Bedroom furniture and fitments European Panel Federation

Furniture

5. Bedroom furniture and fitments

Both fitted and free standing wardrobes and storage units in bedrooms often feature doors, drawer fronts and tops manufactured from MDF.

Where a wood veneer finish is required, the ability to directly mould and finish the edges of MDF doors and drawer fronts is an important production advantage. The appearance of matching wood veneered MDF dressing tables and bedside lockers is improved by rounding off the corners and moulding the edges of the top panels. Using the good machining and profile edge sanding processes that are now available, the quality of the edge finish will be at the same high level as the surface.

Similar considerations apply to the use of MDF as a base material for bedroom furniture finished by direct painting. The appearance of doors and drawer fronts can be enhanced by cutting profiled recess grooves into the surfaces with the three dimensional effect emphasised by using a contrasting colour paint within the grooves. Where intricate profiles are required, the excellent machining and finishing characteristics of high density MDF will be beneficial.

As an alternative to recess moulding, a raised surface effect can be created by bonding MDF shapes or profiled MDF mouldings to the fronts of doors and drawer fronts using polyvinyl acetate adhesive, hot melt or double sided adhesive tape. Standard or veneer wrapped MDF mouldings can be fixed as a cornice along the tops of a run of units or used to finish off the joints between the units and adjacent walls.

The ease of cutting curves and other interesting shapes in MDF provides scope for creating special effects in fitted bedrooms. Shaped pelmets can be fitted over the bed to complement shaped headboards and bed ends. Although most fitted bedrooms have white or light colour paint finishes, the possibilities of novel design effects that can be achieved with ragging, marbling or other textured finishes should not be overlooked.