Too funny! We are having a vanity custom made, to replicate the Sonia Europa vanity (31.5" wide). Ours will be a little taller (to maximize storage space in our smallish bathroom), it will be Espresso stained walnut, and it will cost much less that the Sonia. The Europa isn't on the Sonia site, but I've seen it elsewhere online. It comes in 24" wide, 31.5" wide, and 39" wide sizes. We did order the Sonia sink top (ka-ching) because it's nice and shallow, which would work well for us, and we also really like how it will look on top of the dark wood (and one less bathroom necessitating a granite remnant hunt!).

The entire cabinet is rarely made of solid wood. Solid wood expands and contracts with the moisture in the air and tends to pull apart at the joins over time. Cabinet doors are often solid wood, although a solid wood frame with an mdf raised panel in the middle is also common. The raised panel in the middle isn't glued or nailed to the frame, it floats free in the frame so expansion and contraction in this large piece doesn't pull anything apart. Boxes are generally either plywood or a high grade of mdf, also called "furniture board." I suspect that "hdf" is also "furniture board." You will get many arguments on whether plywood is superior to high grade mdf or is no better; that is a different question and not one I consider overly important. If you are choosing a face frame cabinet style, the frame is usually solid wood and the panels can be either solid wood or plywood/mdf. Frameless cabinets ("Euro-style") are usually plywood or mdf. For painting, an mdf door provides you with a surface without any graining, so the paint goes on smoothly. Different woods give different looks: oak shows a lot of grain under the paint and maple shows hardly any. It's a look, that's all. Paint on wood doesn't generally crack, so I don't know what that's about. I have to warn you that I wasn't familiar with the term "hdf," so I looked it up. Most sites that refer to it are from alibaba.com, which is a Chinese super-site that sells one of everything made in the world, or other companies featuring Chinese products. Not necessarily a high recommendation. Last Feb. the question of cabinet materials came up in the thread below. At the time I looked up exactly how the different materials are made. You might take a look. Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet materials

Thank you everyone for your time. I appreciate your feed back and value your opinions. I am a reasonable person and just looking for advice to ensure that I am not being taken advantage of. My contract clearly states, Maple. We have had our kitchen custom made with dovetail soft close drawers and hard rock melamine boxes. We had originally gotten quotes at those box retail stores as we started to layout our dream kitchen. It was than, when I was doing my research that we decided we wanted wood. I don’t expect to get anything for free. I just want to pay for what I got. For the size of our project, I was originally quoted $55k for wood and $40k for MDF with the box retailers. The plan was to wait for a “Kitchen Event” when they would offer 20% discount or save the tax. That way we could get the wood kitchen for the approximate price of MDF. Therefore, I know there is a price difference between wood and MDF. I also realize this price point was for the entire project, including install. When working with my overall contractor, he suggested getting a quote from this custom cabinetry/woodworking company. I was pleasantly surprised, when we were able to get exactly what I wanted IN WOOD as well as not having to sacrifice any inches, as compared with the box retailers. We were able to fully customize our sizes, where the box retailers limited you to standard size boxes with fillers. More importantly, since they came in right at our budget of $40k, I did not get them to specifically quote us on their price difference between MDF and wood. We did not pay upfront, as I recommend no one ever do! We did everything right, paid the deposit, paid an installment upon delivery and last installment upon completion. We must have been blinded by the beauty. Keep in mind, we went through a $200k 16-month renovation. We took it right back to the studs, knocked out walls, no flooring, no ceiling, limited lights, limited plumbing, dust and dirt and no kitchen for about 6 weeks. So, once it stated to get put back together, we were just so thrilled, that honestly didn’t look that closely. As others have commented it is hard to tell the difference between wood and MDF when they are painted. We were also well aware of the risks. That the paint could crack/chip if the wood expended etc. However, we never wanted to deal with MDF again, after ripping it out of our old kitchen. The main benefits of wood for us, was knowing they would be more durable, and we could repaint them in future. Apples to Apples, I just can’t find a clear-cut answer on the price difference for wood to MDF based just on the door fronts/panels. I realize some say there is no price difference, but I have quotes stating otherwise. But on a percentage basis, I am not sure what the door/panels cost in relation to the whole project. Regardless of price, they will have to replace all the fronts with wood, according to my contract. They have admitted to making a mistake. I would have been willing to accept financial consideration if it had been reasonable. I honestly, don’t think he is being reasonable at $9/door or panel. If he must replace it all, with new material, labour to make and labour to install it will cost him a lot more than $700. I don’t feel I am being unreasonable, nor does my overall contractor. I was just hoping to get a better idea on the price difference between the two. Since we were only looking at getting the fronts replaced. I am not sure it is fair to use the price difference of the entire project as a comparison. I have limited time during regular business hours, usually the only time when the custom places are open. Reason why my other quotes of from box retailers who are open until 9-10pm at night. I was only looking for some guidance where it is available 24 hours a day! I plan on taking the time now to get our plans re-quoted at 2-3 custom cabinetry places, even if I have to pay for them to do it. I will be seeking legal advice as I suspect the difference to be in the thousands on this size of project.

I am contemplating the same thing so I bought 2 white floating shelves but haven’t installed them yet. I planned on putting them above the toilet to hold a few towels and decor items.