Melamine vs plywood cabinet drawers

3 years ago

What would you do? In our area, most of the cabinetmakers typically do melamine covered particleboard drawers. They say it is a higher grade of particleboard than walmart-esque cabinetry and that with the Blum slides, they have never had issues with their drawers.

The other option is baltic birch plywood drawers that are finished (but not coated in melamine).

What would you choose? I like the ease of cleaning with melamine but I associate particleboard with junk (which may be incorrect, that is what our cabinet boxes are made out of) and I think it looks cheap. But I think I could get over that if the melamine covered particleboard is overall a better drawer. What do you think? This is for a kitchen and two bathrooms.

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Comments (3)

weeper_11
Original Author
3 years ago
So you would do the melamine coated particleboard? Why? The savings + ease of cleaning? My understanding is the upper cabinets and shelving will be the white melamine regardless.
PRO
The Kitchen Place
3 years ago
I wouldn't want a melamine or laminate drawer in my kitchen or bath....that is, unless you are planning on going with a modern frameless cabinet? That would be OK. In my first house back in the 80s, I had Neff in my bathroom. White slab laminate cabinet doors. Box and drawer boxes were all white laminate. It was beautiful.

However, if more traditional, I'll always go with wood dovetailed. There really isn't much price difference at all...which is one reason cabinet manufacturers quit offering melamine drawer boxes.

I just did a quick price quote on drawerdepot's website. Cost of a basic 5/8" melamine drawer box (no guides) is $51.75. For 5/8" maple wood dovetailed drawers is $79.86. So that's a difference of about $28 per avg size drawer. Let's say you have 10 drawers...that's only an increase of just under $300. Why would anyone want melamine over maple?