MDF is used extensively indoors in furniture, cabinets, doors, mouldings and flooring. Like other engineered wood products, it has a distinctively flat, dense surface that holds paint well. It doesn't move like wood, so its joints stay tight and paint doesn't crack. But the glory of MDF is its uniformity; it can be machined into every conceivable shape to create architectural details such as mouldings.

MDF is typically made from sawdust, planer shavings and other waste that remains after a tree is milled into lumber. The wood is then cleaned and mechanically refined in a process that reduces it into fine, uniform fibers.