Material for Drawer Fronts

[Jim Dwight]

I have the 10 drawers made for the cabinet I'm working on for a utility room off my garage. Carcase is pine plywood, drawers are 1/2 Sandeply with 5mm underlayment plywood bottoms. 100% extension drawer slides. Nothing fancy. Now I need to make the drawer fronts and a couple doors for a third section of the cabinet. The kitchen has flat panel doors and drawer fronts that look like flat panel drawers. I could do this. I would like to keep the cost down and even if I use softwood it will cost more than plywood. MDF would be the cheapest, I think, but I just don't like it at all. I could just make flat panels of plywood (or MDF).

I think I will just paint whatever I make. I'm leaning towards using 3/4 plywood, either as flat panels or using it for the frames and some panels out of left over 5mm plywood. It will not take paint as well as MDF but it is nicer to work with and stronger. I guess flat panels would use less of the 3/4 plywood and look nicer.

Other thoughts? I should probably call the place I normally get hardwood from and see what they have at a good price. I wouldn't be surprised if I could buy rough sawn but dry hardwood for less than softwood at the big box stores.

[Jamie Buxton]

If you're going to paint it, and cost is a primary issue, MDF is the answer. You know that.

If you just can't stand working with MDF, rough-sawn poplar at my hardwood dealer costs less than the knot-filled pine at Home Depot, and it is dry and flat.

[Jim Becker]

GIven the application, if you are comfortable with the appearance of the edges that plywood will bring, even when painted, that would be the simplest and cost effective way to make these drawer fronts. You can certainly band them with veneer or solid stock if you want, too. Just pick plywood that has a surface that you'll also find acceptable. I'd probably use MDO because it's uber smooth, but certainly not inexpensive compared to the material you've already used. The "Sande" plywood may be smooth enough and again, if the edges bother you, band them before painting. MDF would certainly work, but it's darn heavy and dusty to deal with.

[Mel Fulks]

If you're going to paint it, and cost is a primary issue, MDF is the answer. You know that.

If you just can't stand working with MDF, rough-sawn poplar at my hardwood dealer costs less than the knot-filled pine at Home Depot, and it is dry and flat.

Exactly! I've always thought there would be a lot less resistance to using MDF if they sold in different skin tones ....
then you could stop and get a beer before going home.

[roger wiegand]

I used prefinished maple 3/4" ply for my fronts in the shop. Only a few bucks more than paint grade material and it looks really nice. I edge banded it, but you don't have to, the stuff I buy is pretty much void free and looks ok sanded and finished

[Bruce King]

I saw drawer fronts from a 1950’s kitchen that used 3/4 plywood for the fronts. They angle cut all 4 sides but left 1/4 at front edges before the cut started. It was stained and darkened over time. Looked cool with the plys showing.

[Jim Dwight]

Thanks guys. The leftover 3/4 plywood I have (I set the drawer slides back 3/4 of an inch) is pine from Chile purchased at HD. It has surprisingly few voids so I will probably just cut it to size and paint it. It will still obviously be plywood but for this room, that is OK. The drawers are obviously plywood too. I am finishing everything because there is a sink in this room so it will be fairly humid at least sometimes but I left the edge of the plywood showing on the drawers. So I don't see much point in doing the drawer fronts differently. Maybe I'll change my mind on banding the edges. It does make it look significantly better. I'll have to sand the faces after priming but with that I think it will paint up OK. I am also debating putting a chamfer or roundover on the edges to hide any minor misalignment of the adjacent fronts. It would expose the next ply but something like this that is consistent can become a design feature. I might tack a few up before deciding.

[Brian Tymchak]

You can fill the edges of plywood with joint compound to smooth the edges. It takes additional work but it will mask the plys on the edge. And it's an easy experiment to try.

I did this for some shelves in my garage. Since they were utility shelves (1/2" birch ply), I didn't sand after the primer so that left edge a bit rough, but they could have been a very smooth finish if I had invested the effort.

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[Jon Endres]

I'm of the opinion that drawer fronts and cabinet doors are something that you always have to look at. Even in a shop or utility room, I think they should be nice quality and not junk like MDF or worse, particle board. I'm going to be working on shop cabinets over the winter and my plan is to showcase different species and types of wood in each drawer front and each cabinet door. It may turn out like crap, who knows? At least it's something I can appreciate. Another idea is to use an A-grade of plywood and match the faces all the way across or down the cabinet, you can still edgeband it.

[Adam Herman]

for a built in storage area in a previous house, i just used some birch ply with iron on edge band. finished with some oil base spar varnish, they looked great and help up well. it was just the home depot birch ply. hell, for a shop i would consider doing it out of white melamine and iron on the white edge banding.

[Jim Dwight]

Jon,

I like that idea and used it for some drawers in my shop. I used different species of wood and also different joinery techniques.

I watched a youtube this morning and it gave me another idea. John Heinz built a cabinet where he used home made drawer pulls glued full length to the drawer fronts. That would also hide the edge of the plywood on the top - the most visible edge. I will soon go to my shop and try to make something like this. I have a lot of oak scraps I could use and some cherry. I think I would still paint the plywood but I could tape off the pull and clear finish it. If it looks good this is probably what I will do. I would like the cabinet to look decent but I am still trying not to spend a lot on it.

Jim