Robert B.

I ordered two cabinet doors and five drawer fronts from CabinetDoorMart.com specifying the 5-piece Shaker design and the select maple material. All items were delivered on schedule with precisely the requested dimensions. However only the four edge pieces of each item were the solid maple I expected. The center panels were instead a paper-thin maple veneer glued to a piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard), The problem with veneer is that it stains much darker than solid wood, and thats what I saw when I tested the staining procedure I had developed for solid wood on the back of one of my drawer fronts. At first I thought I had accidentally forgotten to apply the recommended pre-stain sealer to the center panel. But when I began sanding off the center panels dark stain to test this idea, I discovered that the center panel was a paper-thin wood veneer on an unexpected and unadvertised piece of MDF. I dont want two-tone doors and drawers. Its probably possible to develop a staining procedure that applies different coatings to different areas, but it would be more costly, labor-intensive, and error-prone than a simple 1-stain procedure. Instead, I asked CabinetDoorMart.com give me a store credit for the $273.23 I paid so that I could replace what I received a design that is solid wood. I told them that I used the Search function of their website to find out if the word veneer appeared in any of the web page advertisements. I did not find the word veneer anywhere, so customers have the reasonable expectation that the wood doors they order are made of solid wood rather than wood veneer on MDF. I told them they should warn customers who plan to stain their wood doors of the complications of achieving a uniform stain with doors that include both solid wood and thin wood veneers. When I placed my order, I did get a pop-up message warning telling me that if I planned to paint my wood doors, I should switch to MDF instead because MDF absorbs less paint and this reduces the doors tendency to warp. There should have also been a warning for customers who plan to stain their wood.