TaylorCraft Cabinet Door Company white kitchen cabinets with M101 mitered doors and flat panelPainted cabinets and cabinet doors are timeless and beautiful, and based on the number of painted displays at the 2016 Kitchen and Bath Industry Testify, they are extremely popular across all price points.

Which base material makes the best painted cabinet door is a source of much debate between cabinetmakers. Below we give pros and cons of the most common options so you can weigh the differences and make the decision for yourself.

Open Grain Wood Species

We don't typically recommend open grain woods similar scarlet oak, white oak and ash for painted cabinet doors due to the porous, prominent woodgrain texture that shows through the paint, creating a rough finish. Some remodelers or homeowners wanting to reuse and paint over existing cabinet doors in an open-grained cloth, take several actress steps like filling in the woodgrain with putty or sealer and sanding the surface and so it is polish before applying pigment.

Closed Grain Forest Species

Common closed-grain fabric options for painted cabinet doors include soft maple, difficult maple, poplar and hardwood frame with Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) panel.

kitchen with black island and gray perimeter cabinetsPainting Solid Hardwood vs MDF

Paint grade hardwood frame combined with an MDF panel is a top-selling combination. Many cabinetmakers prefer an MDF panel considering of the stability MDF panels provide against motility and potential paint cracks betwixt the panel and frame. The relatively narrow stiles and rail framing the console typically remain more than stable than the wide piece of wood that makes up the door panel.

Difficult Maple, Soft Maple, Poplar: Tiptop Picks for Painted Cabinet Doors

Some cabinet makers and homeowners adopt solid woods cabinet doors, considering they want to stay abroad from adhesives used to bond the fibers in MDF or they desire the ability to strip downward the fabric and repaint at a later date. This grouping typically chooses solid hard maple, soft maple or poplar frame and panel for their doors.

Despite the proper noun, soft maple is still considered a hardwood. Equally mentioned in our commodity Hard Maple vs Soft Maple Cabinet Doors, soft maple'south hardness rating on the Janka Hardness scale is 950 while hard maple is rated at 1450. The difference is pregnant yet soft maple is still a very difficult wood.  Soft maple is harder than alder, African mahogany and poplar, and is a great choice for painted cabinet doors.

Pigment grade poplar is typically the least expensive paint-grade material option, with soft maple existence the mid price point and hard maple being the highest. Poplar is not equally stable as maple and customers typically choose it for it'south lower price point.

Poplar is considered a hard forest although it is not quite as hard every bit soft maple or hard maple.  Encounter the Janka hardness rating scale below for a comparison of pop wood species hardness.

TaylorCraft Cabinet Door Company Wood Species Hardness Rating

For a consummate description and photo examples of poplar, soft maple and difficult maple, meet our wood material description pages.

Let u.s. know your material choice for painted cabinets and cabinet doors and why you lot like that option best. We'd love to become your feedback!

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