How To Paint Old Laminate Cabinets
A lot of people wonder if it’s better to paint their old laminate cabinets while the laminate is still attached, or pull the laminate off and then paint their cabinets. This is even more of a concern where the laminate has lifted in some spots. A lot of people think they can re-glue these pieces of laminate and secure them with clamps. In this article, I’ll tell you how to paint old laminate cabinets.
Lamination is when a thin, flexible, tough yet attractive sheet is placed on kitchen cabinets. If you remove the laminate from your cabinet, you could be in for a nightmare. My advice is not to touch the laminate. In all likelihood, you won’t be able to remove all the laminate anyway, which will leave a mess behind. Even if you successfully remove all the pieces and you can do so without breaking it off into chunks, you will not be able to remove all the glue that binds the laminate to the cabinet. Either way, you will create an eyesore, an eyesore that painting will not get rid off.
If the laminate is cracked, peeling or warped, that can interfere with the paint’s adhesion to the cabinet. You need to make sure that the laminate is in good condition. To do so, you have to repair any minor damage to the laminate or re-face the cabinet before painting it.
Re-gluing any loose laminate you have is a very good idea. As the glue dries, you can hold down the pieces of laminate with masking tape.
Before you start painting the cabinet, you should remove pulls, knobs and other visible cabinet hardware. This is so that the paint is applied smoothly without any obstructions. Metal on hinges can be masked with painter’s tape, allowing you to paint the doors in situ. If the hinges are both visible and removable, you can take off the doors and paint them on their own on a sawhorse or work bench.
If you can find paint that works on laminate, that’s the sort of paint that you should get. Normally, it’s a struggle to get paint to stick to laminate, so it’s important to take care with the kind of paint you get. You may also use 100% acrylic latex paint on top of 100% acrylic latex primer. If you use a paint suited to laminate, then you don’t need to use a primer. You should degrease the cabinet’s surface using rubbing alcohol and sand it moderately so that the paint adheres before your primer goes down.
Laminate is not very friendly with paints and primers. So as we said, do remember to use special paint that works with laminate, or the mix we suggested above. If you are using a primer, it has to be one that is stubborn enough to stick to laminate, such as this waterborne bonding primer, and top it off with an oil, or as we suggested, a latex-based paint, once the primer has cured.
As you can see, cabinet refinishing is a fun and simple process that can revitalize your cabinet’s.
