Painting cheap furniture?

pinkie_pie

Will my argos furniture survive a lick of paint? And the question is, what paint?

My children have a selection from the malibu range (beechy finish with blue/pink doors). Due to a room switcharound ds now needs the pink wardrobe and dd the blue one. A friend covered their dd's door with stickyback plastic but well it didn't look too brilliant. Was thinking maybe painting all over but not entirely sure what it would come out like.

Any ideas? Thank you

pimento

How about wallpapering the doors? Take off the handles first.

shegirl

I know you can buy cupboard paint (used on kitchen unit doors etc) so I'd have thought that would be suitable for wardrobes too.B&Q sell it

ormus

you need to sand it off and apply the correct primer. (kitchen unit type primer). then you can use any normal paint.

pinkie_pie

Can I sand it? It's MDF or melamine or whatever it is!

tori.k

Can you not just swap the doors over on the wardrobes?

shegirl

tori.k wrote: »

Can you not just swap the doors over on the wardrobes?

I'm guessing they must be different sizes otherwise there would be no point in swapping at all?

bestpud

I'm in the middle of painting dd's bed and it was varnished pine.

I sanded it down - enough to take the shine off, which you can do with melamine too - then used a primer.

You can get one for melamine - I'm sure International do one. I'm using a multi-surface one.

Sand again between each coat of primer and again before using whatever paint you want on top.

I'm using gloss.

It's actually coming up ok - better than I thought anyway!

If I was doing something like a wardrobe, I'd use a roller though as it will be quicker and easier.

The alternative is to use PVA glue and wallpaper.

Water down the PDF glue and stick on the paper, then use another couple of coats over the top to seal it. You can add a bit of water based varnish to the top coat if you want it shiny.

Again, sand before and between each coat.

Google 'decoupage on furniture' or similar words and you'll find lots of advice.

ETA: another thought:

You could take the doors off and hang a curtain or blind on the wardrobes instead...