So I am going to be a three tier enclosure with a built in cabinet on the bottom, the cabinet I plan on doing will actually hold my cricket bins and act as storage.
My original plan was to use 3/4" plywood (either birch, oak, or maple), but would also consider melamine. Major draw back of melamine is I prefer to have black backgrounds and I prefer the outside to look cabinet grade. I could skim the melamine on the outside and paint the inside but I hear it is tough to paint.
If I do use plywood I would stain the outside and paint the inside, if I read correctly on my searches an acrylic based low VOC paint should be safe. Anyone have any suggestions?
Just don't use pine or cedar. And the only problem I could see with using wood over melanine is that wood holds moisture. Malanine wont. And i couldn't see why it would be too terrible to paint. Just sand the shiny finish off and paint should stick. Hope this helps.