howdy neighbor, eh.
Minot nd ringing in, the mdf will not crack where there is a very good chance that the maple will show them in the future. We have had a lot of folks have our shop make the cabinets and order the mdf doors for us to paint

We went with the wood instead of MDF because our KD said the only real difference we will notice is overtime the MDF will not change color and the wood on the doors will (doors are all wood). He also said that I can take a scratch pen and color in scratches on the wood and I won't be able to do that with MDF. For all I know, he couldn't be BSing me but it was only 10% more for the plywood so we just went with it.

laurielep

I'm confused are you talking about the doors or the cabinet boxes?

leanne 123

The only downside I have heard about MDF are that the exta weight can cause the hinges to fail prematurely, of course screw holding isn't as good in MDF as it is in wood and MDF dents easier than solid wood. Honestly I don't put much stock in any of those criticisms. Given the climate issues none of these would dissuade me from going with MDF.

Thanks everyone for your input. I think we're going to go with the MDF doors. I like the look of it when painted and its a little more economically priced. After my post, I visited a kitchen showroom looking for painted wood cabinets. The set up that I saw showed a lot of cracks, not only in the doors, but in the cabinet boxes as well. Personally, for me, I think that would bother me over time.