[julia*v]

Hi All

I have a kitchen that I really hate the colour of. But... it does the job and is in good condition. Spending a lot of money on a full reno isn't possible at the moment. However, spending some money painting the cabinets, putting in a new tile splash back (I have a family member who is awesome at tiling!) and updating the handles is on the cards.

I have been trying to research some laminate painting - and while I have now found out how to paint it, I haven't seen many reviews on how easy/hard it was and what the wear and tear was like?

I have called a company who spray laminate for a quote, but need to wait a few weeks until their painter is back from leave. I have no idea how much it would cost to have someone to come in a do it.

Does anyone have any experience with either DIY or having a company come in and paint their laminate?

Would love to hear any stories!

[mummacat]

While I do not have any experience with a kitchen, I did use laminate paint on a wardrobe.

We used the white king laminate primer and then the white king laminate paint as the top coat.

It was a little hit and miss quality wise and you had to be very careful not to get runs in the paint. We took the doors off which did make it a little easier and used one of the mini rollers so we didn't get brush strokes.

The paint is very soft IMO, for example there is a mark on one door which was hit once from the roller blind handle (plastic end bit). I do not think I would want to use it in my kitchen, as the bashing my 2 give our kitchen would mark it.

There is another white king product called bench top clear that may be worthwhile looking into as this may make the paint more hard wearing.

[MrsLexiK]

My dad is a painter and cringes when he is hired to do this. The finished product never looks fantastic. Depending on the shape of your bench you maybe able to just buy new laminate to cover the benchtop. My IL's who renovate their own properties and also other people's do this often - and it looks much better then any painting does. If you do still do it def go with the rollers.

[FiveAus]

Once you've got a quote for spraying the laminate, get another quote for replacing just the bench tops. If you approach a couple of small cabinet workshops, you might be very surprised by how reasonably priced it is.

[Tobias'smum]

make sure you clean/ prime really well before you paint make arrangements not to use your kitchen while you are doing it . remove doors etc dont try to do it with them attached.

Make sure you are not doing when too hot or too cold. Bunnings has a good guide for doing it.

Dont paint too thick - we learnt all this from my sil doing her kitchen - we will be doing ours soon - our laminate or rose pink every where

[Flibbertigibbert...]

You can buy new laminate to cover the doors with, we bought a cheap but functional kitchen and the only downside was the aqua blue doors, very swish, the laminate comes off quite easy and you cut sheets to fit and just glue them on. I would be doing this rather than trying to paint what is there.

[Pearson]

We are looking at covering our doors with vj particle board for a country look. We will then paint this.
This is what we are looking at. We will then replace the bench tops. This is still cheaper than a whole new kitchen. Laminate paint DIY is not recommended for bench tops. You could look at attaching thin Mdf to the front of the doors and painting that, replace the benchtops.

My kitchen currently Is dark timber look laminate with Dark brown tiles, dark brown marbled patterned benchtops. We will paint white with lighter benchtops, and hopefully new floors (probably Lino for the time being) and then a large size tile backsplash. It will do for 5 years till we can afford to rip out and replace and dd is older and we can put down floating floors....

[Corella]

You can buy products to make the paint stick to the laminate - either something like Pentrol or ESP, or a specific tile and laminate paint system. It's easy and fun and cheaper.

But could you just replace the doors and leave the carcasses as they are?

[julia*v]

Thank you for all the replies and suggestions!

I will research some of the suggestions and see what I come up with.

I have considered just replacing the doors... but then I also have the wall oven and the bottom stick under the doors... so not sure if that would work.

I could take the laminate off and iron on new laminate (maybe?) but I was hoping to add some trimming to the doors and the back of the island bench to add some interest and get away from the 'builders standard' look.

It's not that old, so apart from the cost of removing and replacing, I feel wasteful as well, given that the kitchen is in perfect condition (and due to the layout of the house, it wouldn't be possible to change the design of the kitchen - so it would be exactly the same, just a different colour).

Why, oh why do people who build put in colour kitchens, bathrooms and tiles? Save the techni-colours for the walls and cushions people! hehe

[lucy-lu]

There is product out T buntings, can't ink of the name now that you apply over the top and allows you a finish similar to stone.

Basically you put some think stuff on it, like a thick paste consistence, then you add you stone decorations, which you sprinkle on and then you seal it all.