Can You Paint Laminate Wood Bookshelves

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Can you paint laminate wood bookshelves. 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. Laminate is a man made shiny smooth non porous material that is like a print or photo of wood grain. Use medium sandpaper 120 to 150 grit to sand the entire surface. Laminate can be painted but it can not be stained.

Manufacturers use this product to cover less expensive wood composite furniture to give the appearance of higher quality wood. Prepare the surface unlike wood laminate and melamine cannot be sanded down to a natural grain because they have no natural grain. This post shares all about how to paint laminate wood shelves. Primer is important especially when painting over laminate.

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. I d still recommend that orbital sander but regular ole medium grit about 120 sandpaper will be fine. These bookcases are made of a particle board like composite with a faux wood laminate exterior. 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.

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. I m also talking about what i think is the best paint for bookshelves. Unlike wood laminate is a smooth non porous material so it really needs something to grab onto primer will do the trick. Laminate and melamine are designed to repel kitchen spills like food oil and water so they naturally repel paint also.