Many laminate floorings have long guarantees, but what if you want a new look for your home? If your floor needs a makeover, painting, staining or whitewashing laminate flooring is an option.
Tip: Latex paint is recommended for laminate surface painting projects because of its durability and smooth finish.
Just play with colors until you get the general tone you want and then add more paint to your base as you go, if necessary. Don't fret about getting it right the first time. As long as you don't over saturate your laminate, you're not ruining your furniture. The tones can be changed.
You can sand, prime and paint laminate as if it were a solid wood piece of furniture! It's easy to skip the sanding step, because sanding is a drag… but it's especially important with laminate. Because it's often somewhat glossy-looking, and important to sand it down until the finish is very dull before priming.
Laminate is not absorbent as wood, so using a normal wood stain will not work. Using a finish to stain laminate flooring is less drastic than painting it, but the finish will need to be reapplied once the colour dulls. You also won't get the look of scratched paint. Much more subtle.
Traditional staining requires a porous wood surface so the stain can absorb into the finish. Since laminate furniture has a gloss finish, you can't technically stain it. But the good news is that you can paint over it with a faux stain that will be much more predictable and user-friendly than a traditional stain.
And, with that final layer of topcoat dry, you've given a fresh new look to an old laminate countertop. The painted surface is durable, but not quite as resistant to water and scratches as the laminate, so be sure to wipe up spills quickly and avoid scratching the paint as much as possible.
The first thing you need to know is that, without proper preparation, paint won't adhere to a laminate surface. Some paints will just bead up on the surface of the laminate. Other paints will go on with a splotchy, uneven finish and the first coat will begin peeling off as soon as you try to paint a second coat.
Painting laminate wasn't difficult, but I did find it more time-consuming than painting wood. To sum it up, the most important steps are to sand and prime all the surfaces before painting. If you were to skip those two steps, your paint would have nothing to adhere to and would most likely peel right off.
Laminate flooring is one of the easiest surfaces to clean due to the powerful aluminum oxide top coating that resists stains and harsh chemicals. Although it is easy to clean, routine maintenance is still necessary!
Since laminate isn't real wood and won't absorb anything, it's just what you need. Essentially you are painting a coat of “stain” over the top to make it look like darker wood and not completely cover the grain like paint does.
Instead of committing to the expense of replacing rundown kitchen cabinets, consider the more cost-effective solution of repainting them. Repainting laminate cabinets is an affordable way to turn eyesore storage into eye-catching, modern cabinetry.
The key to painting laminate furniture is to ALWAYS use an oil based primer for the best paint adhesion, paint in low humidity, and always let the paint thoroughly cure before heavy use.
Formaldehyde exposure may potentially cause a variety of symptoms and adverse health effects, such as eye, nose, throat, and skin irritation, coughing, wheezing, and allergic reactions.
| Hunker. You can remove laminate from cabinets and paint the pressed wood as long as it's MDF. If it's particleboard, you probably won't be happy with the results.
Go for a self-priming paint that's formulated for use on glossy, laminate surfaces. This cuts out the need for special primers, reducing both expense and time. Frenchic's Al Fresco range, Lazy Range and Trim Paint are the ideal solution.
The best way to ensure paint on laminate lasts is to sand the surface and use a good bonding primer, followed by two layers of high-quality latex paint and a durable top coat – allowing each layer to dry thoroughly before adding the next.
And although laminate is more expensive compared to paint, they are more resilient and long-lasting than paint. Thus, in the long run, they will equalize the expense. Laminates are quite durable because they provide several advantages including resistance to scuffs, dampness, and surface abrasion.
Laminate flooring is an excellent choice for many reasons, but primarily for its fantastic replication of the solid hardwood appearance. With beautiful grain patterns, stain colors, and finish types, your guests are likely to think they're walking on the “real thing.”