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I'm making a small cabinet/table/thing. It includes two drawers at the top, and solid sides. These are traditional drawers sitting on wooden runners, and the sides of the drawers are a close fit to the sides of the cabinet. I was going for the "piston fit" style drawer - can't say I made it exactly that accurate but it's close enough for the question.

The piece is nearly ready for finishing but I'm not sure whether to finish the inside of the solid cabinet sides, or the underside of the top.

I've searched this site as well as Google, but I can only find information on whether to finish the inside of the drawers themselves (it seems generally they're not finished).

If it makes any difference, I'm probably going to finish this with standard polyurethane.

Graphus
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MarkH
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  • Does this answer your question? What kind of finish should I use inside dresser drawers? – Graphus Mar 08 '21 at 19:28
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    You must have missed the above searching the site but as you can see it covers this. As it basically says despite the tradition you can choose to finish the interior should you so wish to, but note the caution about the wait time for a full cure if by "standard polyurethane" you do mean oil-based. Obviously this can have a major impact on the time from completion of build to putting the item into service, depending on how much varnish you put on (thickness of coat and/or how many) as well as the current drying conditions in your workspace. – Graphus Mar 08 '21 at 19:38
  • That question is about the inside of the drawers, though it does mention in passing the inside of dressers in general. The answer may be the same, but my question is different - I'm asking about the inside of the drawer opening. Considerations about drying time of the finish apply to both, but here there's an additional consideration of the drawers rubbing on the finish. – MarkH Mar 09 '21 at 11:02
  • The Question is, but my Answer goes beyond the title. You ask if the inside of the drawer opening should be finished and I say "The traditional practice was for drawer bodies, and in fact the entire interior of a chest of drawers, not to be finished in any way." I'm sorry but that directly answers your query, making this is a duplicate, and SE has essentially a zero duplicates policy. If you want to ask about finish rubbing off in a drawer opening then ask just that (every Q should ideally ask one thing anyway, making it easier for future searchers to locate info). – Graphus Mar 10 '21 at 09:42
  • Yes, fair enough, that does answer my question. Close this one if you wish. However, I don't really agree that the question itself is a duplicate. Having a question "should I finish the inside of a cabinet" with the answer "no" is much more useful to anyone else who may be looking for that information than having the same information inside the answer to a different question. – MarkH Mar 10 '21 at 09:56
  • I've already voted to close (my first Comment above wasn't done manually, it's auto-generated by SE to help posters immediately see the duplicate/possible duplicate situation rather than learning it retroactively). "Having a question "should I finish the inside of a cabinet" with the answer "no" is much more useful to anyone else who may be looking for that information..." Yes, but we get the Questions we get when we get them. "...than having the same information inside the answer to a different question." Yes, exactly why your query about finish rubbing off shouldn't hide within yours ;-) – Graphus Mar 10 '21 at 10:05
  • On SE we're actually allowed to edit both Questions and Answers without asking, but do you mind if I edit your Q so that it is less of a dup (and simultaneously keeps @FreeMan's Answer applicable, without them needing to edit)? Subsequently you are free to ask about the finish rub-off thing separately, should you still wish to do so. – Graphus Mar 10 '21 at 10:12
  • Please, go ahead with any edits you like. I have the answer I need now (not to finish the inside), so I don't think I care about whether the finish will rub off anymore. – MarkH Mar 10 '21 at 10:29
  • Ta. Since you'll be varnishing the front of the drawer have you thought about how you'll tackle the transition between finished front and unfinished sides? This is a tricky one, and something not always tackled with grace in older furniture rather shockingly to modern eyes! I think masking tape is a great advance here, allowing us to accurately and uniformly define where we want the finished surface to end (right at the corner or to also cover e.g. the dovetails). – Graphus Mar 10 '21 at 10:46
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    Thank you, yes I did see something about that in one of the questions here a while ago. I don't want to clutter up the comments here, but yes, I have a plan :) – MarkH Mar 10 '21 at 11:54

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Generally speaking, the interior of the cabinet is not finished unless it's on display. So portions behind doors or just open would be finished, but portions hidden behind drawers would not be finished.

You may, of course, choose to finish yours, but yes, any contact surfaces will have the finish rubbed off reasonably quickly.

If you go take a gander at your local antique shop, you'll notice that very few, if any, of the cabinets have finish inside the drawer areas and most are no worse for wear because of it.

FreeMan
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