You really can paint laminate furniture!

Derk says I'm way too anal. Maybe he's right. But it seriously bugs me that my girls don't have matching furniture. For example, Cambria's bookshelf and her toy box are white while her bed and dresser are wood. It just drives me up the wall. Since Derk wouldn't go for the idea of buying them all new furniture (I was only half serious when I suggested it anyway, lol), I decided to paint instead. I chose to tackle Cambria's furniture first (we're buying Kyrie a new bed soon, so I want to wait until after we get that picked out). I read up on how to paint laminate furniture, and despite Derk telling me it was a bad idea and wouldn't work, I went for it. And it turned out pretty great! There are a few small things I need to touch up, but it actually worked!

We took the drawers out and then moved it into the garage. I took all the hardware off the drawers, and then we sanded everything down. You have to be careful not to sand all the way through the laminate to the particle board. You just sand until you get the shiny finish off. Then you prime. I did 2 coats of primer, just to make sure it was really well covered. Once that dries, you're good to paint.

The drawer pulls gave me some serious grief. I thought having a white dresser with pink drawer pulls to match her walls would be really cute. So I got some spray paint and thought that would be super easy. Well, apparently I really suck at spray painting. Or something. Because it didn't work at all. I ended up having to soak them all in paint thinner and then spent a good amount of time today scrubbing all the paint off. And let me tell you, breathing in all those fumes wasn't good. I felt so loopy! At least Derk had fun making fun of me. ;)

Before

During

After

Next week, I'm doing her bed!