Alternatives to wood for kitchen cabinets

Factual Questions
1

Are there any alternatives to wood for kitchen cabinets?

My wife and I are building a house in Hawaii. The framing is steel and the walls are blocks of a light weight cement material. Because of the wet weather (up to 200 inches of rain a year) and no winters to slow the termites down, we are trying to get away from using wood products in the house. The roof is metal.

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2

Steel cabinets, glass shelves.
Very clean and “industrial” looking.

3

Find a commercial kitchen fitter, wall to wall stainless steel!..

4

steel cabinets can be painted. a popular modern look.

though you would have to take care of the painted surface.

5

Some companies make cabinets out of marine-grade polymer. (Some people use them in outdoor kitchens.)

6

If you use appliance paint you wouldn’t need to care for it any special way. It’s durable and heat tolerant too.

7

They sound expensive. Wood is cheap. Even high end cabinetry is made with lots of MDF as long as it’s paint grade.

8

Did you even read the OP?
He doesn’t want wood or wood products - nothing that can be eaten by termites.

9

Any decent restaurant supply house will have stainless steel cabinets for commercial kitchens. If I’d had the money, I’d have outfitted my own kitchen with those when we overhauled it. If you like the look of stainless, you don’t have to worry about paint. They might be expensive, but they’re made to be practically bulletproof! (Plus, paying 2x for cabinets is cheaper than paying 1x several times, plus labor costs for those extra installations.)

10

Yes. Did you? It didn’t say “money is no object”.

I didn’t suggest he should use wood, only that he should be aware of the cost of steel cabinets. Do you have a problem with that?

11

Keep an eye out for restaurant closing sales. You can get a full outfit of stainless steel cabinets way cheaper than otherwise. And they’ll be freestanding units, so you can rearrange as your habits develop without having a huge overhaul on your hands.

I really don’t understand the attraction to built-ins. A couple of nice buffets with a granite top added looks so much nicer to my eye.