Painting particle board furniture

[ReadingMama]

We recently painted the inside of our house and now our mismatched "wood tone" particle board furniture from Walmart looks old. Finances are tight and I've been considering painting them. I have a contemporary cottage theme going on with light green, yellow, and white as the color scheme. I have a brown couch and medium brown tone wood furniture. I can't decide whether to paint the furniture white, off-white, a distressed white, dark brown, or yellow (to contrast with the green walls.) What do you think? How do you get a distressed look with white paint?

[4evermom]

I haven't done it with white but I've painted picture frames black over red and used a little steel wool to rub the black off the edges to show the red. I think you could paint with white, do the steel wool/sandpaper thing (some people also will hit the wood in random spots with a chain or something to cause random dents) then rub a stain on the raw wood that was exposed. But particle board would probably take stain funny so I'd be less inclined to do that and more inclined to do two layers of contrasting paint and gently sand off the top layer in select areas (edges and near knobs). If the sanded spots look dry and scratchy afterward, then some oil rubbed on would probably help.

[marybethorama]

Did anyone mention KILZ?

It is your friend

I paint everything.

Lightly sand, then apply a coat of KILZ (I highly reccomend this brand), then paint

[lightheart]

What about a crackle finish? basically you paint a color on then another color on top then you paint something on that makes the upper layer break apart and crack so that you see the bottom color. I have a white shelf that a friend of my mom did like this and it's neat looking, it's done on real wood not particle board but I would think it would work.

I have seen something like this is in the home building stores sold by the quarts or gallon and also have seen in the craft store in the little 2-4 ounce bottle.

[cristeen]

Most particle board furniture won't take paint easily. The laminate that covers the particle board is plastic, so you'd have to use a paint that can adhere to plastic, as well as sanding the finish on the plastic to rough it up so it'll take the paint.

[CalaRei]

We painted cheap laminate furniture for our spare room, and were pleasantly surprised with the results. We sanded it down just a little, primed, and painted it white with some spare paint. We should've used semi-gloss, because it is smudging, but we're super pleased.

For furniture that was cheaply made when it was bought 25 years ago, it's GREAT! my FIL didn't even recognize it.

[ReadingMama]

My husband spray painted a laminate bookshelf for our son's room and it looks great. Our living room furniture is much bigger than the bookshelf though, and I don't know how affordable it would be to spray paint the living room furniture.

[Flor]

Originally Posted by ReadingMama

My husband spray painted a laminate bookshelf for our son's room and it looks great. Our living room furniture is much bigger than the bookshelf though, and I don't know how affordable it would be to spray paint the living room furniture.

I've been pleasantly surprised with spray paint lately. It has really improved in the last few years. It doesn't drip, if you buy the more expensive brand and do light coats. I sprayed several things silver and the finish is pretty amazing. It really is as smooth as metal.

[Bekka]

Originally Posted by cristeen

Most particle board furniture won't take paint easily. The laminate that covers the particle board is plastic, so you'd have to use a paint that can adhere to plastic, as well as sanding the finish on the plastic to rough it up so it'll take the paint.

Well, I recently have seen ads for paint (may be spray paint) that you can paint a Little Tykes type kids' table with. Must be spray paint. They are out there, for sure.

[JamSamMom]

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[sunnysandiegan]

I recently painted some inexpensive laminate type furniture. Sanding and primer are the two keys! I used a sanding sponge (medium/fine) versus traditional sandpaper. It does less damage while getting rid of the paint-repelling surface. I already had good quality primer from our interior paint job. I think it is Zinsser? I used a real brush...not foam and not a "cheap" brush. Let it dry longer than recommended and lightly sand it again. I did a second coat of primer on some pieces because they just seemed too "uneven". Then two coats of color paint. Let it dry extra time in between coats. (Dry time seems to be different for laminate than wood, in my experience.)

If you want a shabby chic look, then only do one coat of primer regardless of how it looks and I'd do two different colors for the colored paint. You can rub off some of the second coat while it is wet/tacky to get a nice "worn" look. Bang it, sand it, etc once completely dry to complete the look.

Another idea is to add some mouldings to the pieces to add some character before you sand/prime/paint.

Color is hard to give advice on without seeing the room and the pieces. What is your lighting like? Do you need to "lighten up" the room? Is the room light enough as is? I like to have a mix of values (light, medium, dark) in any given room, but I take into account natural lighting and reflection (mirrors) FIRST.