The material that makes up the cabinet can be identified by one or more distinctive features and will help you determine if it is made of solid wood, plywood, medium-density fibreboard (MDF), or another particleboard. Distinctive features include things like grain, joint construction, texture, and color.
Kitchen cabinets are mostly made from wood and wood-based materials. The most popular of these materials include: hardwood, plywood, medium-density fiberboard, particleboard, and wood veneer.
If you feel the surface, hardwood typically has texture and grains, while laminate is hard, glassy, and has a plastic feel to it.
Look at the grain pattern. The texture of the grain determines what kind of wood it is. A wood has an open, porous texture. Softwoods are usually smooth with no grain pattern while hardwood usually has an open pore structure that is quite rough and sticky.
I.D. Wood is your Pocket Guide to Woods from around the world with full screen samples and detailed information for over 200 different woods. The standalone application will work with or without an Internet connection so that the samples and information are always at your fingertips. From the basic to the exotic, I.D.
Xylorix Inspector is an automated macroscopic wood identification mobile app. Given the 24x magnified anatomical visual information of the cross section (end-grain) of a timber, Xylorix Inspector uses its trained artificial intelligence models to identify the timber genus/species in a few seconds.
A sure way to recognize wood laminate is when the grain does NOT follow through your piece. Wood Veneer is a sheet or thin layer of 'quality-natural-hardwood' that is adhered to a lesser quality wood surface. Wood Veneers give the impression of a more desired quality wood without being as costly.
By far the most common cabinet material is wood, and there are several species that top the list of cabinet woods: red oak, white oak, hickory, cherry, hard maple, birch, ash and pine. Each species offers advantages and disadvantages, from durability to appearance to cost.
Types of Wood Cabinets. Wood cabinets range in color and style based on the material. Options include oak, maple, hickory, cherry, birch, ash, and pine.
IKEA cabinet boxes are made of fiberboard and melamine foil. Cabinet doors and drawer fronts are made of fiberboard. They are covered in melamine foil, paint, wood, or glass.
Wood Cabinets Have Dovetail Joints
Look inside the drawers and examine the joints between the door faces and the rest of the frame. If you see that the joint was assembled with interlocking "fingers," which is known as a dovetail joint, the drawer is likely made of solid wood.
HDF ( High Density Fibreboard/Hardboard) is like MDF in that it is a man-made composite panel product that is manufactured from compressed wood fibres. It is a stronger, harder product than MDF with a typical density of up to 900kg/m3.
If the underside of the furniture you are inspecting has a grain that looks completely different than the top, then it's a veneer. Top and bottom veneer pieces are made from two different pieces of wood, meaning they won't match.
A piece of natural oak wood can take on virtually any hue; from light beige through brown and red. While white oak tends to look more beige-to-brown and red oak looks rosier, it's not always easy to tell the difference between the various types of oak based on color alone.
Use leaves and bark for identifiers. Split wood may not have leaves, but often branches or twigs will have remnants of leaves that can identify firewood. Pines, cedars, firs and other softwoods have needles rather than leaves, which is a good identifier. Check the bark; there should be some on at least some logs.
Around the 5-7 year point, an MDF kitchen will exhibit significant age and wear signs. Although an MDF kitchen may be a less expensive option for a quick refresh, read on if you want something that will last!
If you're not sure what type of IKEA kitchen you have you can tell by looking at the holes inside a cabinet: AKURUM cabinets have a single row of holes along the edge and SEKTION cabinets have a double row.
Thermofoil cabinets are a unique type of cabinetry made using a vinyl that is heated and pressurized onto an MDF core. Usually only used for cabinet doors and drawer fronts, Thermofoil cabinets come in many colors, styles, and finishes — even made in textures that resemble solid wood.
Combs and knife handles made of ebony are considered extremely fine personal items. Likewise, furniture like kitchen cabinets made from ebony wood would be the height of luxury design. Ebony costs close to $100 per board-foot making it the most expensive wood available for furniture crafting.
Cabinets are grouped into four grades based on quality of construction: ready-to-assemble (RTA), stock, semi-custom and custom.
The least expensive type of wood used in kitchen cabinets tends to be pine. Cherry is a slightly more expensive option, while oak is usually about as affordable as its counterparts.
Wood cabinets are strong, long-lasting and resistant to damage. Scratches are usually easy to cover or buff away. Customizable. Solid wood can readily be customized to create the cabinet door type of your choice.