So yes! You can paint laminate furniture without sanding! Keep in mind though, if you have any scratches or spots of nail polish (like I did), you'll want to sand those areas so you have a nice smooth surface for your paint.
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.
Latex paint is recommended for laminate surface painting projects because of its durability and smooth finish.
Chalk paint is a great choice for painting laminate cabinets because it “hides” brush strokes. If you're using chalk paint for a project, you pretty much can't mess it up.
If you're planning to paint the laminate a dark color, you can skip the primer altogether and paint on one of these enamel paints. Beware that painting over damaged laminate will not result in a perfectly smooth surface.
A sure way to recognize wood laminate is when the grain does NOT follow through your piece. Wood Veneer is a sheet or thin layer of 'quality-natural-hardwood' that is adhered to a lesser quality wood surface. Wood Veneers give the impression of a more desired quality wood without being as costly.
INSL-X STIX Waterborne Bonding Primer is one of the best primers for laminate furniture. This primer is made specifically to bond to surfaces that are hard to coat, and will give you a smooth, level finish.
Make sure the veneer doesn't have cracks. If needed, remove any sections of peeling veneer. Clean the piece well, prime, and then apply a few coats of chalk paint to the veneer furniture. It'll look brand new!
Rust-Oleum spray paints can be used on wood, wicker, metal, plaster, plastic, or unglazed ceramic surfaces. Rust-Oleum spray paint is so easy to use for transforming wood, melamine, laminate, or metal furniture.
Carefully fill and sand any dents, bashed corners or chipped edges with a wood filler. After that, apply two coats of our Multi Purpose Primer. This will give your MDF and laminate furniture a really good base and help the paint to stick.
Do use a powerful bonding primer like INSL-X® STIX®, which offers powerful adhesion properties to any surface, even shiny ones like laminate. Do use sandpaper that is finer than 220-grit. Do sand the shiny surface down to a dull finish before applying paint. Don't try to stain it.
INSL-X® STIX® Waterborne Bonding Primer is an acrylic primer-sealer engineered to bond to hard-to-coat surfaces, providing the ideal base for top coats. Its tenacious adhesion creates paint-ready substrates, saving you valuable time and money.
Good-quality wood glue and a clamp to hold the laminate against the core is a good way to repair laminate coating that is peeling. Once the glue has set and dried, you can begin to clean the cabinet doors and drawers.
Veneer is a decorative wood layer that's overlaid on a different surface. Veneer can be primed, painted, stained, and treated just like any other wood surface. Painting veneer surfaces is a great way to spruce up furniture, make older pieces look newer, or make an original piece match a new décor scheme.
If you feel the surface, hardwood typically has texture and grains, while laminate is hard, glassy, and has a plastic feel to it.
Laminate furniture consists of synthetic materials used to form a thin layer that looks like wood. Since it's not actually made from wood, laminate pieces often look manufactured. The laminate gets its wood grain appearance through a printed process.
Valspar cabinet paint is readily available and can be used for painting cabinets, laminate cabinets, wood trim, and more. Using a brush can often result in brush marks but it does work well with a roller or a sprayer.
It doesn't have to be a specialist primer and a 2 in 1 paint and primer will work too. Our Furniture Paint goes one better and is a 3 in 1 primer, paint and finish. So you just need one product for your job.
The KEY to having the paint stick is to use the proper primer. I recommend using Zinsser Oil Based Primer. This stuff sticks like glue! I love their water based primer too, but when painting laminate, just go for the oil based, I feel it adheres better.
You can paint a little chalk paint on the flat surface of your laminate (so if it sticks, you can remove it easily). You can scratch it off with your fingernail after 24 hours of letting it dry. You can paint the rest of your laminate furniture with chalk paint if it sticks well.
Step 3 – Paint
Some will tell you to use laminate paint but I love milk paint for laminate so I would recommend that. Use your roller to paint the flat surfaces and a brush to carefully paint the detailed areas. Let it dry per the paint can's instructions. Apply another coat or two as needed.
When chalk paint isn't properly protected and sealed it can chip and scratch pretty easily.