MDF furniture isn't necessarily crap. If you want a painted finish, MDF gives a much smoother base to work on than timber, and you don't end up with the grains showing through the painted surface.
Like I said, my desk was finished with a very durable surface, specifically because I wanted the best quality I could afford. Unfortunately when a roof leaks there is a limit to how long anything can stand in water before it gets damaged. And if you're renting you have no choice except putting your furniture in and out of storage each time you move, depending on what you can fit in that particular house.
So far I've had my desk about 17 years. It's not crap.
Agreed with Lindeggs there. Most of our furniture new and secondhand in house is solid wood...BUT I do have a chest of drawers that I am hoping will fall apart anytime soon as they are quite ugly but have a use (children's artwork) and they are basically MDF that I have had since the age of 12 (and have travelled from UK) and I am now 46!
Husband, two teenagers, Stanley & Jed the greyhounds, one quail (Hawkefrost), one budgie (Chaos) small productive surburban section.
It's fine as long as it remains dry and is not subjected to heavy loadings as in Farmer53's book shelf example. I agree that it can be painted or otherwise coated to look okay if that is what one likes. I like real timber which retains it's structural integrity even when it gets wet. The thing I referred to in my first post on this thread is the use of MDF for bathroom, laundry, and kitchen cabinetry. No matter how careful one is bathroom and laundry cabinets almost always get wet at some point resulting in incurable damage as the MDF swells like weet-bix and the protective/decorative laminate comes off at which point the structural integrity of the cabinet is destroyed.
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