Painting Laminate Wood

Laminate and melamine are designed to repel kitchen spills like food oil and water so they naturally repel paint also.

Painting laminate wood. With wood exposing the grain is vital for the paint to adhere to. Thankfully we ve created this easy to follow tutorial for painting laminate furniture. The dos and don ts of painting laminate cabinets prime your laminate cabinets for the perfect paint job with these tips for surface preparation paint selection and application. Once it s dry gently sand the surface with a 220 grit sandpaper.

Common concerns when painting laminate furniture are. Painting laminate wood paneling isn t much different from painting any other wall surface. Unlike wood laminate and melamine cannot be sanded down to a natural grain because they have no natural grain. Laminate is a man made shiny smooth non porous material that is like a print or photo of wood grain.

Unlike wood laminate is a smooth non porous material so it really needs something to grab onto primer will do the trick. Primer is important especially when painting over laminate. Manufacturers use this product to cover less expensive wood composite furniture to give the appearance of higher quality wood. Veneered wood is a similar concept but instead of a plastic layer on top of plywood it has a very thin layer of actual wood called a veneer.

Then apply a coat of an acrylic latex paint with a brush or roller using short even strokes. By the way veneer is slightly different from laminate. To paint laminate furniture start by sanding down the surface using 120 grit sandpaper so that the paint will stick better. Next apply an oil based primer with a brush or roller and wait 4 hours for it to dry.

If you are painting a veneer wood piece of furniture i recommend the method outlined in my original cabinet painting post. The trick is to use a process that helps the paint adhere to the slick surface of the laminate. If it s a great piece and suits your needs and your budget it s worth the little extra work to make it awesome. Laminate can be painted but it can not be stained.

I have been painting furniture for 40 years. On most of the pieces using water based paint and finish worked great. Painting laminate furniture is one of those pain points. In the beginning i would sand down the wood or laminate clean paint my designs with water based acrylics and finish the piece with polyshield waterbased finish.