One of the most crucial decisions you'll have to make when shopping for new kitchen cabinet shaker doors is the material. The materials chosen for cabinet door construction are often determined by the style desired, as each has its own a mix of benefits and drawbacks. We've divided it down for you by material to help dispel some myths and explain the optimal applications of different cabinetry materials.

Cabinet Doors Made of Plywood
When it comes to slab or flat panel shaker wood door, plywood is rarely utilized, yet it is the material of choice for some cabinet builders. Plywood with a hardwood veneer that is suitable for furniture over a softwood plywood core can be used to make solid slab doors. An excellent match to the fronts can be achieved by applying veneer tape to the edges. Because the layered nature of plywood prevents the face from being machined, they are only suitable for slab form doors. Plywood provides a robust foundation for cabinet boxes, but it has limitations when utilized for cabinet doors.

The mdf shaker cabinet doors come in a range of forms and colours. Staining doors are often made of solid hardwood doors in maple, oak, or cherry with a professionally applied finish
that accentuates and retains the inherent beauty of the wood grain. With a little sanding and a coat of matching stain, scratches and dents on sturdy and resilient wood doors may be repaired.

Solid wood, no matter how strong it is, is prone to expansion and contraction when exposed to changing humidity levels. Shaker Doors, like solid wood entry doors, expand in high humidity as moisture is absorbed and shrink as the air dries out in the winter. Humidity fluctuations can cause the joints between the rails to move slightly as the wood expands or contracts since most cabinet doors are built of stiles and rails that frame a center panel. Small motions can induce a hairline fracture in the painted surface, leaving a black line at the joint on a painted door. As the seasons pass and the wood expands and contracts, these breaks can cause the paint to chip at the joints, resulting in a less-than-perfect appearing door in a matter of years.

MDF Kitchen Cabinet Doors
MDF, or Medium Density Fiberboard, is a produced wood product that mixes wood fibers and resin, similar to plywood. MDF is formed of compressed wood fibres and glue, whereas plywood is made of thin wood layers glued together with pressure and glue. Wood chips are cleaned, washed, and fed into a defibrator, which uses spinning discs to break down the wood chips into small fibres. The fibers are then dipped in wax and resin before being dried and fluffy. The fluffy fibres are then organized into mats and crushed by heat and pressure to produce the thick sheets of material you may find at your local home improvement store.

MDF is more durable than hardwood and has a smooth, grain-free surface.Thus, MDF is an excellent choice for painting cabinet doors. Because of its volume and regular structure, MDF can be processed using high-speed CNC cutting equipment to create a variety of different 3-D profiles that are suitable for cabinet doors.

The two-piece wood shaker doors have a single component that forms the four-sided frame and another piece that serves as the center panel. Although MDF expands and contracts less than hardwoods, the frame and the center of the door move together because they are composed of the same material. There are no joints to split because the shaker frame is machined as a single piece.


Solid wood doors are more difficult to produce a glass-like painted finish because deep grain and knots generate rough regions that paint highlights, but MDF doors have a super the smooth and consistent surface that allows for a high-end painted finish.