Painting melamine office furniture

[TheBinarySheep]

I have a couple of office storage units in our home office, covered in textured melamine with an ABS edge banding.

It's currently a beach/maple colour and I'd like to paint it white rather than replace the units. I'm concerned though that the paint isn't really going to stick to the melamine surface. My plan was to sand the units down to key the surface, apply a primer and then coat with Ronseal Stay White Ultra Tough Paint. I'm just wondering, am I wasting my time attempting to paint the units? If something is dragged along the surface, will it scratch easily and review the old colour?

I can buy the units in white for £120 each, but I already have the paint from another project, so it would be far cheaper to paint them.

 

[Notch7]

A painted top wont have much durability, whatever the substrate.

Vertical faces will be ok.

 

[gc1967]

I have a couple of office storage units in our home office, covered in textured melamine with an ABS edge banding.

It's currently a beach/maple colour and I'd like to paint it white rather than replace the units. I'm concerned though that the paint isn't really going to stick to the melamine surface. My plan was to sand the units down to key the surface, apply a primer and then coat with Ronseal Stay White Ultra Tough Paint. I'm just wondering, am I wasting my time attempting to paint the units? If something is dragged along the surface, will it scratch easily and review the old colour?

I can buy the units in white for £120 each, but I already have the paint from another project, so it would be far cheaper to paint them.

A real good sand down and dust off and prime all with Zinserr bin, before applying top coats.

 

[opps]

If the tops of the units are likely to get a lot of traffic, I'd recommend coughing up the £240 for the new units.

If they will be lovingly looked after then follow gc1967's advice.

BIN is a pigmented shellac suspended in alcohol. Clean any brushes in household ammonia. Do not use a foam roller, the alcohol will cause it to swell. A mohair roller will be fine.

If you are happy with a slightly off white low sheen finish, you can use two coats of BIN rather than applying the Ronseal stuff.

1L of BIN will be about £20.

 

[TheBinarySheep]

Thanks. The units have a printer sat on top at the moment, certainly not high traffic. I had considered buying some glass tops to protect to top surface.

I'll look at trying the BIN stuff.

 

[TheBinarySheep]

Will BIN yellow with time?

Just wondering whether to stick a top coat over it?

 

[opps]

BIN shouldn't yellow.

In general the only paints that yellow (as a result of a lack of UV light) are oil based paints. BIN is alcohol based rather than oil based. The alcohol is a carrier and evaporates off very quickly. Infact, BIN fully cures (hardens) in about 3 days which is twice as fast as waterbased paints. It is far harder and more durable than water or oil based paints.

The main problem with BIN is that it dries so quickly that it is difficult to achieve a "flawless" finish. You can add a little bit of isopropyl alcohol or meths if needed though. Resist the temptation to re-roll any bits that you may have missed 10 minutes later, it will get messy and leave you with very heavy paint build up. You can however apply a second coat all over after as little as 45 mins (depending on ambient temperature).

As one might expect, it does stink of alcohol but the smell goes after about 40 minutes.

On a few occasions I have used it to paint over existing wall paper that was in very good condition. I got my local supplier to tint it to a colour of my choice (pastel colours only though).

Zinsser BIN has been the market leader for a long time, there is a new kid on the block though- Smith and Rodgers have recently released their own version- Blockade. It is every bit as good as BIN and I suspect that in time it will end up being cheaper to buy that BIN but AFAIK it is only currently available from retailers in Scotland.

 

[donrkebab]

B+Q have a range of "furniture paint" and various finishing coats, no idea if they are any good, what do the experts think?