Best Wood for Painted Cabinet Doors
Updated December 2, 2024
Solid wood is not the best option for painted cabinet doors. So what is? Learn why Cutting Edge recommends painting MDF doors.
You landed on this article to learn which option is best for painted cabinet doors. Should you choose the traditional paint-grade wood or the more modern MDF? What will work best for you and your customers? And most importantly, which choice will give you the fewest headaches while helping you maintain your reputation for quality?
At Cutting Edge, we’ve been working with wood and cabinet doors for over 20 years, and with our in-house finishing booth, we’ve gained plenty of hands-on experience with all the available products. Plus, we’re always gathering feedback from professionals like you to ensure we understand how each option performs in a kitchen.
In this article, we combine our insights, customer opinions, and the latest market trends so you can make an educated decision on the best materials for painted cabinet doors. Which of these six options should you choose?
The Criteria Used to Define the Best Wood for Painted Cabinet Doors
Our team compared these six products across four categories to determine the best option and why that option is the best. We ranked each product on a scale from 1-10 within each category, with one being the worst possible score and ten being the best.
The categories are:
1. Quality
Will this product cause you and your customers problems in the long run? How difficult are those problems to prevent or repair? How much will those issues cost you?
2. Durability
Will these cabinet doors last as long as the average product, or will you need to replace them sooner?
3. Workability
How easy is this product to work with? Will you have to put in time and effort to get a high-quality finish?
4. Popularity
How popular is this product? Do a lot of people order it?
2-Way Tie for the Best Wood for Painted Cabinet Doors
When we totalled the results, we had a two-way tie between 1-piece MDF and paint-grade wood with an MDF panel.
| Quality | Durability | Workability | Popularity | Total Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Piece MDF | 8 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 35 |
| Paint-Grade Wood With an MDF Panel | 7 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 35 |
| 5-Piece MDF | 9 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 33 |
| 2-Piece MDF | 7 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 32 |
| Paint-Grade Wood With a Plywood Panel | 5 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 23 |
| Paint-Grade Wood With a Solid Wood Panel | 1 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 15 |
However, these numbers are only so helpful. You need to understand how these products compare in real life. So, keep reading for a more detailed review of how well each option works for painted cabinet doors.
How Well Each Option Works for Painted Cabinet Doors
Here is a review of each product in order of the results in the chart above.
1. 1-Piece MDF
1-piece MDF is one of the most popular options for painted cabinet doors. Approximately half of the painted cabinet doors we produce are 1-piece MDF.
The popularity of 1-piece MDF has rapidly increased over the last five years thanks to higher-quality MDF becoming available. This higher-quality material makes 1-piece MDF doors easy to finish.
In addition, 1-piece MDF doors are unlikely to cause major warranty issues. If a problem does occur, you should be able to repair the doors easily. And honestly, manufacturing defects are the reason for most issues with 1-piece MDF doors. You should be able to get replacement pieces or some form of credit from your supplier if you notice the problem within their warranty period.
The main drawback to 1-piece MDF is its durability. MDF is very soft; you can easily dent, scratch, or chip MDF doors.
2. Paint-Grade Wood With an MDF Panel
Next is paint-grade wood with an MDF panel, another popular option for painted cabinet doors.
The paint-grade wood frame is stronger than MDF and thus more durable.
However, the paint-grade wood slightly reduces both the quality and workability. Wood will move over time, and eventually, that movement will crack the painted finish along the joints of the cabinet door. These cracks aren’t a structural issue alone, but they expose the wooden frame to moisture and can cause problems later.
Plus, wood is more difficult to finish because of its natural characteristics. For example, you might discover cracks and splits that were hidden until you put the first coat of primer on. In this case, you must fill those cracks and splits before applying the next coat of paint or primer.
Regardless, paint-grade wood with an MDF panel is still among the top three options.
3. 5-Piece MDF
Now for 5-piece MDF. This option is less popular than either 1-piece MDF or paint-grade wood with an MDF panel.
However, it has one advantage over these two options.
For one thing, 5-piece MDF is less likely to have problematic machining or manufacturing defects than 1-piece MDF. And, compared to paint-grade wood with an MDF panel, hairline cracks are rarely an issue.
However, 5-piece MDF doors are between paint-grade wood with an MDF panel and 1-piece MDF for workability. It is easier to finish than paint-grade wood because it doesn’t have any of the natural characteristics of wood. However, it is more difficult to finish than 1-piece MDF because the manufacturing process exposes more of the inner MDF core.
Here’s what happens. To produce a ¾” thick 5-piece MDF door, we have to start with a slightly thicker sheet of MDF. The extra thickness gets removed as we machine the MDF to make the door components. The problem is that the thickness we remove is the outer resin layers – the most durable and easy-to-finish part of the MDF. Once the resin layer is gone, the MDF is less durable and harder to finish.
The main drawback of 5-piece MDF doors is their durability. Again, this is an MDF product, which means it is easy to dent, chip, or scratch. Because the resin layer is gone, 5-piece MDF is more likely to dent and chip than other MDF products.
4. 2-Piece MDF
2-piece MDF is up next. This option is equally as popular as 5-piece MDF. Several years ago, it was on par (or maybe even more popular) than 1-piece MDF. However, as the quality of 1-piece MDF improved, 2-piece MDF has become less popular.
This switch occurred because 2-piece MDF addressed the problem with machining quality seen on 1-piece MDF, which caused additional labour. As higher-quality MDF became available, the machining issues on 1-piece MDF became less of a problem.
2-piece MDF often uses lower quality MDF, which makes it more difficult to finish than 1-piece MDF. The quality is also lower because 2-piece MDF doors can have other problems that show up through your coat of finish, such as rough MDF or bumps caused by overspray of the contact cement or glue used to hold the two pieces of MDF together.
However, 2-piece MDF doors are not a bad option, sitting slightly lower in the scoreboard than 5-piece MDF.
5. Paint-Grade Wood With a Plywood Panel
This option is less popular than the other options we’ve looked at thus far. The lower popularity is due, in part, to the issues caused by this product combination.
Although solid wood is more durable than MDF, it has other problems. The solid wood frame is likely to move, which will eventually cause the paint along the joints to split.
In addition, solid wood is likely to have characteristics like cracks or splits that show up during finishing, requiring additional work to cover up. Plus, the plywood panels are also difficult to finish thanks to cracks and splits in the veneer. Your first coat of primer will be rough and require a lot of sanding and filling to smooth out.
Paint-grade wood with a plywood panel is still an option because some customers fear the formaldehyde emissions caused by MDF, and thus, want to avoid that option. Unfortunately, more and more plywood panels have an MDF core, meaning there is one final option.
6. Paint-Grade Wood With a Solid Wood Panel
We’re going to be bluntly honest with you here. Painted cabinet doors with a solid wood panel are a bad choice.
Yes, the solid wood is exceptionally durable. However, the many drawbacks of this option outweigh the durability.
Firstly, solid wood moves over time. When you compound this problem by adding a solid wood panel, you will quickly end up with warranty issues as the paint splits and cracks or the solid panel shrinks and exposes raw wood.
Plus (this is the last time we say this, I promise), you will have trouble getting a good-quality finish on solid wood. You can discover additional defects with each coat of paint or primer.
Thanks to these and other issues, solid wood paint-grade cabinet doors are not a popular option.
Paint-Grade Wood vs MDF For Painted Cabinet Doors
You understand better than anyone else how selling a product that will cause warranty issues will damage your reputation. You can’t risk offering a poor-quality product that will make your customers unhappy.
So, you came here to learn more about your options for painted cabinet doors. Now that Cutting Edge has guided you through the basics, your next step is to learn more about how paint-grade wood compares to MDF.
