At William’s Handcrafted we pride ourselves on being expert craftsmen when it comes to building beautiful custom cabinetry for your home. One of the most common questions we get asked is about our materials. Craftsmanship is more than just good joinery and attention to detail, its also about using the proper material for the right application. In this blog, we’ll explain our material selections and why we use materials in certain situations.

Doors and Drawer Fronts

Your cabinet doors are arguably the most important part of your entire project. Improperly constructed and poor-quality doors and drawer fronts will be noticeable for the life of your project. Our cabinet doors are made with a combination of materials depending on the application.

Five-piece doors are the most common doors in Richmond, VA. They feature a center panel with rails and stiles going around the perimeter of the panel. If we are doing a project that is stained or clear coated, we use solid hardwood for the panel and frame. If the project is painted, we use maple for the frame and door grade MDF for the center panel. MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) is an engineered wood product designed to have excellent machining properties while remaining exceptionally stable. MDF was originally manufactured specifically for use in the center panel of doors. The door grade MDF we use is denser and more refined than MDF available from the big box stores.

MDF does not expand and contract with seasonal movement, making it the ideal material for 5-piece doors. If we used a hardwood panel, doors could develop a shadow line around the edges of the panel if the panel shrinks after finishing. MDF will also keep the door flatter because it does not warp or twist.

Whereas other shops might use ¼” plywood or MDF, we use 3/8” thick center panels for all flat panel style doors. The extra thickness gives the doors a nicely weighted feel. Thinner panels can rattle and sound “tinny” when you tap on them.

For painted slab style doors, MDF is also the preferred choice. In addition to its stability, MDF is exceptionally flat. This flatness combined with its uniform, grain-free surface makes it an ideal product for painted finishes.

An important note: MDF is different than particle board. Many cabinets you get from the big box stores or IKEA are manufactured with particle board coated in melamine or laminate. Particle board is far coarser than MDF and will disintegrate with water. At William’s Handcrafted, we do not use particle board.

Face Frames

All of our face frames are constructed from solid maple hardwood for painted projects or the hardwood of choice if the project is stained. Maple has good machining properties and is harder than other paint grade woods like poplar. Maple has a tighter grain structure which contributes to a superior painted surface compared to softer, more grainy woods like poplar.

Cabinet Case Parts

The cabinet case is where many manufacturers choose to cut cost. Some shops will use ½” plywood or melamine coated particle board for cabinet parts. At William’s Handcrafted, we only use ¾” UV coated veneer core plywood for our case parts. This thickness gives frameless cabinets excellent strength and makes the manufacturing process much easier. In addition, we use the same ¾” plywood for the back of the cabinet. Where other shops may use a ¼” plywood back with screw rails, we find that a ¾” thick back provides superior strength and superior holding power when screwing cabinets to the wall. The added strength also prevents the back from bowing and separating from the cabinet sides when
screwed to a wall that isn’t flat.

For painted cabinets we use an MDF/plywood hybrid. CombiCore utilizes a plywood core with MDF faces. The plywood core gives the cabinet strength and holds fasteners well. The MDF faces provide a superior painted surface for finishing. Painted cabinet backs can sometimes be extra large. Standard material comes in 4’ x 8’ sheets. MDF can come in sheets up to 5’ x 12’. For this reason, it’s not uncommon for us to use MDF for painted cabinet backs so we can avoid an unsightly seam.

Some cabinets will have stained interiors like a bookcase or large slab ends like a fridge cabinet. Veneer plywood is the best choice for these parts. The veneer will match the hardwood face frame and doors while providing superior stability compared to hardwood. Hardwood can expand up to 1/8” per foot across its face where as plywood stays perfectly stable. Wide hardwood panels can crack, warp, cup and expand. Veneer panels eliminate these issues.

Drawer Boxes

We use Premium grade solid maple for our drawer boxes. Drawer sides are constructed from a single, solid piece of maple. They are not finger jointed or glued together pieces like some shops do. Our box sides are 15mm thick, this is just between ½” and 5/8”. We have found that ½’ sides looked too skinny and 5/8” sides looked too thick. 15mm is a nice happy medium.

For the box bottom, all of our boxes have an upgraded 3/8” thick bottom panel. Thicker than the standard ¼” bottoms, we like the added thickness for two reasons: 1) The extra thickness increases weight which makes the drawers feel more solid when you open and close them. 2) The increased thickness also increases the weight capacity for the drawers. You can load up heavy drawers with silverware, stacks of plates, or a full array of pots and pans without fear of your drawer bottom sagging.

Hardware

A discussion about materials is not complete without mentioning the hardware we use. We use soft close hinges and drawer slides as standard for all of our projects. All of our slides and hinges are made domestically at a manufacturer in North Carolina. Standard drawer slides have a 100lb load rating and heavy-duty slides have a 150lb rating.

Sourcing Materials

Lastly, we should touch on where all our materials come from.

The vast majority of our materials are sourced from North American suppliers. Lumber for hardwood and plywood is harvested and manufactured in the Pacific North West, Appalachia, and Canada. Our drawer slides and hinges are manufactured by Blum located just south of us in Stanley, NC. (We actually got to tour their facility and see our parts being made in May 2024.)

Very few parts come from overseas. Some lighting components are sourced for from Europe. Our finish comes from Italy but the main distribution hub is located right here in Virginia.

Primarily domestically sourced materials mean more consistency and less risk of supply chain issues impacting your projects. It also means a more environmentally friendly product that does not come from parts shipped halfway across the globe.

Summary

By knowing how materials behave and the various areas they excel or fall short, we can craft beautiful projects using premium products that will endure for many years to come. Free from plastics and composites, our cabinetry is crafted from domestically sourced hardwood and panel products that provide the quality and strength required for premium casework.