You walk through a furniture store and your eyes land on the perfect furniture piece. You can visualize exactly how it could look refinished! You walk a little closer to inspect it only to find out that it's laminate. In frustration, you walk away since you aren't sure if it is actually paintable.
There are so many pieces of laminate furniture that are still beautiful and functional but so often they aren't given a second look. However, by painting them, you can give new life to a piece of laminate or IKEA furniture and actually disquise the fact that it is not made of real wood.
What is laminate? Laminate furniture is actually mdf or particle board furniture that has been covered with paper that looks like wood, having the same wood-grain details and colors. That paper is then coated with a protective finish of plastic giving it a hard surface
The difficulty is that this hard surface is also very sleep, making it difficult for paint to stick at times leaving you at risk for your paint peeling up. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to give you a very durable and smooth finish.
Here are some helpful tips and tricks to help you refinish your next laminate furniture piece.
1. Sanding is a Must - Before you exit out of this post, know that I don't mean you have to sand off the existing laminate finish. That will actually make the end product less durable. Instead you are going to use a mouse sander (can be purchased for less than $18 on Amazon) to just rough up the surface. Use a rough sanding pad to really rough up the surface. If you find there are little spirals in the surface after you sand, that's ok. We will cover that with paint!
2. A Good Primer - Laminate furniture is easy to refinish if you know what you are doing and what products to use. I recommend a good oil based primer. Zinsser's Cover Stain is settles out for a smooth finish, covers well and has low VOC's. Roll it on with a 6" microfiber roller and let it dry for 2 hours.
3. Time to Paint - Now you can use the same roller to add a coat or two of good paint. Sherwin Williams ProClassic and Behr Marquee have great coverage and were the top pics in my recent post entitled the Best Paint for Furniture. Be sure that after each coat you step back and check for drips. Nothing quite ruins the look of painted furniture like dried-on drip marks.
4. Accent Your Furniture Piece - While your piece is drying, it's a good time to clean any hardware or spray paint it. You'd be amazed what a new coat of spray paint will do to old hardware to give it a completely new look on a budget.
Be sure to let your furniture piece dry a couple of days before using it. The paint mat be dried but it has not completely cured (or hardened) so use it lightly for a couple of weeks.
For a full tutorial with pictures and a step-by-step video you can see my post on How to Paint IKEA furniture. IKEA furniture is mostly laminate so the same process applies.
Now you have more options when looking at pieces to refinish for your home!
