Repainting laminated kitchen cupboards

[Wet_One]

I'm looking for recommendations on primers for painting over tired kitchen cabinet doors that are made of cheapy 'plastic laminate over MDF'

They are basically sound, it is just that the colour is dated and I don't want to spring for new doors.

Hopefully someone can point me in the direction of a primer that really works for these and some topcoats that work well in a kitchen.

Also, a couple of them are delaminating at the edges, any idea of how to tidy them up?

 

[Swwils]

Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3

Or

Ronseal One Coat Cupboard Melamine & MDF Paint

Surfaces must be clean and lightly sanded.

This is not a small job to make look good.

 

[Wet_One]

Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3

Or

Ronseal One Coat Cupboard Melamine & MDF Paint

Surfaces must be clean and lightly sanded.

This is not a small job to make look good.

Ta for the recommendation.

Interesting that the Ronseal instructions say to just apply it and no mention of keying it first. I suppose a quick hand sanding can't do any harm.

Do you think I can leave the doors up and paint them vertically, rather than pulling them off and painting them when they are flat? There are 11 doors and 10 drawer fronts, so if I can avoid that, it will save a lot of time.

 

[Swwils]

No it will look naff.

If you want a quick solution you could glue acrylic sheet or similar to the fronts.

 

[Wayners]

You can buy plastic to wrap kitchen and will look new. Seen it demonstrated but probably not a DIY job.
Or
Peel plastic and paint doors.
Or
Look for same ones off eBay and replace

 

[Wet_One]

You can buy plastic to wrap kitchen and will look new. Seen it demonstrated but probably not a DIY job.
Or
Peel plastic and paint doors.
Or
Look for same ones off eBay and replace

I've looked at the wrap, but presumably the non-flat (what do you call those things?) front seems to make them unsuitable for a wrapping.

Can you peel them? I worry that I'd struggle to get them off - I bet that given their age, they'll be too brittle to pull off and I'd spend hours with a razorblade and cursewords.

The problem with getting replacements is that although some of them are standard sizes, some of them appear to be non-standard - at least looking at the usual places.

I'm not overly keen on paint, but I'm struggling to find an option that isn't getting new doors/drawers custom made

 

[foxhole]

Vinyl wrapped doors not easy to save once they peel . You may be able to get the wrap of with heat gun ( heat from toaster, steam from kettle main reason they fail).

 

[Wayners]

You can wrap moulded doors. I don't think its a DIY job though plus cost. Just thought I'd mention though.

I'd peel them back to MDF then paint.

Another option is to buy second hand as people sell kitchens on Facebook or eBay ect.

 

[Wet_One]

I thought I would give an update, partly so if people find this thread in the future it may help them, and partly to acknowledge all your valued suggestions.

1- Removing the laminate was not a feasible option.
It's quite thick and brittle and would probably require chipping off with a scraper, possibly with a heat gun to help.
Possible if only a couple of doors were involved, not so for 10+ pieces or your sanity would suffer. Also, I have no way of knowing what the wood is like underneath.

2 - In the end, I went for Wilko's offer:

Partly for the good reviews, but mostly for the availability that the others seemed to suffer from, especially in non-white colours.

3 - I took the doors down, soap and water to remove dirt/grease. Sugar soap to prep.

4 - This stuff works very well. Great coverage, goes on really easy.
The big downside is that it is brutally unforgiving. You have to be on top of your brush game and get each stroke right the first time.
It does not naturally level off, so use brushstrokes that are sympathetic to the imagined wood grain.

5- Claimed to be touch dry in 3 hours and fully cured in 3 days. That's optimistic to say the least. At least 24hours before it's completely dry and I
I'm keeping doors wedged open for a few days

6 - if you are good with a brush, the results can be very good:

 

[foxhole]

Roller gives better results.

 

[opps]

Roller gives better results.

If you don't mind a degree of orange peel.

2 - In the end, I went for Wilko's offer:

I would be really, really surprised if the paint finish passes the "finger nail test". Sorry. Just make sure that you only touch the handles.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yes sadly a photo after a few years would be interesting ......

 

[Wet_One]

They do recommend a roller, but I just can't believe it will do anything other than make the surface like a rough army blanket. The paint is just too thick for it to smooth itself out.

I could try thinning it with white spirits, but I worry that would negatively affect its adhesion to the melamine - which is tricky at the best of times.



If it lasts a few years, then it's done the job that I want. Worst case, I sand it down and repaint it - I can live with that.

 

[opps]

They do recommend a roller, but I just can't believe it will do anything other than make the surface like a rough army blanket. The paint is just too thick for it to smooth itself out.

I could try thinning it with white spirits, but I worry that would negatively affect its adhesion to the melamine - which is tricky at the best of times.



If it lasts a few years, then it's done the job that I want. Worst case, I sand it down and repaint it - I can live with that.

It is a quick dry paint- waterbased. Do not add white spirits.

If you want it to flow and level off, use Floetrol. Floetrol is a must for waterbased paints if you want to get a decent finish- nothing wrong with using a brush- I don't use rollers to paint woodwork.

500ml of Floetrol will cost as much as the tin of paint though. A key ingredient in Floetrol is propylene glycol, you can order that from ebay, it is significantly cheaper.

At a push. You could add a little bit of water. Dulux Trade paints can be thinned by up to 20%, at a guess 10% for Wilko paints.

 

[foxhole]

If you don't mind a degree of orange peel.

Only with wrong type of roller .