Painting mdf

[Eyesaw]

Hello.
I intend to paint mdf and would a like a high gloss finish.
Is it ok to mix a little thinners into the gloss paint for ease of brushing.
Thank you.

 

[LancsRick]

Yes, but that lone won't give you a mirror finish on MDF. If you want a high gloss finish like a commercial kitchen then there is a lot of effort to achieve with MDF. Somewhere on here there's a great thread on it.

 

[Spence]

You need to be getting a decent quality MDF to start with, alot of people swear by Medite. I've not used it but I have used decent MDF and then B&Q MDF and the difference is noticeable when painting.

The B&Q stuff require a lot of sanding back between coats and the thickness of the material varied massively. This didn't really affect painting but it was a pain when fitting door furniture.

 

[Eyesaw]

Thank you for your replies
I will mix a little thinners with dulux high gloss and see how it turns out.

 

[Steve Maskery]

You can make life a lot easier for yourself by buying MRMDF rather than plain MDF. It is a much nicer material to work with, especially on the edges.

 

[rafezetter]

Thank you for your replies
I will mix a little thinners with dulux high gloss and see how it turns out.

It'll turn out sh*te. Guarenteed.

I strongly suggest you search for the other thread about painting the edges before you do that - it gives you multiple options on how to achieve an edge surface capable of giving a "high gloss" finish.

If you go ahead regardless and just slap on some thinned paint, you'll wish you hadn't. When it dries it will feel like sandpaper itself and will require a lot of sanding back - except now you're sanding gloss paint, which will clog up the paper and cause you no end of headaches.

You'll likely get fed up, peed off, and end up leaving it "as is" - which you'll then convince yourself is "good enough".

If you want a gloss finish, you'll need to make the edges perfectly smooth BEFORE you touch it with any paint, so once painted all you'll have to to is a little denibbing on the first primer coat, and topcoat of gloss will be glossy as you desire. There's no shortcuts edgepainting average B&Q quality MDF.

Failure to do this will be a hard lesson to learn that will be time consuming to rectify.

 

[Eyesaw]

Just noticed your reply.
Thank you.
I apologise for not responding before but I've had phone and computer issues but I'm back online now.

 

[will1983]

Watch the videos by The Gosforth Handyman and Peter Millard (10 minute workshop) on YouTube.
They use water based paints almost exclusively and go through the different painting steps to achieve a good finish in detail.

I recently did a kitchen unit to match an existing high gloss white kitchen from Magnet, I used multiple coats of primer and several coats of a high quality water based gloss with lots of sanding between coats. The results were indistinguishable from the rest of the kitchen but it was a very lot of work. I also used my airless sprayer which helped a lot, I'm sure it would have been possible with a brush or roller but would have been even more work.

If you are struggling to get the finish you are looking for go to a local cabinet maker who offers spray finished furniture and ask them for a quote.