And while laminate kitchen cabinet doors often look nice and are quite durable, after a certain amount of time they can get scratched, dull or faded.
If your goal is to create a sleek, contemporary and efficient kitchen design, you may want to consider laminate kitchen cabinets. Laminate and wood are the two most popular materials used for kitchen cabinets, and they both offer a range of advantages and disadvantages related to price, durability and appearance.
Kitchen cabinets should be replaced whenever they are in poor condition or whenever you feel that it's necessary to freshen up your kitchen's style as interior design trends change. High quality kitchen cabinets can last for up to 50 years. That is assuming the cabinets have been keep in good condition.
Laminate cabinets are easier to clean than wood, they offer more durability over time and tend to conceal fewer scratches than solid wood cabinets and cabinet doors. There once was a time when there weren't many options when it came to designing kitchen cabinetry.
The least expensive option is painting laminate cabinets. Laminate is not an ideal surface to paint, but it can be done.
MDF forms a solid core underneath the laminate, and it's a better substrate for painting than particleboard, which is a loose conglomeration of wood chips that are likely to separate and crumble when you pull off the laminate.
Durable: Not only do thermofoil kitchen cabinets look great, but they are also durable. The material used to create laminate cabinets can resist gradual erosion caused by mechanical, physical, and chemical actions.
Why we love laminate cabinets: Super sturdy and durable. Easy to clean. More stain- and scratch-resistant that solid wood.
Thermofoil vs.
Melamine and Laminate cabinets are often confused with Thermofoil, but they are not the same material. Melamine and Laminate are made of melamine plastic, Thermafoil is vinyl. You can tell them apart by the following: Thermafoil is thicker, softer feeling, peels off more easily, and is more flexible.
Yes, laminate cabinets can be refaced as long as the cabinet boxes are in good shape. But if the cabinet boxes are weak or damaged, you may need to replace your cabinets altogether.
Hardwood. Arguably the most durable material for kitchen cabinets, hardwood is solid wood. Some hardwood types, such as hickory or maple, will resist scratching and denting more than softwood species like walnut and mahogany. However, the former will cost more due to durability and overall quality.
Good-quality wood glue and a clamp to hold the laminate against the core is a good way to repair laminate coating that is peeling. Once the glue has set and dried, you can begin to clean the cabinet doors and drawers.
As Pro Handyman describes, pry the loose laminate open and use a wooden block, chisel or small tool to keep the two pieces separated. Scrape old glue off the laminate and the core with a putty knife. Apply contact cement to the laminate and core, and allow it to dry to the touch — typically between 15 and 30 minutes.
Touch-Up Pen: Apply a matching furniture touch up stain pen or marker to the scratch, and wipe off any excess with a soft, clean cloth. Wax Pencil: For deep scratches, rub the indentation with a colored wax furniture pencil or crayon that matches the color of the wood. Use a clean, soft cloth to remove any excess wax.
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.
The main difference is that veneers comprise thin layers of wood that are pressed on a plywood base while laminates are manufactured by pressing together layers of flat paper and plastic resins under high pressure.
Laminates are priced at $4,000 to $15,000. Comparable to wood veneers, it's a budget-friendly option to wood. It is a man-made material that is placed on particleboard in both high pressure and low pressure method.
Price. Made of pressed wood, MD, or plywood topped by a layer of paper coloured with a heat-fused melamine resin, melamine is the least expensive cabinet material.
MDF is an engineered product made from soft and hardwood residuals (such as sawdust) and is held together by glue or resins. The materials and production process make MDF much heavier than most woods but also give it a smooth surface that is perfect for painted cabinets.
While plastic laminate costs a bit more than melamine, it is more resistant to moisture, chemicals, heat and force. Working with plastic laminate takes a fair bit of skill and more specialized machinery than building with melamine.
If you're not going to sand down your laminated door, be sure to clean it thoroughly before painting and definitely use an Adhesion Promoting Primer. The smooth plastic finish just isn't very easy for paint to stick to naturally, so I would 100% recommend priming and sanding the surfaces.
Can you stain laminate cabinets? You can stain laminate cabinets using tinted polyurethane stain or gel stain. Since laminate isn't real wood, using ordinary liquid wood stains will leave you with a streaky and splotchy surface: that's because they won't get absorbed.
You can paint the cabinets with oil-based paints, acrylic paints, or melamine paints once they have been primed. Moisture-resistant materials in the paint make Melamine paints ideal for painting laminate surfaces, since they are just right for the moisture and steam that are so prevalent in kitchens.