No question you could do a painted front, plenty durable if done with the proper finishes...for example a conversion varnish, polyester

Saying that I love the look of laminate on a baltic birch exposed core....using baltic birch is the key, has the proper multi layer and is void free and that there is a finish applied to the edge after the process the door

You could also pick a laminate that is made in color core, meaning the color goes all the way through the laminate so there will be no black line

Wilsonart has Solicor in 3 designs (Designer White, Linen and Calcutta Marble)

Formica has ColorCore2 in 5 whites, black, red and 2 grays.

Nevamar/Pionite has Melcor II with no listing of colors available, but interestingly it is also available as color sandwich. Somehow they manage to discuss it thoroughly on their websites from a technical sense without ever mentioning what Colors it comes in. It might be all, but considering with the other two big names you have your choices of white, white, white, darker white and one red, maybe Nevamar and Pionite are the same.

I remember you RChicago, you are the one who introduced me to BuildLLC....love the work that they do, so glad that you posted about them!

"Have some MDF doors edge banded, the sides laminated, and spend the money you saved over Baltic birch plywood somewhere else.

Doors and drawers have been made like this for years without substantial failure. Let's not reinvent the wheel here."

I think the exposed core goes with the look the OP is after perfectly....and savings, what savings is there going to be? Price difference between BB and MDF is approx $1 SQFT....large kitchen takes 10 sheets, we are talking about $320 additional material cost

Plus there is no labor to do the edgbanding, and will not have that lovely black line

If I were pricing I would actually be less using the BB exposed core....

A company called Kerf Design exploits the exposed plywood edge as a nice design detail

Here is a link that might be useful: KERF

Thought I'd responded yesterday, but the post didn't stick.

Thanks for all the input. I've ordered a few Formica ColorCore samples, but am not too hopeful about the colors. We shall see.

For cost and durability reasons, we've decided to use walnut panels/trim and do most of the fronts in a color. The walnut will be grain matched quarter sawn veneer (like the Build LLC kitchens), with solid wood edges. Our current inspiration kitchen is from Shed Architects: http://www.shedbuilt.com/sources/ipad/#categories/1/4/66/0. The edges are exposed europly and they use the wood panels/trim to hide the edges. Our kitchen is narrow (13.5 feet wide) with sub 8 foot ceilings, so we're worried too much wood will make the room feel even smaller than it is.

I really like Kerf and priced them out for the master bath remodel. A five foot cabinet was going to be over $3,000. We ended up with an Ikea kitchen cabinet and Semihandmade horizontal grain matched fronts instead for about $2,000 less. Not as fun, but we're happy.

Speaking of europly exposed edges and Semihandmade, if anyone is interested, Palette doors and Semihandmade have teamed up to offer laminate fronts with exposed europly for Ikea cabinets. So, this look can be had very affordably. I wish we could go with ikea, but we'd be really hard pressed to maximize storage given our narrow space. (Thought someone might search and find this thread, so wanted to share what I'd learned.)

Can I ask the original question again? Durability-wise, which is better -- the exposed plywood or laminate edge banding? Over twenty years with dogs and kids?

Thanks!!

The cabinets that we're removing (next week, I sincerely hope) are probably from the 70's. They're oak (I think) and almost all the doors/drawers are exposed plywood on the edges. And laminate countertops (which I know isn't what you're talking about, but hear me out). No problems at all with the exposed plywood edges, except where a puppy chewed the corner off a lower drawer 9 years ago. Perhaps exposed plywood is tasty, so be careful in that regard. ;)

The only places the kitchen is starting to fail (other than being a horrible layout and very dated) is that on a FEW (no rhyme or reason) of the butt doors, there is an extra strip of oak edging attached and its NOT exposed plywood. A couple of these have become unattached and once we ordered our new cabinets, we stopped fighting them and tore them off.

gap between doors because we tore off flappy edging on right door

left door edging, right door gone

As I said, we've got laminate countertops with flat front edges (does that make sense...front edge is perpendicular to counter, no curves). And we've lost some edging as it's gotten loose and gotten caught on things.

Those two things combined COULD be issues, meaning if thin layers of stuff become loose, they're easy to snap. In my case, I have it with both the wood edging on the butt doors and the laminate counter edge. That being said, I'm pretty sure this kitchen is pushing 35+ years, and with care, both of those things could have easily been tended to and lasted another 20. (I was so over the kitchen when they occurred, I could care less.)

Side note: I find it fascinating that I've lived with this kitchen for 14 years and ONLY noticed the fact that about 50% of the doors don't have the exposed plywood on the butt edge and 50% do. AND the part attached to the plywood varies significantly. The part in the upper 'pantry' cabinet shown - about 1/4", the sink cabinet, about 5/8", the cabinet right next to it, no edging at all. It's amazing what we don't notice when we're not looking for it.

It think the exposed plywood and laminate with color would look awesome. I thought we were going to go more modern than we are with our reno. Go for it!

(and there's a little peek at my Heath Frost tile samples at the bottom of the pics)

I would go for the exposed edge. Natural, could take a bit of wear and imperfections and still look ok. Nicks in the edges of plastic edge banding look more beat up to me.

Ok, progress. I've found a local cabinetmaker with experience applying laminate to baltic birch. A family friend used him and was happy with the end result, but cautioned that I do my homework with regard to finish.

Does anyone know -- for durable kitchen cabinets, what's the best way to finish the edges? Would polyurethane suffice or is there something better?

Also, should the interior side of the door/front also be laminated? Or can the plywood just be finished similar to the edges?

And is "baltic birch" the best? As compared to appleply or europly? I don't mind paying a bit more to get better quality and fewer voids.

Thanks!

Bumping an old thread to find out if anyone has pictures of their cabinets? We are looking for something similar for our split-level kitchen reno and just about to give up since we can't afford the fully custom/beautiful work of Kerf.