I am putting painted MDF cabinets in my $150k kitchen remodel.

I have had MDF cabinets in my kitchen for 15 years. No issues to date. My island cabinets are stained Maple.

Did any of you feel like you were going cheap as opposed to full hardwood? Maybe I am the only one with this problem.

The seams that could crack are in the rails and stiles which are hardwood then. So it doesn’t matter whether I go with MDF or not? The paint could still crack in those hardwood areas?

I didn’t feel like I was going cheap. I wanted the most dimensionally stable option for my painted cabs. That is mdf. They’re still beautiful, custom, high quality (and expensive). As to set expectations for yourself, hairline cracks will happen, regardless of substrate material, regardless of how you baby them. Go to your local showrooms that show quality brands: Rutt, Plato, Plain and Fancy, Mouser, Crystal, Grabill. Look close - they’ll all have hairline cracks. If this really bothers you, perhaps painted cabinets aren’t the best option.

We have installed IKEA kitchens in multi-million dollar homes.

Ok, this helps me get my head around these things. I guess what matters the most is the quality of the drawer boxes. Dovetail, plywood construction.

Yes, one-piece doors made of MDF will look cheap. If it's just a flat panel that is MDF, then you won't see the difference.

I don't understand the obsession with painted doors "cracking" at the seams. I have had painted cabinets (solid maple rails, stiles, and reverse raised panels) in my current kitchen for 14 years, and not a single crack. I have painted cabinets (solid maple rails and stiles, and plywood panels) in my rental properties, and there aren't any cracks there, either. While the rental properties are obviously heated in the winter (forced air so very dry), they do not have air conditioning in the summer and it gets very humid here.

Not a thing wrong with single piece CNC’d MDF. It performs far better for people’s demands for paint and zero movement perfection than does their ridiculous mental attachment to “real wood”. They want their cake and to eat it too, which cannot happen.

“Real wood” does real world things like this, when people do not have museum level humidity control and never open their windows and doors.

In the lines I sell, an all-MDF door is an upgrade.

We have painted wood (poplar) rails and stiles with MDF panels, and are happy with that 12 years in. I wanted wood for the panels but our cabinetmaker felt strongly that MDF was better for painted cabinetry to avoid cracks.

@Verbo said, "Not a thing wrong with single piece CNC’d MDF. It performs far better for people’s demands for paint and zero movement perfection than does their ridiculous mental attachment to “real wood”.

I have no attachment to real wood, I have been here defending MDF for years, however, you are simply wrong. I have a CNC machine and have cut a lot of MDF on it. MDF is a great material but it lacks the grain bond of many other wood products.

While this is a massive oversimplification, it is a useful one: Real wood and plywood fibers are like strands of hair attached their entire length, wood fibers can have several inches of adhesion to surrounding wood fibers. MDF is taking a single particle of that fiber adhering it on all sides. It makes for an incredible workable and good product, but the adhesion is in nanometer range. This means it chips much easier than wood products do, which is why it is often encased when used on edges. This is also why MDF has no structural strength.

You can achieve decent results with a hi-build type coating but it will still be substandard to wood rails and stiles.

All MDF doors are not equal. Sometimes the details are less sharp than if executed in solid wood. Whatever you do, GET A SAMPLE in YOUR chosen style and finish before committing.

[Dovetailed drawers aren't really necessary nowadays either--but nicer cabinetry uses them because they once were a sign of needed quality.

Modern drawer slides make the strength of dovetails overkill. Those old drawers that you'd have to wax the wood channels to get them in and out? Without dovetails, you could pull the front off when you tried to open them.

Naturally, my drawers are all dovetailed. :)]

We had a solid maple custom cabinets installed with our kitchen remodel in 2001. 2017 and the clear finish had started to yellow and water spots were showing by the sink area. So we had them painted in BM white dove. Still looks great. Not a crack anywhere! And dovetail was a more important feature before the invention of the soft close drawers.