Is there anyway to paint laminate covered cabinets?

Question

I'm renting and apartment and the cabinets are horrible and covered in wood grain laminate. Is there anyway I can paint them or something to make them look better?

Answer 1

Primer is a must on laminate, and use oil base, it adheres much better.

Answer 2

Because you are renting, you need to get approval from your landlord.  If you get approval, take some sand paper and sand it down a bit.  You should start with a rougher sand paper and go down to a less rough sand paper, so you get a smooth finish.  Basically you need to rough up the laminate so that the paint will hold, but you still want a smooth finish.  I would also put on a coat of BIN or some other type of primer.  BIN is used by my father's painting company and it works very well.  After your primer, you can put your paint color on.  You may need two coats or more if you don't use the primer.  You may still need 2 coats with primer depending on the color you choose.

Answer 3

I was able to paint over my ugly fake-wood laminate cabinet by first LIGHTLY sanding the laminate (don't sand too much or you'll scrape down to the cardboard that it's made of - or try liquid sand paper), then using three coats of paint with a nice brush.  Use an angled brush and paint carefully near walls to prevent the paint going outside the lines.

You might want to try using some primer on the laminate first, before the paint, but I just used paint.