Painted kitchen, BUT how?????

[BradNaylor]

Having just completed a painted kitchen (photos in projects forum) I would advise the use of MR MDF thoughout. Poplar or tulipwood is very soft - as soft as pine - and in my experience dents easily in use. MR MDF on the other hand is very hard and takes a painted finish beautifully.

MR MDF is the green stuff available through specialist stockists, not to be confused with ordinary MDF from B&Q!

 

[Mark.R]

Dan Tovey;

Thanks for your update and advice to use the MDF option. I have thought about using it many times for ease of taking the paint, but was put off after realising the material is totally artificial and really is a hardened cardboard! Well on a bad day, thats my opinion on what MDF actually is, though I do use it here and there and respect its uses.

Its for this reason that when I am trying to achieve a quality kitchen, I find it difficult to get my head around that its not a quality timber.

I guess this is nothing but short sightedness on my part as no doubt most quality kitchen manufacturers use this material for painted kitchens, and are able to get a quality product at the end of it.

Perhaps I will make the actual door/drawer frames from timber, but use mdf for the infill?

Mark.r

 

[Steve Maskery]

MR MDF is the green stuff available through specialist stockists, not to be confused with ordinary MDF from B&Q!

I was in my local timberyard the other day and they had a big sign up saying "It's not green but it's still MR" so it looks as if at least one manufacturer is trying to be green, as it were, by reducing its use of dyes.
S

 

[seaco]

I think the best thing to use if your going to paint the units is moisture resistant MDF, I used it for mine then spray painted it all come out really well and has lasted now from memory about 3 years without any problems at all...

 

[Mark.R]

Seaco;

Thanks for the photo of your kitchen. Looks great. I have been extremely grateful for the replies other woodworkers have made to me regarding their painting advice. Would you be able to do likewise and outline what kind of paint/finish you used on the kitchen in your photo?

Thanks

Mark.r
:wink:

 

[BradNaylor]

This is a kitchen I was involved in making and installing earlier this year before I went on my own.

Again, is was made entirely from MR MDF. This was then sprayed with AC lacquer but I had the facilities to hand then.

The other benefit of MDF for the door frames is that there is no shrinkage across the grain of the stiles. With solid wood you can often get slight cracks appearing at the joints where the wood has shrunk by an microscopic amount. Not a problem on a natural wood finish but it looks awful on a painted one.

In my view it is better for this job than solid wood!

Dan.