Hello! I am working on building an enclosure and I want to know what other peoples experience with different building materials are or any tips anybody may have. I am leaning towards building the enclosure out of melamine but I want to keep my options open. I am using the top bunk of my bunk bed as a stand sine I do not have anybody using it so it will be pretty large. I am trying to avoid regular wood if I can because I am paranoid about not treating it correctly.
Melamine is a popular choice because it's coated and easy to clean. It is quite heavy though which is a downside. If you use good quality plywood it will be quite a bit lighter. You can coat the wood with a couple of polyurethane layers which will keep it sealed once dry.
I just finished building an enclosure out of ply. I too thought about melamine but it really is pretty heavy. And it's not as forgiving as ply. It is nice that you don't need to seal it like you do with ply. Sealing was the worst part of the whole project imo. Let's just say I'm definitely investing in an hvlp system for spraying the finish next time.