How to seal painted bookshelves?

[mr1970]

Hi

Wonder if anyone can help. Having recently moved into an older house, we've ended up spending most of our furniture money on the basics - electrics, plumbing and so on. As a stop-gap, therefore, we decided to reuse our old Ikea Billy bookcases in the dining room, but paint them to match the room. We primed with International melamine primer, then put on three coats of Dulux trade satinwood in a custom colour. Took ages but so far so good.

The only problem is that, now that they're up, they're proving remarkably easy to chip - I took a chip out of the side just by accidentally scratching it with my fingernail.

Is there anything we can seal these with which will save them? We'd prefer to keep the matt finish if possible.

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Regards

A

 

[Robbie uk]

What ever you put on now wont stop the chance of it chipping. As the melamine is such a shiny surface, unless you can abrade it sufficiently enough it will chip off. Melamine primer is suposed to stop this and adhere to the surface but its not always as good as it sounds. Really needs a good flatting off with wet and dry prior to any painting.