Painted Laminate Sink Project

I love decorating and "fixing up" furniture.  One of my latest projects was fixing the sink area in my classroom.  This sink area looked like it had about 100 years of wear and tear and about 20 years of dirt. I honestly didn't really know what to do with this sink or what options were cheap and easy.  First,  I tried to cover it with contact paper but it didn't looked the way I thought it would. So my next idea was to paint the counter tops, sides, and inside with black laminate paint and actually it turned out really well! I was really surprised! To restore a laminate/wood counter/cabinet...

Materials:

- 1 can of the laminate paint (tinted to whatever color you would like...I chose black)
- 1 can semi-gloss spray paint for the peg board doors (again..I chose black, but whatever color you would like is fine) 
- 2 inch angled brush
- sandpaper
- painters tape (i never used it...i really HATE taping things off...) 




BEFORE:The doors and sink area. (I realized I didn't get a picture of the entire sink area with the doors on but just imagine a small ugly sink area...)

 For the doors, I actually took them home, sanded them quickly, wiped them off, and then spray-painted them. Once they were spray painted with 2 coats, I just let them dry and they were done.











  

I honestly have been only teaching for a 1/2 year and I had no idea what was under my sink...until now...I found stuff from the 1960s under there!!

Anyways, before I painted the sink area, I sanded down all the sides and counter quickly with sandpaper and then wiped everything off.  Once everything was clean and ready to go, I started painting.  WARNING: OPEN THE WINDOWS AND BUY A MASK!! No one, told me about how smelly this paint was and I didn't take the time to read the label for this paint (...nobody got time for that...).

As I started painting, I was really struggling with brush marks.  This paint was really thick and sticky...it was not like acrylic or oil.  It almost seemed like old nailpolish.   I suggest a think coat, but not too think where you have to go over the wet paint again. Once the paint is on the counter, it's on. DO NOT PAINT OVER IT AGAIN (this was a difficult concept to get through my mind as well)!

DURING THE PROCESS: It's starting to look good!!! :)

 

AFTER: This is after 1 coat. I still need to paint the back of the cabinet as well as the left side.

Once I painted the majority of it, I let it dry for a few days. For now it will stay like this, until I go to my classroom where there isn't anyone. The fumes were bad and when I first put the first coat on the lady down stairs wasn't feeling well.  Until then, I will just have to keep decorating and getting ready for another wonderful school year! :)

 

**I will post a final picture once the second coat is painted on.** :)