameless cabinets that offers Particle Board- they also offer ply and every other brand I have at the moment uses plywood sides. I went to great lengths to get that brand specifically for the particle board option. What I tell my customer- once you are at the middle price point, top end at the box store (Kraftmaid, Shuler...) there is no point in paying for plywood except: on exposed ends if that is what it takes to get veneer, and sometimes for shelves greater than 30" wide that will be VERY heavily loaded. So I'm telling them that when they go shopping somewhere else they should be looking at a less expensive options than some of what I have. When I worked at a place that had more particle board options available I told people exactly the same thing. I used to post the physical stats from the National Plywood Association for both- for all but bending under load, particle wins. Search back a few years if you want to see those. My own kitchen is particle board frameless because that is what I wanted and fit my budget. If I were to spend more I would not burn $$ just to be able to say I have plywood. There are far more important aspects to cabinets quality than "pepsi or coke" ply or furniture board. AND once you have settled on a price point there is more to picking who you work with than which brand-who provides it for you counts for more. As to the cabinets themselves- the most important aspect of a middle of the road or better brand is customer service and QC, finish is next, methods of construction and volume come in there (how rushed are the people on the glue line is my favorite thing to see when evaluating a brand- a really accurate indicator of how things will turn out in the long run). Jakuvall...See MoreMomofthree Ma
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