Plywood vs MDF for painted cabinets - what I picked and why

I was stuck deciding between birch plywood and MDF for a set of 12 kitchen cabinets I'm building for a client in Austin. I went with MDF because it's way smoother for painting and the price difference was about $300 total for the whole job. The cut edges need good priming but so far the finish is way cleaner than my plywood jobs. Any of you had issues with MDF sagging on wider doors over time?

2 comments

2 Comments

perez.barbara1mo ago

Wait, you only saved $300 total on 12 cabinets going with MDF over plywood? That seems like a steal honestly, I've seen bigger differences on smaller jobs. I did almost the same thing for my own kitchen last year and the MDF doors still look perfect, no sagging at all on my wider ones (like 20 inches across) but I used those heavy duty European hinges with the extra screws.

patel.daniel1mo ago

Right there with you on the hinges. I did the exact same thing with heavy duty European hinges on my MDF cabinets. @perez.barbara is spot on about that making a huge difference. The extra screws keep everything tight and straight. I even went with the soft close ones just because they feel solid. People always think MDF will sag but with good hardware it's not even a problem.