Can You Whitewash Laminate Furniture

Whitewashed furniture is popular in country or cottage style homes and decor.

Can you whitewash laminate furniture.

A piece of laminate furniture that has already been painted is ready to go when it comes to giving it a distressed appearance as you won t need to prime it or give it a base coat. This video tutorial shows the simples steps it takes to successfully paint over laminate or pl. Whitewashing furniture creates a gentle distressed or antiqued look by simply applying whitewash or watered down white paint to your furniture. You can distress wood laminate or metal easily by yourself to make your furniture unique.

You can tell a piece of furniture is laminate if you look closely and see that there is a thin coating on the outside that is made of plastic. These days we don t have to be that harsh to create whitewash finishes. The piece won t be sand able. It s easy to skip the sanding step because sanding is a drag but it s especially important with laminate.

Laminate furniture isn t ideal to paint however if there was something i already have that needs a facelift it s definitely much cheaper than buying new furniture. You can sand prime and paint laminate as if it were a solid wood piece of furniture. Veneers are thin and easy to sand through and that can be a problem if the piece has dulled with age. Furniture with laminate or plastic can be painted and updated.

When mixing your own a 2 1 ratio of latex paint and water will create a very thick layer of whitewash while a 1 1 and 1 2 ratio result in successively thinner mixes. It is possible to whitewash painted furniture but it takes time and the steps vary depending on the look you want to achieve. Distressing is a simple process that makes newer furniture look antique by manually adding wear and tear. Then apply a coat of an acrylic latex paint with a brush or roller using short even strokes.

Purchase or create the whitewash mixture. You can even whitewash faux wood if you do the proper amount of preparation. Next apply an oil based primer with a brush or roller and wait 4 hours for it to dry. Once it s dry gently sand the surface with a 220 grit sandpaper.

To paint laminate furniture start by sanding down the surface using 120 grit sandpaper so that the paint will stick better. Whitewashing used to include the use of caustic lime to corrode the top layer of wood giving it a rustic chalky appearance. Because it s often somewhat glossy looking and important to sand it down until the finish is very dull before priming.