Interesting information. Thanks. I actually prefer a finish that isn't so shiny and "plasticky" feeling. I want my cabinets to be more like my vintage and antique furniture. Do you know what that is?

Hi ncamy - that's exactly my next question to myself, too. I'll report back what I figure out. Like you I (think I) prefer things not to have that thick, deep translucent shiny plasticy look. Come to think of it I bet that's "lacquer" as opposed to "varnish". But I'll let you know the next great chapter! Another of my questions is the role of "glaze".

Will the questions never end?

I think of varnish as being a type of finish (and finish as a generic term to apply to any treatment of the wood) but I'm sure woodworking people can steer you right on that.

On the California CARB question, though, there are two sets of rules guiding this: one is the rule about what you can emit while doing work like finishing, which is what prevents cabinetmakers and others from using traditional catalyzed finishes in state. Like that link says, there are many CARB compliant finishes out there, though I'm not sure anyone can say with certainty how they will perform side by side in the long run, since most are relatively new.

The second set of rules governs what cabinetry (and other woods) can emit themselves after they're finished, and that affects cabinets made *or* sold in California. A higher tier of rules just kicked in last month so I don't know if it knocked any players out of the marketplace, but in general the big companies have been watching this carefully. As of last year at the lower level of regulation, you could get most/all national lines here.

Interestingly, some of the small shops we talked to were willing to bend these rules on the paint front (and paint with oil-based, which is not allowed for residential use). The guy we ended up with was adamant about not doing this as he could potentially lose his license for it, and that seemed very reasonable. So we used low VOC paint, and I do have to say that I really love that it doesn't smell at all, in contrast to the oil-based, which the PO used on our old cabinetry. Very resilient/easy to clean, but still stinky months later. So there are upsides to being CARB-compliant. ;)

HTH!

Oh indeed I agree about the upside to CARB-compliance and the existence of these rules! My husband may grouse but for my part, I'd really very much rather these things be regulated to save me from my baser self. It's really hard to vote against your pocket-book in favor of intangible things like 'the environment' (even when as long-term committed as I), and generic, population-based observations not necessarily relevant to personal experience 'health' issues. (That is, just because VOCs are bad, statistically, for a population of people on average, doesn't mean your own personal self will be negatively affected -- I happen to think probably you *may* be, but that's not the point).

So I'm very attuned to all this confusing subtlety and nuance about where all this stuff is manufactured and why and why it is more or less durable and whether it's worth it and the tradeoffs, etc. I think it could well be that in the endless drive for better quality exclusively, we forget to incorporate other issues in these decisions like, say, the environment. Thus we appreciate the lower cost of cabinets made in Mexico but it's hard to factor in the costs of why it's cheaper.

Etc.

These are all very, very tricky kinds of decisions! Frankly, though I know many on this forum (or perhaps more so over in appliances) don't agree, I think asking our government to do some of the heavy-lifting in terms of these decisions for us is a good thing. Unfortunately as you point out, half these regulations are just side-stepped by crafting the stuff 'from away'.