Painting drawers

[Zeonia]

Hi,

I'm building a some drawers by hand out of either 12mm MDF or plywood. In the past I've just painted them with gloss, but this hasn't given a very strong finish, and eventually the paint either fades, or chips, or the contents stick to the paint. Depending on the paint.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good uk purchasable paint to use to finish the drawers in a way durable way?

I've tried plastikote too, with variable results.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.
Rob.

 

[foxhole]

Mdf at 12mm seems very thin? how will you fix.
Wife always paints units with emulsion or water based satin finish and then top coats with 3 layers of clear varnish.

 

[Zeonia]

Thanks for the help. These particular drawers are going to have metal brackets so should hold ok for the contents, although some others I'm working on I might use 16mm.

Is there are particular type of clear varnish she uses? Some of them tend to go brittle. I've thought about trying floor varnish, that seems to set solid, anyone tried that?