# Best wood for painted face frame cabinets



## Alan (Mar 27, 2009)

I'm a hobby woodworker looking to build some frames for some new cabinets. These are going to be painted. I'm assuming that pine is not the thing to use. What is the best material here? Is it poplar? For the sides (carcasses) would you recommend plywood or mdf?

Lastly, for raised panels, do most people glue up their own pieces and then router them? Does anybody use MDF for such purposes? If using a built-up, would pine work for that or again, would you use the same material that the face frames are made of?

Thanks.


----------



## adeptr (Jul 8, 2008)

Alan........

Poplar would be a good choice for the frames. It is tight pored and would take the paint very well. I recently made two hallway benches out of poplar and it is very easy to work with. I made the cases out of the poplar on these two pieces also because they were stained instead of painted but that can get a little pricy. If your cases are not going to be exposed, I would opt to use birch plywood probably. I personally don't like working with MDF. Clear select pine would also probably work well but has splitting tendencies sometimes.

However, I recenly made some raised panels for a couple of doors and frames for my brother to put in his new retirement cottage loft, and these worked really well. He was going to finish them natural instead of painting them though.

Hope this helps some. I would wait and see if some others have differenct experiences and/or recommendations.

Dave
http://www.oldaveswoodshop.com


----------



## bzbatl (Feb 10, 2009)

Agree with poplar.


----------



## ~WoodChuck~ (Jan 17, 2009)

maple would be the best but poplar would be much cheaper. I would stay away from mdf for the doors. I would use a cabinet grade plywood for the shell of the cabinet.


----------



## firefighteremt153 (Jan 25, 2008)

Im with Alan on this. Im about to start building some painted cabinets and was wonering if I could use MDF for just the raised panels or should I just do a glue up of solid wood?


----------



## Alan (Mar 27, 2009)

Thank you all for your responses!!


----------



## mmtools (Aug 21, 2008)

I have used poplar with success. It is stable and easy to mill.


----------



## bzbatl (Feb 10, 2009)

I've seen MDF done for raised panels, but they had a melamine (I think) covering over them. When I took the plastic off the doors, the MDF underneath had the same profile. MDF paints up just fine.


----------



## brett (Apr 3, 2009)

there are many was of going about this pros and cons. my best advise would be to use mdf or a birch plwood to build the cabinet, both will take paint real well. as the faceing goes popular our maple would work both work well, as for doors mdf or birch fiber core, you can route them our leave.work well when you dont have time to build doors. i've used this process be for any times and never had a problem with them


----------

