Can You Paint Laminate With Chalkboard Paint

Friend, today'southward makeover almost didn't happen – I bought this French Provincial style dresser a couple years ago to be a project for my book (Astonishing Piece of furniture Makeovers), but information technology didn't brand the cut. It's replica FP furniture from the 70s or 80s – and it's part laminate, part woods within, and part particle board. It had a few issues and it'due south non a smashing quality piece, so I about dropped it off at the thrift store a couple weeks ago. Simply at the last minute I decided anything would arrive look amend than its electric current condition!

Hang out with me today for Furniture Logroller Uppers mean solar day – and I'll teach y'all how to pigment laminate furniture with Chalk Pigment.

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Y'all might be wondering: Can you really paint laminate furniture? The answer is yep – you have to do things a piffling differently than you lot would with existent wood furniture, merely it'southward definitely possible and tin can even turn out really beautiful.

How to Prep Laminate Piece of furniture for Painting

Kickoff, the prep work is really important. This thing was pretty grimy and neglected – and it's been in my fiddling trailer for ages just taking up space. I pulled the drawers out, removed the hardware (keeping the pieces in a bag for safekeeping), and cleaned everything really well with damp paper towels. You can utilize a stronger cleaner or degreaser like Krud Kutter if needed.

I definitely planned to reuse the original hardware.

There were a couple gummy parts on height that I cleaned up with some Goo Gone and a paper towel.

Subsequently the drawers were removed, I noticed that there were pieces of cardboard underneath the tracks held in place by a couple staples – kind of ugly and not really necessary anyhow!

And so out the cardboard went. Then it was much easier to make clean inside.

You lot can't really sand laminate piece of furniture like you normally could with wood furniture (no electric sanders!), but y'all can lightly sand by mitt. I used 220-grit sandpaper to gently smooth out some areas where the stop was uneven.

Next, I placed some painter's tape over the inside of the drawer pull holes and then primer and pigment wouldn't drip through.

How to Prime Laminate Article of furniture

My favorite become-to primer is BIN shellac and it works great on laminate piece of furniture. I also use one specific brush that I simply employ for primer. I applied nearly 2 coats of primer, letting it dry out between each coat. For extra smoothness, lightly sand between coats also.

The combination of sanding and priming laminate furniture helps gives the pigment something to grip to.

How to Pigment Laminate Furniture with Chalk Paint

Afterwards the primer has dried at least overnight, it's time to paint the dresser. I chose Annie Sloan Chalk Pigment because it'due south my favorite paint (acquire all about how to Chalk Paint furniture hither), and considering y'all can use it on near any surface.

Usually Chalk Paint doesn't require much prep work, only with laminate furniture, y'all actually practise want to sand and prime first like I said earlier (information technology'south a really of import step!). For this French Provincial dresser, I picked upward a new can of Chicago Grey paint. This is almost identical in color to the original ASCP Paris Gray color that was manufactured in the U.S. until a few years ago. (The Paris Greyness that's sold now worldwide is a bit darker.)

Even though Chicago Grey is a calorie-free gray, it isn't too light – you can run across the deviation below versus the white primer on the drawer.

Equally always, I used my favorite Purdy paint brushes for painting the dresser. I applied well-nigh ii-3 coats of Chalk Paint as needed.

Since this is a French Provincial manner dresser, I gave information technology some subtle glam with metal pigment in the grooves and on the curvy details. A modest artist'southward brush works well for those tiny areas.

I as well painted the drawer pulls in Chicago Grey Chalk Paint and added a layer of the sheer metallic paint on meridian.

Very lightly sand the dresser for smoothness and wipe away any sanding grit.

For protection, apply at least ii coats of Annie Sloan's clear wax with a lint-free textile, letting the wax dry out overnight between each coat. The wax takes upward to 30 days to fully cure, then be careful with the surface for at least the first few weeks.

For the concluding touch, I cut patterned poster board to line the inside of the drawers. The drawers weren't in bad status, simply since the exterior got a fancy new look, the inside looked a little plain.

The poster board was from Hobby Lobby only unfortunately I don't think they acquit this specific fashion anymore.

And finally, here is how the old laminate dresser looks now…

The metallic shimmer is and then soft only y'all can come across it when the light hits – and it really helps the handles shine.

Here's how the drawers wait all prettied up with the poster lath (mode easier to cut and glue than paper):

And to recall I near donated this piece to the thrift store a couple weeks ago!

Friend, I hope you experience more confident with knowing how to paint laminate furniture with Chalk Paint now. Feel gratuitous to Pivot this mail service to easily find it again later, or share it with someone else who might acquire from it.