Can You Paint Laminate Wood Bookshelves

This post shares all about how to paint laminate wood shelves.

Can you paint laminate wood bookshelves.

Laminate and melamine are designed to repel kitchen spills like food oil and water so they naturally repel paint also. When attempting to paint laminate bookshelves often the paint peels from the surface or moving even a light object across the bookshelves creates unsightly scratches. This post is sponsored by decoart as part of the decoart art room partnership and is featured in a roundup of my 10 best painted furniture projects this post also contains affiliate links which you can read more about that here. If you re painting straight on the laminate as in the furniture doesn t have a coat of paint on it in need of removal then you don t need to do as much sanding.

C ommon concerns when painting laminate furniture are. Though a laminate finish is too slippery for paint to stick paint bonds better if you scuff or roughen the surface first. I d still recommend that orbital sander but regular ole medium grit about 120 sandpaper will be fine. I m also talking about what i think is the best paint for bookshelves.

It was important not to sand too much because otherwise the surface would get ruined since it s essentially paper but at the same time it was important to get them roughed up so the paint would absorb into the surface. Use medium sandpaper 120 to 150 grit to sand the entire surface. Primer is important especially when painting over laminate. Laminate can be painted but it can not be stained.

Prepare the surface unlike wood laminate and melamine cannot be sanded down to a natural grain because they have no natural grain. Laminate is a man made shiny smooth non porous material that is like a print or photo of wood grain. Manufacturers use this product to cover less expensive wood composite furniture to give the appearance of higher quality wood. With wood exposing the grain is vital for the paint to adhere to.