Is there an easy and cheap way to apply veneer to MDF?

For that I'd use that water-based PVA-like coating (satin) that is invisible after drying. I first started using it about 20 years ago when the only source of it was Ikea, to optionally "varnish" all the raw pine furniture it sold. One coat, allow to dry, lightly sand, a second coat, done!

I get it now from Wilkinson and it's pretty much identical to that original Ikea product.

MM

Is this Di-Noc available to domestic consumers or is it soley manufactured for the trade?

MM

Yes, since writing my first post I, too, thought of paper, at least for the fiddle bits inside the pigeon holes. I could trim paper or thin coloured card to very exact measurements, and then a coating of that water-based PVA satin varnish I mentioned elsewhere could prevent finger marks in extended use.

MM

Lot cheaper and used it succesfully to colour ply boxes, was lot easier than painting, instant smooth dense block colours :-), be aware slightest crumb of dust shows as a bump;

Cheers Adam

For heavens sake! It's very straightforward if you are just trying to cover the back of a piece of single-sided oak-faced plywood with a sheet of oak veneer. (Which is what I have done.)

If you are trying to do marquetry then that's a different kettle of fish.

Agreed.

Here you go!

MM

the back of a piece of single-sided oak-faced plywood with a sheet of oak veneer. (Which is what I have done.)

Yeah, I wouldn't have thought it a big deal applying the iron-on kind to a box shape. I wouldn't cover the back as it's against the wall and I wouldn't bother with the bottom, either. The fiddly bits would be the pigeon holes, but they'd be fiddly anyway, with paint or whatever.

MM