Cheapest way to get wood grain look in cabinet

**Mcblurter** · 31st May 2007, 04:48 PM

Hi everyone
In the process of getting some large entertainment units built. Was wanting a wood look and it appears most companies do this using expensive veneers. Cheapest versions are MDF but looks terrible. Like the idea of having grain, different stains/color. Of course really only talking about doors here as inside will be not seen most of time. Was wondering about the use of pine. I know it is pretty unstable but wondering if anyone knows of someone who uses pine to reproduce more expensive looking finishes? What about some of the plywood around?
Would love proper wood and realise that extra cost means extra quality and longevity but with one cabinet I'm looking at varying between $4500 for mDF, $5500 laminate, $7500 veneer plus extra for two pac etc would be glad to know of some alternatives.
Cheers
McBlurter

**ozwinner** · 31st May 2007, 05:22 PM

The cheapest way to get a wood grain look is to use MDF and a wood graining tool.

Al

**old_picker** · 31st May 2007, 07:20 PM

by the time you buy all that cr@p you may as well a used real wood

**himzol** · 1st June 2007, 07:53 AM

Hi Mcblurter,

Pine is fine and there is a lot of stained/colour matched pine furniture around that I wouldn't mind owning. However as old picker put it so elequently it may actually be cheaper to get the timber that matches your entertainment unit. Perhaps salvage yards ?
It also comes down to style of entertainment unit, I work wth a bloke that built a unit from MDF and the whole lot was painted to match their lounge suite, which sounds horrible but worked.

H.

**munruben** · 1st June 2007, 11:35 AM

I usually use pine when building something large and want solid timber or timber look.
It can be stained (same as himzol said) and can look the way you want it to.
Unfortunately, for me anyway, the price of other timbers prohibit me from using them on larger projects. Pine is still a nice timber and can be worked into something really special if you put the effort into it. I would definitely go pine rather than mdf.

**s_m** · 1st June 2007, 10:36 PM

Les Miller always said that radiata pine will always look like radiata pine no matter what you do to it unless you're going to paint it

.

How about some of the better grades of plywood? The surfaces are hoop pine with a much more subtle grain than solid radiata?

Steph

**Lignum** · 1st June 2007, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by Mcblurter

H but with one cabinet I'm looking at varying between $4500 for mDF, $5500 laminate, $7500 veneer plus extra for two pac etc would be glad to know of some alternatives.
Cheers
McBlurter

How large is large

**Mcblurter** · 4th June 2007, 01:34 PM

Thanks for the replies
The cabinet will be about 2000mm high by 3600 wide.
I will be getting them built as I can never get doors right and I also want a really good quality finish and I just haven't had the practice to do it justsice. The idea of ply is interesting, they have some great looking grain on them at times.
Cheers
McBlurter

**masher** · 4th June 2007, 07:48 PM

Why don't you use veneered MDF?

That's what I plan on using for my entertainment unit...

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