Stain or Laminate?

[Sshado]

I already know that for the sides of my cabinet I want a cherry wood finish like this:

Click Here

Can anyone give me some pro's and con's of either doing a Stain finish or laminate, like costs, time, final output...  

Thanks in advance,

Sshado

[Sshado]

Also, since I am asking about Laminate, I have decided on a color for my control panel, but can't decide on paint or laminate.

Can a stone type paint be as smooth and durable as laminate  

Thanks again,

Sshado

[shmokes]

woodgrain laminate looks like crap.  do it right.

[hyiu]

I'm planning on wood grain also....

but not expected it to look it like arcade... more furniture like...

[rampy]

woodgrain laminate looks like crap.  do it right.

snaaake's cabinet is (was?) woodgrain laminate...

http://liquid718718.tripod.com/pictures/

and the http://www.custom-arcade.com/ dude has some photo's of stained cabinets (although I'm sure there are better examples of stained cabinets out there, I just don't have a url handy)

rampy

[shmokes]

With all due respect to Snake, real wood just looks like real wood.  Fake wood looks like, well, fake wood.

Go to your local furniture store and compare a real wood desk with a laminated particle board desk.

At the very least head down to your local Home Depot and check out the laminate samples.  They will have a rack on the wall with about a hundred different colors and textures and you can take as many as you want for free.  Or go to www.wilsonart.com and they will send you up to 30 samples of your choice for free.

[Sshado]

I do have the samples already, and they look fine.  But after looking at most of the pictures, I am thinking about just doing black on the sides (still debating on laminate or paint now).

The only Stained Arcade machine (or any wood for that matter) that I liked was This One

Here is a pic of the look I was going after:

[rampy]

hmmm... what about jubei?  that' how I'd want a wood finished one to look (although I personally don't like wood finish)

*shrug*

rampy

[SNAAAKE]

well if you can find the right looking laminate then its not bad...
I personally prefer laminate over anything because its very easy to work with and second it looks great too..(IMO).
Take a look..





These pictures are here to show you laminate works as well(for me).
Staining is allright but its just not my thang...however if you can do it right then result is outstanding..
the best looking stained cabinet is right here..
http://www.geocities.com/brian_coney/maincabinetpage.html
This site is often offline though..I cant stand geocities..
Its the BEAM CABINET.Gotta love this cabinet !  
The dude makes everything sound so easy...while building cabinets isn't easy at all.

[BloodStorm]

I'd go with a stained cab , IMO it would look way better then laminate. The downside though is cherry is pretty expensive ($96 a sheet where i live).  

I wanted to start a cherry cocktail cabinet myself , but i was a little bit short on wood so I went with oak.  Started it last night but its getting close to ready for stain , once it gets stained i'll post some pictures .  Next one though is gonna be cherry