Whoa. Those questions will require pretty much an entire education in wood and furniture construction. Don't be too hard on those salesmen. Their employers are just buying stuff from a factory and don't educate the employees about the products. There's a lot to learn in the woodworking field. 1. The short answer is that neither solid wood nor veneered furniture are better. Badly made furniture is bad and well crafted furniture is good. I wish I could locate the original source, but I've been informed that studies conducted by the Smithsonian revealed that veneered furniture tended to survive longer than solid wood pieces. I cannot find the source but I suspect this is because a lot of solid wood furniture is built for utilitarian purposes and is more likely to be tossed than many veneered pieces which can be highly decorative and are treasured by collectors. A lot of the period furniture found in museums use veneer and those who aren't woodworkers just assume it's all solid. Veneer got a bad reputation due to companies like Sauder that mass-produced a large quantity of cheap furnishings by covering flaky particle board with thin veneers. This is not the fault of veneer that it was used poorly. Other companies stuck veneer across pieces of solid wood then humidity-related expansion and contraction caused it to fall off. Solid wood is assumed to be superior by many because dents and scratches can be sanded out and refinished. A gouge in solid wood doesn't look as bad as a gouge in veneer that reveals mdf underneath. However, solid wood does have a major limitation in that it shrinks, grows, cups, twists and warps as the humidity of the surrounding environment changes. This movement cannot be prevented, it can only be directed. Sometimes uneducated designers attempt to force the solid wood to stay in place to get a particular aesthetic and this results in furniture that self-destructs. Those designers should have used veneer instead. Veneer is thin enough that the movement can be eliminated by gluing veneers to both sides of a stable substance like plywood, mdf or particle board to create a panel that remains pretty much the same shape and size at all times. The thin veneer cuts also make it possible to take one highly figured board and arrange the slices of it into matching patterns. If you ever see furniture with the grain arranged in patterns, it is likely veneer. So the answer is that solid wood is best used in places likely to be abused while veneer is best used for decorative reasons, or for surfaces that need to remain stable to prevent the furniture from breaking itself apart. When I do veneer work, I make sure that I put pieces of solid wood in the corners and other areas likely to get damaged. This utilizes both materials to their best advantage. Furniture that is destined for heavy abuse is best made from solid wood. No one would want fancy decorative patterns on utilitarian pieces anyway. 2. Just about any kind of material can be used underneath veneer. MDF, particle board, plywood and solid wood are all common. Each one has advantages and disadvantages. Your concern about mdf is somewhat on target, many of them do contain a lot of chemicals but that is true for most engineered woods including plywood. These days it is possible to get formaldehyde-free versions. Also, professional lumber suppliers sell mdf and particle board that are much tougher and more damage-resistant than the stuff used in cheap furnishings. MDF: This has the smoothest surface of the commonly used substrates for veneer. It is a stable material that won't change much in length or width as humidity changes. It has the advantage of being easier to work with than particle board. Downsides are that it is more likely to sag than most other substrates, is heavy and with the exception of water-proof versions, water will damage it quickly. In practice, a properly made veneer panel will prevent water from reaching the MDF core unless it's subjected to standing water for some time. Particle Board: This is much lighter than MDF, is almost as smooth on the surface and is less prone to sagging. It's more of a pain to work with however and the edges are easily damaged. If the edges are protected by solid wood, that becomes a non-issue. Like MDF, it is very stable. Plywood: Strong, durable, stable and usually much lighter than MDF or particle board. The downside is that the surface is not perfectly flat or uniform and this sometimes shows through to the surface of any veneer applied to it. Those large, dead-flat conference tables with mirror finishes likely have mdf or particle board under the veneer and not plywood. Solid wood: This is a viable option but veneered furniture made this way loses out on the stability advantage of engineered products. Veneered solid wood will more or less act just like solid wood. No one will get a modern conference table with this technique. If you see this, it's likely done to save money on materials by using cheap wood then applying a skin of expensive wood over that. Sometimes the veneer is a rare exotic species which is only sold as veneer. That poplar and cherry veneer bed frame? It could very well be poplar with a skin of cherry. I'd have to see it in person to know. 3. I don't know anything about that particular brand of furniture so I can't help with this question. If it doesn't specifically say that cherry wood is used, then it's probably a cheap, lightweight material that's been stained to a "cherry finish". This post was edited by JAAune on Sat, May 31, 14 at 21:36

You WILL see minute cracks where the rails and stiles meet on an all wood door, as well as where the panel is inserted into those stiles and rails. That's just how wood behaves in the presence of moisture--including your wood floors. They too will gap in the winter and potentially cup in the summer. It can be controlled a bit more if you use AC in the summer and use a humidifier in the winter, but nothing on the planet will stop it. Choosing wood stiles and rails with MDF panel will stop most of the cracking at the joint where the panel meets the stiles and rails, but it won't stop the cracking where the stiles meet the rails. If the natural expansion and contraction of wood will drive you crazy then don't get wood. Get an all MDF door that is routed to resemble a recessed panel door or raised panel door or whatever you are looking at. And then choose thermofoil if you want a "perfect" paint job too. Because even sprayed MDF will still not be 100% perfect. It's about as good as you get for smooth paint, but thermofoil is smoother and more even still.

The horrible smells were more likely from the finish on the PB piece than the materials it was made of. But that's just a guess. I have painted shaker cabs with wood center panels. My painter put caulking around the inner side of the rails and stiles (all around the interior panel) to alleviate the stress on the paint. So far so good. The cabinet boxes will be made of plywood- which will have lots of glue in it. If you're sensitive, that could be a problem. They do make plywood that uses non-formaldahyde glues. One is called PureBond. It ain't cheap, but ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do. BTW congrats on the impeding arrival!

I don't know anything about these cabinets, but my answer should bump up your question and someone else might answer it more directly. I would think that if the cabinet box is made from plywood the doors would also be made of plywood. However, all of the sellers you list have either phone numbers or live chat methods of contact. Ask your questions directly to them.