Painting Laminate Cupboards

Painting laminate or melamine cupboard doors is an inexpensive way to refresh the appearance of kitchens and bathrooms. It is critical however that the surfaces are thoroughly prepared to ensure the desired results are achieved.

When painting laminate cupboards it is critical that the surfaces are thoroughly prepared to ensure the subsequent paint coating adheres strongly. This is especially true in a kitchen as there will always be grease and grime from dirty hands as well as cooking grease and oils that will inevitable be on the surface to be painted.

A water based system is not recommended for kitchen cupboards and if you are looking to paint the benchtops, a “food grade” approved product would need to be used.

For cupboard doors, we recommend the following preparation:

• Wash the surfaces to be painted with a solvent based degreaser to remove any grease and oils from the surface.
• While still wet wipe off the degreaser with a clean rag
• Regularly change the rags you use so that you don’t simply dissolve the oils and spread them across the surfaces
• CAUTION: make sure you have very good ventilation and spread any wet rags out in the open until they are dry as they can spontaneously combust if left crumpled up.
• Wet rub the cupboards with 240-280 grit wet & dry sandpaper. This is critical to roughen the surface and provide a “key” for the paint to adhere to.
• Re-wash the surfaces with degreaser and wipe dry

The surfaces are now ready to paint.

There are several paint systems available through any of the Crowies stores. With both options the top coat can be tinted to a wide range of decorative colours:

Option 1:

• 1st Coat: Solver All Purpose Undercoat
• 2nd Coat: Solver Satin Enamel or Solver High Gloss Enamel
• 3rd Coat: Solver Satin Enamel or Solver High Gloss Enamel

Option 2:

• 1st Coat: White Knight Tile & Laminate Primer
• 2nd Coat: White Knight Laminate Paint (Satin Finish)
• 3rd Coat: White Knight Laminate Paint (Satin Finish)

After painting, ensure the painted surfaces are protected from hard knocks and are not subjected to harsh cleaning for the first week to allow the paint coating to achieve its full cure.