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Comment by samwillis | Hacker News Reader

We've use them, a great way to "elevate" your IKEA furniture.

Another good one doing IKEA compatible furniture parts is Superfront: https://superfront.com/. We use them for a bathroom cabinet in our last house.

Also take a look at Plykea for inspiration on what you can do with IKEA kitchen carcasses with custom fronts/sides/fillers: https://www.plykea.com/

During Covid my wife and I took six weeks off to refit our kitchen ourselves. IKEA carcasses, a lot of Baltic Birch plywood - all cut and finished ourselves - and half the fronts from uk company https://www.nakedkitchens.com/. It was a lot of fun, no one has a kitchen like ours, and all in it was under £6k for something that would have probably been closer to £40k if we had gone to a local bespoke kitchen company.

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From the Plykea website: "we prefer to celebrate the beauty of the plywood edges"

Am I missing something? Did they seal them with epoxy? Because plywood edges are notorious for taking in water and turning it into a swelling, rotting, falling-apart mess. If I'm making a counter top or low kitchen cabinet, I'm using solid wood or an alternative (preferably of whatever's at the local reclaimed building materials store)

For those into DIY, if you're going to remodel an entire kitchen, it's not hard to make your own wood faces of any size. You do need to buy a few tools, but they're tools you can keep using for decades. A circular saw, some pipe clamps and pipes, wood glue, a saw track, sandpaper + sanding block, and lots of 2x4s, are enough to make anything from dining tables to doors to kitchen counter tops to cabinet doors.

We went exposed edges, and finished with Osmo (https://osmouk.com/) works really well. It's not like it's being rained on like outside, if your cabinets are getting wet enough for that to happen the chipboard carcasses with blow out first.

Baltic birch also tends to use an exterior grade adhesive for gluing the layers together.

100% agree on the tools, I brought a track saw for the project. First time using one, they are brilliant, and no need to get an expensive Festool. I got this one (https://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-erb690csw-185mm-electric-...) and it's perfect for the job.

I can see the tracksaw being useful for breaking 4x8 plywood panels down to door size, but did you end up using a table saw for shorter cuts?

Maybe it's because I work on so many slapped-together projects, but I barely use my table saw anymore. Instead I use my cordless circular and a reference, usually my speed square. If I don't need too much precision I just hold the short piece and square in one hand, lean it against the corner of my deck, and cut. Other times i'll grab some squeeze clamps and scrap wood, make a quick fence/jig on a table, and cut against that. It's just so much faster than setting up the table saw outside (I don't have a woodworking bench). If I have to make a bunch of cuts in succession I might use the table saw, or again I might use the circular. I've been too lazy to build a crosscut sled; if I had one I'd use the table more often.

If you're ripping down 4x8's, I've noticed that using a piece of foam insulation on the concrete is the perfect size

Osmo oil is the best. Highly recommend it as well.

Took me a while to work out Osmo, but I finally understand how to get an amazing finish with it every time (using a spatula of all things!).

Osmo and Rubio Monocoat have really made finishing wood easy for amateurs (as well as professionals).

I haven't looked at the Plykea stuff in detail but clear seals on everything seems to be the standard these days even for "natural" looking finishes.

For large enough cabinet doors where you want a flat, flush, uniform look, plywood gives you dimensional stability which is a big deal. Also seems to be common. I'd band the edges in most cases though vs painting or such.

Especially if you're DIYing, cause depending on just what level of fit and finish you want, you're gonna have a hard time getting things perfectly square, perfectly flush with most wood you'll be able to buy, without getting into jointers and planers and other fun stuff.

It's easy to do "pretty good" and very very hard to do "very good" without either a significant investment in tools or time or both.

See Kerf for a cabinet maker that uses a lot of europly/appleply with exposed edges: https://www.instagram.com/kerfdesign

Japanese DIY speaker-builders love the exposed ply-edge thing.

Maybe a sign of the times we live in when a multi-ply plywood means quality (as opposed to particle board, low-ply construction plywood ... OSB?)

Plywood edges, nicely finished, with a clear seal, can be beautiful in some contexts.

That said, they're ugly, noisy, and distracting in *most* contexts I've seen them used. It takes a good designer to make them beautiful.

Seen of lot of these, might be a good idea for IKEA to start launching limited exclusives with designers so clients can also get it from them.

Looks like Superfront doesn't ship many of their products to the US. Bummer.

Know of anyone who provides custom rails for IKEA drawers? Eventually they fail and ball bearing start to fall out and they do not sell replacements.

Here in Europe there are dozens, probably more, of companies selling IKEA fronts and handles.

Buy, as always, the major expensive is labour, not materials.

Would love to see a photo of the final outcome!

Seconded!

About to do my kitchen too

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