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Picked plywood drawers over solid maple on the Hartley kitchen and I keep second guessing it
Client in Boise wanted drawers that felt solid but the budget only went so far, so I had to choose between solid maple sides with dovetails or 5/8 birch ply with a nice veneer and stapled boxes from a shop I trust. I went with the plywood. Solid maple would have run about $340 more per box and the timeline was already tight, so ply made sense on paper. First install day I pulled a drawer and it felt light. Not flimsy, just light. I stood there in the driveway for a bit wondering if I sold the job short. Six months later the client says zero issues, no swelling, no racking, slides still smooth. Now I am pricing a similar job in Nampa and I keep going back and forth on it. Do you all stick with ply for painted or veneered drawers, or do you eat the cost and go solid for the feel?
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the_wyatt15d ago
The light feel you noticed on install day is probably the thing to pay attention to, because that is what the client touches every single time they open a drawer, not the joinery hidden inside the box. A solid maple side gives you that heft and the sound changes too, a solid drawer has a duller thunk where ply has a bit more of a hollow knock. You could split the difference on the Nampa job and do ply boxes with a solid maple front and maybe a heavier bottom, so you keep the cost down but the part the hand grabs feels like money. Six months of no swelling and smooth slides is real proof the ply is holding up fine, so the second guessing is mostly about feel and not function. What matters is whether the client in Nampa is the type to notice that feel or the type who just wants drawers that work and a number that fits. If they are picky about how things feel, eat some of the cost on the fronts, if not, the ply already proved itself on the Hartley job.
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