Painting melamine furniture, advice needed!

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi

My son has some bedroom furniture, the typical MFI flat packed stuff with a melamine finish. Its in basically good condition but is blue and beech and he wants to change the colour scheme and make his bedroom a bit more grown up.

I have been looking around at paint and there is a bewildering number of different types of paint that seem to be suitable from kitchen cupboard paints to melamine paints and even sprays. Some are one coat, some need primer but none of them are particularly cheap and I really need some guidance.

Has anyone done this successfully? Can you give me some advice? Thank you.

Yolina

When I bought my place, I painted the melamine kitchen cabinets as a temporary measure while I was saving up to have the kitchen redone. I just took the doors off, washed everything with sugar soap, applied a melamine primer, and used normal satinwood paint (using one of those small compact foam rollers), lightly sanding in between the coats. Came up a treat, lasted for years (because I decided to spend the money I'd saved up on getting the bathroom done first...)

Peartree

I've painted lots of melamine furniture. I've got cheap and nasty melamine cupboards that look like they are original to the (old) house with a bit of moulding added and some clever painting.

Forget the specialist paints, all you need is melamine primer and after that it looks best painted with an eggshell. The cheapest place I've found for melamine primer is Wilkinsons. If you find it difficult to get an eggshell in the colour you want you can get it mixed at a trade paint centre. I find you get the best finish with a gloss roller and lots of thin coats.

In fact, just what Yolina said!

YORKSHIRELASS

Thanks both, thats given me confidence! Going to follow your advice and get some primer first then see what colour eggshell would work.

Not sure whether to paint the drawer fronts and wardrobe doors only, which are currently blue, or paint the whole pieces of furniture. Might start with the fronts then see how that looks.