When some cabinets makers say their product is “real wood” or “all wood” – realize that wood can come in many different forms. There’s solid wood, plywood, particle board, and medium density fiberboard (MDF) – all of which are made from real wood. To help you choose which product is best for your Forever Home, let’s dig into the details.
First, let’s define the materials.
SOLID WOOD
Just as it sounds, it’s a whole piece of wood – uniform all the way thru.
PLYWOOD
Slices of solid wood, as well as wood chips, compressed and glued together – usually veneered with a thin piece of maple on the finished side (on cabinets; most of what you see on plywood boards at big box stores is pine veneer).
Plywood box inside of a solid wood trim panel
Maple veneer, commonly found inside of plywood cabinet boxes
PARTICLE BOARD
Rough cut wood chips glued together at low density under heat and pressure (like the bookshelf you bought at Target for your college dorm room for $15).
MDF
Denser, heavier, and stronger than particle board, it’s made of wood fibers and adhesive formed into boards under pressure.
Now that we’ve covered material basics, let’s take a look at where these materials could be used in cabinet construction.
There are two main areas in which these wood products could be used to make cabinets: 1.) cabinet boxes and 2.) doors and drawer fronts.
Cabinet boxes are commonly made with either plywood, MDF, or particle board. Plywood, a multi-layered wood product that will not shrink or warp, is used in high end cabinetry and is also the most expensive option. MDF, a little cheaper than plywood, is another great option for box construction, which has good strength properties. The cheapest, and weakest material for cabinet box construction, is particle board. There are various grades of particle board, but overall particle board boxes do not have a good record of holding up over long periods of time (highly susceptible to warping and water damage). Some of the higher end particle board products seek to minimize this risk, so if you’re on a tight budget it pays to do considerable research before choosing a particle board cabinet box.
Both examples below, from Fehrehbacher, show plywood with a maple veneer on the finished box interiors.
MDF and particle board do not have a wood grain so they will always be covered in some sort of hard coating. MDF could be coated in either a hard paint or laminate – a sort of plastic foil which comes in many different colors and wood prints, although white is the most common. The laminate coating, also referred to as melamine or thermofoil, protects the fibers from moisture and gives it a finished look. It is also possible to apply a wood veneer to MDF but this is rarely seen. Particle board, because of its rough texture, would generally only have a laminate finish applied since paint would not go on smoothly.
Particle board cabinet box covered in white melamine
Doors and drawer fronts are generally either solid wood, MDF, particle board, or some combination of these.
Reclaimed Oak shaker style cabinets – likely solid wood rails and stiles with solid wood panels
Bleached White Oak island at Patina Farm – likely solid wood panels
Solid wood rails and stiles combined with MDF panels is commonly seen with a high end painted finish.
Painted MDF panels with solid wood rails and stiles – awaiting paint
MDF doors and drawer fronts with a painted taupe finish
MDF doors and drawer fronts covered in gray thermofoil
Particle board doors and drawer fronts covered in white melamine
You can see that there are a variety of materials used in cabinet construction, which correspond to several different price points. Hopefully this helps you to understand the material options available as we work on the cabinet design of your Forever Home.
