maple or birch or poplar for painted kitchen cabinets? durability and density...

[Andy D Jones]

20 years is still a long time. Kids, dogs, my wife - they all take a toll on cabinetry.

John

Oh, in other words, everyone but you is hard on the cabinetry?

On the other hand, if you're the one who painstakingly built, finished and installed the cabinetry, then one might expect you to be more kind to your cabinetry.

Andy - Arlington TX

[Jared Sankovich]

Oh, in other words, everyone but you is hard on the cabinetry?

On the other hand, if you're the one who painstakingly built, finished and installed the cabinetry, then one might expect you to be more kind to your cabinetry.

Andy - Arlington TX

I wouldn't expect anyone be overly kind with cabinets. The cost difference between poplar and maple on a kitchen worth of stock is negligible compared to how much more durable it is.

I've seen poplar shelf edging destroyed in a year or two from glasses dinging it in a house with no kids. Even a once a month ding from putting dishes away adds up over a year.

[Jim Becker]

my plywood supplier has a new product, it's a birch UV prefinished on one side, and a primed paper face on the other - interior glue (unlike MDO), and perfect for painted casework. i think it's a Garnica product, and i don't know how widely available it is... but it'll absolutely be my choice for painted work in the near future.

That sounds like a great solution for the sheet goods for painted cabinets!

[Amber Williams]

I like maple the best. We have painted maple cabinets being done right now for our kitchen renovation, actually! Although we're still deciding what color countertop to pair it with, thankfully we found a good guide from Caesarstone (in case you'd also like to read it, click here). Wishing you the best no matter what you go with!

[Paul J Kelly]

I want to add Beech to the list.

Beech rails and stiles with an MDF panel paints amazingly well and holds up to a lot of use.

Painters like Beech, I have been told.

PK

[Rich Engelhardt]

Birch carcasses - poplar doors.

Maple is too pretty to cover up with paint.

[Mel Fulks]

Jared, thanks for putting a number on that air drying , much better than my “some” !

[Leo Graywacz]

I hate Poplar for doors. It's soft, it moves to much with the humidty, it doesn't paint well with pro paints (CV, Precat, paints well with a brush). Soft Maple doesn't really look good, colors are all over the place. Paints great, it's hard and the seasonal movement is more than half that of Poplar. The only thing Poplar has going for it is it is cheaper than Maple.

IMHO

[Cary Falk]

I vote for hard maple. If you put all that time and effort into them why wouldn't you want them as durable as possible. All the cabinet doors in my house, painted or stained are hard maple.

[John TenEyck]

You know from experience, Leo, no questions about that from me, but The Shrinkulator at Woodbin gives the following information for 2 stiles at 2.25" = 4.50" total, going from 5 to 10% moisture content.

Red Maple = 0.03" radial expansion, 0.06" tangential
Yellow Birch = 0.05" and 0.07"
Yellow Poplar = 0.03" and 0.06"

It doesn't seem like any of them would be a problem even with inset doors with a typical reveal.

John

[Leo Graywacz]

Don't care what the theory is. Real world has always been Poplar moves way more for me at least. In the beginning I used a lot of Poplar for doors and I always had to come back to shave something off. I've had just a couple with Maple and they were on bigger doors.

And .03" is a 32nd. You have two stiles and that a 16th and a pair of doors is an 1/8th. So it adds up quick because you don't get to expand on the hinge side of the door, just pushes outward.