Solid timber kitchen cabinets with plywood carcasses?

Hi!
I've been trying to a bit of research into kitchen cabinet options and, as with most things, I've gotten pretty confused!

The kitchen in the house we are building will have an island set up and we'd like to have timber doors/drawers on the island (and probably 2pac poly for the tall wall cabinetry).

I've read a few different things when it comes to using solid timber doors etc - most of them say that the carcasses used are standard HMR whiteboard, but then I came across a website that suggests that using plywood carcasses is a much better option with solid timber doors?!

Just wondering if anyone has any advice or experience with solid timber kitchens? Any help would be appreciated!!!

Thanks
Adam

Melamine coated HMR chipboard is a very suitable and cost effective carcass material.

Plywood (especially marine ply) is significantly more expensive...that is if you use Australian ply of course...

In structural applications I would favour ply over HMR chipboard but unless the carcasses are going to be visible I would have a bit of a problem justifying using 16mm or more of ply, especially as it would still need to be waterproofed after cutting - melamine coated board is already waterproof on the faces and only needs edging after cutting.

If the HMR chipboard is properly finished it should last as long as plywood and (as said) the nature of carcass construction is such that there is no significant load bearing advantage of choosing ply.

If you are concerned about the white melamine being visible between the gaps of doors and drawers, which is an appreciable and realistic concern if you are going the for solid timber or timber veneer doors, you can get your melamine carcass boards edged with a matching wood look material on all leading edges - will cost a bit more but is still more economical than using ply all round.

My brother recently built a complete kitchen from marine ply for himself out at Royalla, but only because he had a fair bit of the board left over from construction of his "cabin" and has all the equipment to do it himself - and I have got to say that I think the look is ordinary at best; I prefer a white carcass for the better visiblity inside and more easily being able to see when it needs cleaning.

Cheers,

Earl

Hi Earl!

Thanks very much for the comprehensive response! That's definitely made things make a lot more sense to me

Maintaining the timber 'look' for the island cabinetry is certainly important to us, but we're not that worried about the inside being white melamine (my partner, Kerry, wants white everything, so maybe I can convince her that white inner cabinetry is enough...and I can win the debate over couch colours!!

Do you happen to have any thoughts on the pros/cons of having solid timber cabinet doors as opposed to timber veneer - and vice versa??

Thanks again
Adam

Hi Adam! You're very welcome...I am an ex Canberran and always feel a bit of a pang when I read commentary from people up there.



White carcasses are good - but as mentioned in my previous post, if you go with any sort of timber or dark finish give a thought to the potential of the white edges of the carcasses showing through the gaps between doors and drawers; these gaps can vary between 2mm to 4mm depending on the tolerancing used by your fabricator.

On the more ubiquitous white/pale coloured kitchens this is not really obvious but I have seen darker kitchens where this really stands out - of course it depends on whether you are going for a lighter or darker wood grain.

If you can, check out some display kitchens timber doors and white carcasses to make sure which way you want to go with the edge banding...and don't let anyone tell you that they can't do edges in a different colour to the rest of the board.



In my experience there is not a lot of perceivable difference between a good veneer job and solid timber, especially under a couple of layers of polyurethane or tung oil.

The two significant differences between the materials are price and application.

Solid timber is more expensive (can be a lot more expensive) than veneer but can have profiles or patterns machined onto the face and edges of a board where a veneer can only be applied in an uninterupted plane (well strictly speaking you can machine a veneered surface but you will reveal the substrate if you do).

There are a few other little tricks that can be done with beading and build outs to make a veneer more "three dimensional" but as a rule veneer is for flat applications only.

So if you want radiussed/bevelled edges or a "heritage" pattern on the timber you really need to go for solid doors but if you want a flat square edged look veneer will be fine.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Earl

Thanks again Earl.

We're going for flat panel, wenge for the island cabinetry - so pretty dark! The tall kitchen cabinetry will be something lighter in 2pac poly (satin finish)...the island benchtop will be a combination of stainless steel and probably caesarstone...and the floor will be tiled in a light coloured, 'concrete-look' tile...

Hopefully it will all work out how we want it to!

We have kinda 'borrowed' the idea from a Poliform kitchen we really liked the look of...so fingers crossed!!