Finishing MDF - Paint or Something Else?

[paulrockliffe]

I'm making a desk and some torison-box shelves in an alcove, everything is ash-faced, the desk top is getting an ash veneer, but I'm not sure how to finish the MDF top and bottoms for the shelves.

Current build cost is £0 as I've ripped up a load of left-overs for everything else, so I can't justify buying two sheets of faced MDF when I have two sheets of 12mm MDF that have been sat taking up space for the last 4 years.

They want to be a light grey in a matt finish to match what the Boss is planning for the rest of the room and I can go and get some paint, but is there something else I can buy that'll save me having to prime and paint and leave to dry for a few days as I have to then clamp the parts while they glue in place? Not melamine as it's too expensive, but something in that general direction, or something else?

Basically after the quickest cheap way to get a matt grey finish.

Cheers

 

[lurker]

I am useless at painting!
But have had success at painting MDF with a 4" foam roller.

Numerous coats of undercoat denibbed between coats and one top coat.
Wickes own water based paint was recommended by someone here and worked well for me.

With the current warm weather you should be able to get 3-4 coats on per day.
I faced some shelves fronts with solid wood that was dowelled and glued to the shelves after I finished the paint job. Like you, I built torsion boxes.

 

[novocaine]

plasticote spray paint, be done in a day. you could speed up the curing process with a hair drier if your in a real rush, might save you a hour.

short of painting there isn't much else that's quicker and as resilient, you could vinyl wrap them, but you'll have to do as much work in prep as you would for painting anyway and most likely need to prime the surface to provide a decent surface to bond to anyway so you aren't at any real advantage.

 

[paulrockliffe]

Thanks, OK, that's what I was thinking, but wan't sure if there was something out there that would be a better option.

How does the plasticote go on, do I need to prime and whatnot first?

 

[novocaine]

I'd prime first, they do a primer for it. it's fairly quick drying, you can recoat in minutes, so prime in the morning, gas off and get on with colour in the afternoon, it's "self leveling" to a degree so not worth denibbing (at least in my experience).

 

[AndyT]

Have a look at Peter Millard (forum member) on YouTube and also Gosforth Handyman. Painted shelves like yours are a big part of their businesses, but they have freely shared information about their materials and methods in well produced videos which cover all you need to know.

 

[ED65]

Small foam roller, quick-dry gloss was going to be my suggestion too. I've used foam rollers for years for applying artists' primer and love the finish they leave, tried it with acrylic gloss for the first time only recently and it worked just as well as I'd expected.

You can easily do four coats in a day as lurker said, many more if you speed drying (I used to be able to do six coats in less than half an hour) but you shouldn't need more than 3-4 or the paint is pants!

Each coat is surprisingly fast, I slap the paint on quickly with a synthetic brush, then use the roller to spread it out and give an even finish. It's so fast that even if I had a spraygun capbable of doing larger surfaces I'm not sure I'd bother, since that would entail other faff like dilution, laying dropcloths, maybe some masking and cleaning the gun afterwards. And the finish from the roller is nearly as good.

 

[will1983]

I think I was I that has recommended the Wickes Trade Super grip primer, Undercoat and Liquid Gloss system mentioned by Lurker. I've used it loads of times all over my house and like the finish.

If I'm doing a large area I always apply it with a 4" roller though usually a standard knap type rather than a foam type. The primer and undercoat (2 coats of each with 180/240grit denibbing between each coat) I just slap on with the roller and leave to dry but the gloss I get on with a roller and then 'tip' with a decent brush to help the surface level.

You have to work quickly and be methodical though as it can flash dry really quickly and subsequent messing with the paint leads to a bit of a mess.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[paulrockliffe]

I tried to find some plastikote, but nowhere nearby had any so I'm waiting for Amazon to deliver tomorrow. I'll give that a whirl and try with a roller next time to see how that goes as well.

The desk is all fitted now, just waiting for the paint so I can get the boards painted and fitted for the shelves.....

20180720_094330 by Paul Rockliffe, on Flickr

I need to wall mount my monitor (and two others that are going to the right), hide some wires and whatnot and eventually I'm going to make a floating set of drawers to go to the right. Floating so the drawer fronts can be square to the room rather than square to the desk front; the draws will stick out from the desk a little at the right and sit under the desk to the left to give them some depth.

 

[paulrockliffe]

So far I've primed half the boards with two coats, seems OK so far.

But, the claimed 2.3m2 per can, there might be enough paint that if you poured it and rolled it out you'd cover 2.3m but given how it atomises and goes everywhere, there's barely 1m2 in the can, looks like I'm going to have to order more.

 

[paulrockliffe]

Managed to get two coats of primer and two coats of top coat on 3 boards that are 26cm x 1400cm, both cans now empty!

Ideally the boards want another 2 coats and that's only half of them, so pretty disappointing all things considered. I've spent nothing on this project apart from the paint and some adhesive , the rest was from the spares bin, so there's no way I'm paying £60 for the paint for the shelves!

I've sanded the boards that I've painted with 2400 grit wet and dry and given them a coat of wax to help even the colour out, they should be OK as they're the bottom of the shelves so will be in shadow all the time. The tops aren't visible at all unless you stand on some ladders, so I'll try a roller for those.

But yeah, massively disappointing.

 

[paulrockliffe]

First board glued in place, they look acceptable given the lighting etc. I could do with a filler to fill a couple of gaps between the boards and the wall - can anyone recommend something?

Ideally something I can buy ready coloured, doesn't need to be a perfect match, any fairly dark grey should work.

Cheers