We recently had kitchen cabinets made. We ordered Shaker style in maple. The cabinetmaker made the doors out of plywood with maple panels.
He said that the doors are maple and will not remake them. Are cabinet doors normally made from plywood? We thought we were getting
solid maple doors? These are very, very thin plywood. Are we being totally ripped off?
Taft, TN
- Ronald
Our Expert
Almost all kitchen cabinets are constructed from a combination of solid wood and plywood; plywood is strong, relatively inexpensive, and, unlike solid wood, it is very convenient when making the large panels needed for the construction of kitchen cabinets.
On better cabinets, solid wood is often used for structural areas that take a lot of strain and abuse while veneered plywood is used for much of the other components. For example, the framework of a stile-and-rail cabinet door is usually solid wood to provide strength at the corners. However, the panel is often plywood with a veneer to match the frame.
As for your cabinets, I seriously doubt that you've been "ripped off". That depends upon the wording in your contract for the cabinets. Unless the contract stated "solid maple throughout" the contractor was free to use veneered plywood. There are many reasons to use veneer: to create matching drawers and doors, to create visually appealing surfaces that cannot be created with solid wood, or simply to contain costs. In other words, veneer does not necessarily equate with lower quality. In fact, sometimes a veneered surface can costs considerably more than solid wood.
Even though the plywood in your cabinet doors is thin, it's most likely sufficient for strength. I suggest that you enjoy your cabinets and not worry that some of the components are plywood.
