It’s time for our hottest take ever: solid wood kitchen cabinets are over. That’s right, there’s a better cabinet material in town that is more eco-friendly, durable, and easy to care for. We’re talking about veneers.
Sure, wood is beautiful, but you can get the same look with significantly less hassle by simply opting for a wood veneer instead. We’re tired of opening cabinet doors to see washed-out plywood or birch inside. In fact, we’ve got a new saying when it comes to blonde plywood cabinet interiors – blonde is blah.
Even worse than being blah, that blonde plywood absorbs liquid, making it stain more easily. Solid wood is also heavy and more prone to distortion over time which is not ideal for doors and panels. And don’t even get us started on all the maintenance required to maintain a solid wood cabinet.
So what makes veneers so much better? We’re glad you asked.
How Does a Cabinet Veneer Work?
Before we tell you why veneers are superior, we should probably make sure you know what they are. A wood veneer is a thin layer of decorative wood (usually about ⅛ to ¼ inch thick) that is thermo-pressed to a core material to give your cabinet the look of natural wood without the hassle that comes with it. At NOLI, we build our cabinet structures using fiberboards made of >90% recycled wood (bonus points for our eco-system) which we laminate with a man-made material to give your cabinets a modern look that is easy to maintain.
Panels and doors are veneered with real wood on both sides and all edges, giving your cabinet a consistent look inside and out. The result is a modern cabinet finish that is customized to your kitchen.
Why Are Cabinet Veneers Better than Solid Wood?
We’ll say it again: when it comes to wood, blonde is blah. With a cabinet veneer, you can get a more custom look by staining it in whatever color works best for you. With veneer kitchen cabinets the ability to customize is endless – from teak, to eucalyptus, to oak – veneers give you the option to create the exact look you want for your kitchen cabinets.
What Types of Wood Can Cabinet Veneers Be Used to Replace?
Wood veneers can add the look of many high-quality or rare woods to your cabinets, like:
- darker woods – wengé, ebony
- lighter woods – teak, natural oak
- natural woods – walnut, elm, smoked oak
- eucalyptus – increasingly popular for its warm, elevated tone without veering too dark
Because veneers allow such a wide range of wood expressions, we can design kitchens that feel bespoke, warm, and deeply architectural. This palette of wood types also lets us set complementary color stories, like pairing a smoked oak with matte-black hardware, or a natural oak with creamy terrazzo, while working closely with the client to bring their exact aesthetic and functional vision to life.
How Do Wood Veneers Help the Environment?
NOLI’s approach to cabinet veneers also aligns with evolving ESC (Environmental Stewardship & Circularity) standards across contemporary European design. Veneered cabinets use dramatically fewer raw materials, reduce waste in the milling process, and support long-term sustainability goals without compromising beauty or durability.
Because veneers rely on thin, highly efficient cuts of wood, they use less fresh lumber, promote responsible forestry, and enable more efficient production cycles. Combined with our >90% recycled wood core structures, veneer cabinets deliver high-end design with a fraction of the environmental footprint—one of the many reasons European manufacturers have long preferred them. If you’ve got sustainability on your mind, these eco-friendly cabinets also use nine times less fresh wood than solid wood cabinets, while also being longer-lasting and easier to maintain. A custom look that also saves the planet? That’s what we call a win-win.
What Other Design Opportunities Do Wood Veneers Offer?
Veneers also allow for vein matching and continuity, which can create a beautiful, modern, and visually stunning effect. Vein matching allows panels on drawers and cabinets, and even kitchen islands, to align seamlessly with one another—creating a sense of sculptural harmony in the space. It’s the sort of elevated detail that you feel before you consciously register it: a quiet, architectural sophistication.
How we do it:
When a wood veneer is applied to the substrate, the pieces are processed together so they maintain the same directional flow (i.e across panels) like one continuous, elongated tree. We apply this method on both sides of the panels, beauty inside and out. This level of precision is part of our commitment to excellence, ensuring that every face, door, and panel feels intentionally crafted and visually unified.
As you can see in this example of a kitchen we worked on in Covington, Kentucky, vein matching transforms cabinetry from storage space into a true design feature by elongating vertical lines, grounding the space, and creating sophisticated continuity across tall cabinet banks and integrated appliances.
Veneer Kitchen Cabinets Are Here to Stay
Eco-friendly materials and an ability to customize? Veneers are clearly the modern cabinet finishes of the future. Paired with our superior hardware, your kitchen will last decades, truly timeless.
At NOLI, we use laminated structures and veneered wood doors as a beautiful and unique way to add lasting and sustainable modernity to your home. Check out our portfolio to see how a custom, veneered cabinet could be used in your next remodel to elevate your space.
Looking for more ideas?
Check out our full Cincinnati showroom to see the latest in kitchen and architectural interiors. Contact us for a private appointment to discuss your next home redesign project.
