Question on interior cabinet color

[linnlp12]

I retired from a career in medical device industry and plan to build my own kitchen. I was considering building Euro cabinets from prefinished maple ply for interiors, then building my own doors.  I was going with dark colored doors.  Do members with experience recommend  the edgebanding on the cabinets be the maple color or the color of the exterior doors?  Wood or PVC edge banding?  I have a Conturo, looked at Home Depot/Lowes and the cabinets with edgebanding and interiors were all over the place.  I plan to stay in my house for at least 10 years.

I had planned to use unfinished veneer ply and stain the interior natural or exterior color but thought the inside of the cabinets would be too dark. Also been without a kitchen for a year since I "unretired" for a year after I tore down the kitchen."  Thought prefinished would be faster.

Note I made a huge investment in Festool including Conturo, Vac Sys and most of their other tools. Not cost justified but I wanted dust minimizing tools, vacuums and also have a dust collector..  I have built cabinets before and would like to learn to spray but have safety fears to do this in my small basement with gas furnace and water heater.  I hoped, provided I remain physically able, to do small projects as a side business or to build for people or organizations in need to stay active in retirement.

I hope this was the right forum for this question.

 

[Holmz]

It is a great question (IMO)

If you want stunning... then a thicker piece of maple at least a few MM thick.
You could use the FT ~700 router, or the Lamello Cantex, to bring it flush.
Then the outsides can be painted, but you may wish to leave the ply and banding natural? Or maybe stain/dye the outside to be darker?

(Personally I like well lacquered natural maple, or super glossy black or red lacquer)

 

[Maximus]

Sounds like a great project!

Personally I'd go with solid timber edging.  Trying to match edge band will always look approximate rather than exact.  Better to contrast perhaps?  When I fitted my own kitchen I sanded down the cabinet interiors and then used a liquid wax, which I highly recommend.  It goes on like varnish but never flakes or chips, and is very, very easy to maintain.  It's another German product of course, and made with natural oil and waxes  >>>http://www.osmona.com

 

[linnlp12]

These are all great suggestions.  The hardest part to building for me is making the decision on what to do and how to finish the wood.  I have little experience in finishing.

 

[tjbnwi]

Get unglued wood edge banding that matches what your cabinet doors will be. Unroll the amount you need to band the case edges. Stain the banding to match the doors, finish to match the doors. Once the finish dies cut the pieces to length. Apply to box edges with the Conturo. Trim with MFK 700.

I run prefinished edge banding through the Conturo with no issues at all.

Interiors with solid doors use the prefinished maple. Cabinets with glass doors, match the casework exterior.

Tom

 

[mkasdin]

My kitchen cabinets were made by a local cabinet shop 18 years ago. They used a Maple veneer and it's a Finnish apple-ply. Off the top of my head it's about 8-9 laminations and I left it exposed which looks very nice on euro cabinets. The whole cabinets are natural with a spray lacquer I'm guessing?