Three samples usually sit side by side on the table in our workshop: white matt lacquer, oak veneer and an offcut of solid oak. People hold them against a floor tile, take them over to the window and ask the same thing: what will these doors look like in five years, with two small children in the kitchen and the dishwasher running every day. All three work in a kitchen, but each one wears differently, needs different care and gets repaired in a different way. The differences show first on the edges, around the sink and wherever the sun falls.
A lacquered door starts as a sheet of MDF
A lacquered front is MDF, a board made from compressed wood fibres, sprayed with several coats of lacquer. The sprayer sands between coats, so the finished door shows no pores or unevenness. You choose the colour from the RAL or NCS chart, which makes it easy to match a wall painted from the same chart. The lacquer covers the edges too, with no applied edge banding, and MDF can be machined: the door can have a routed finger pull, fluting or a frame detail.
The edges of lacquered doors carry a slight radius, because lacquer chips sooner on a sharp arris. They’re also the weak spot: a knock from a pan or the back of a chair can leave a chip. Over the years, the biggest advantage of lacquer turns out to be that it can be repaired. We take a damaged door off, sand it and respray it in our own finishing room. A single door refinished a few years in may differ slightly in shade from its neighbours, which have aged in the meantime, and white shows this most.
Matt and gloss wear in different ways
Matt lacquer doesn’t reflect light, so the small marks of everyday use show less than they do on gloss. It has two weak points, though: greasy fingerprints show on dark colours, and a spot rubbed the same way every day, next to a handle for instance, polishes to a sheen in time. Cream cleaners, scouring pads and melamine sponges are out, because they act like fine sandpaper.
High-gloss lacquer reflects light like a mirror and brightens a narrow kitchen or a dark hallway. In return it shows every fingerprint, speck of dust and cleaning streak, and against the light you’ll see fine scratches from a ring or a cloth with a grain of sand in it. A sprayer can polish out shallow scratches, but a chipped edge is harder to hide than on matt. When fitting gloss doors we adjust them more carefully, because the reflection exposes any difference in how neighbouring doors sit. Gloss needs more coats and polishing, so it costs more than matt.
Veneer is real wood on a stable core
Veneer is a leaf of wood, usually thinner than a millimetre, glued onto a board. The core doesn’t move the way solid timber does, so the door holds its size, while the face shows the real grain and pores of oak, walnut or ash. Veneer leaves are stacked in a bundle in the order they were sliced from the log. When all the doors in a kitchen come from one bundle, the grain runs from door to door along the whole wall of units. We finish veneer either with clear lacquer, which is easier to keep clean, or with oil, which leaves a more natural matt surface.
Wood in veneer reacts to light. Oak darkens and warms up, American walnut turns paler, and anything that leans against a door for six months leaves a patch in a different tone. That patch evens out over the following months, but a door added a few years later won’t match the rest, even in the same species. If you plan to add units later, order all the doors at once, from one bundle.
Water on the edge is the weak point of veneer. A puddle by the sink, or steam from a dishwasher opened straight after the cycle, can swell the board underneath and lift the veneer. Dull or scratched lacquer on veneer can be lightly sanded and refreshed. The wood layer is thin, though, so we can’t take out a deep scratch or dent without leaving a trace.
Solid wood and the humidity in your home
A solid wood door is timber through its full thickness. It’s usually built as a frame with a floating panel, or as a glued-up board of narrow staves. The edge and any moulded profile show the same grain as the face, and an oiled surface feels matt and warm.
Solid wood moves with the humidity of the air. In the heating season, when the air indoors is dry, it shrinks, and in summer it swells. A panel in a frame has room for that, which is why a thin paler strip can appear along the frame in winter. Wide glued-up doors can cup slightly if the humidity in the house swings a lot. That’s why we fit solid wood only once plaster and screed have dried out, and why it helps to keep indoor humidity at 40–60%. A kettle or coffee machine shouldn’t sit where its steam hits a door.
In exchange, solid wood gives you the most scope for repair. We sand out a scratch, stain or dent and re-oil the door, even after many years. An oiled surface needs regular attention, mostly around the handles and near the sink: when drops of water stop beading and start soaking in, it’s time for oil. Solid wood also costs more than veneer and weighs more than board, so tall doors get extra hinges.
Four finishes side by side
We give cost in relative terms, because the price depends on sizes, species and the number of doors.
| Material | Look | Durability | Care | Relative cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt lacquer | even colour, any RAL or NCS shade, no reflections | medium: chipped edges, shiny patches from rubbing | soapy water and a soft cloth, no cream cleaners or melamine sponges | medium |
| High-gloss lacquer | mirror-like reflections and deep colour | lower: scratches, fingerprints and streaks show | microfibre cloth and a dry buff, no kitchen roll | higher than matt |
| Natural wood veneer | real grain that carries across the doors | medium: water on the edges harms it, the shade shifts in light | damp cloth along the grain, edges dried straight away | high, usually above lacquer |
| Solid wood | timber all through, patina with age | medium: dents, moves with humidity | oil refreshed near handles and sink, steady humidity at home | the most expensive of the four |
Matching the fronts to the household
We rarely use one material for a whole kitchen. More often we combine two: a tougher one where the doors take the most punishment, and a more demanding one where hardly anyone touches them.
A family with small children
Base units and drawers are the zone of small hands, toys and ride-on cars. Matt lacquer in a light or mid tone works well here, since fingerprints show less on it than on graphite, and so does anti-fingerprint matt laminate, which copes better with daily rubbing. We keep gloss for the wall units, out of reach. Solid wood can work too, if you accept marks and don’t mind reaching for sandpaper and oil every so often.
A kitchen for serious cooking
By the hob, sink and dishwasher, doors get steam, water and greasy hands. Matt lacquer is easy to wash, and if the edge by the oven gets chipped, the door can be refinished. Lacquered veneer copes with daily cooking too, provided you wipe water off the edges as you go and let the steam settle before opening the dishwasher. Oiled wood needs oiling more often here, and on gloss you’ll see greasy streaks after every meal.
A flat to let
A tenant won’t oil the doors or keep an eye on water along veneer edges. Here we choose matt lacquer, which we can refinish after damage, or textured melamine board. The board costs the least and doesn’t fade, and a damaged door can be replaced with a new one in the same decor while the manufacturer still makes it.
A house where the kitchen stays for decades
If the kitchen is meant to last 15 years or more and age with the house, veneer and solid wood handle that best. Both take on a patina, and solid wood can be fully refinished years later. The conditions are steady humidity and a willingness to oil regularly.
Samples of all four finishes are at our workshop. Book a visit, bring a floor tile or an offcut of your flooring, and look at the fronts next to them in daylight.
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