Changing the tone and color of your kitchen has never been easier by following the melamine cabinet painting mini-course offered by Home-Improvement-and-Financing.com. Melamine paint is a urethane-reinforced, oil-based paint that can typically be applied to a variety of surfaces including laminates, plastic, fiberglass, glass and even ceramic. This article will answer your questions about painting non-wood cabinets, which primer and paint to use, and the steps involved.

Some paint experts believe paint can be applied directly to a pre-cleaned surface without a primer, others believe kitchen cabinets should be cleaned with detergent, lightly sanded to give paint a grip and trisodium phosphate (TSP) cleaner, and then allowed to dry before painting Melamine Foam. One supplier even goes so far as to say that applying a coat of a multi-surface primer before applying the one coat goes a long way in improving the performance of the melamine paint.

Step-by-step instructions for painting melamine doors and drawers

• Protect your floors by laying out plastic sheeting.
• Wear gloves to protect your hands.
• Ventilation is of the utmost importance. Open the windows to facilitate drying.
• Remove the cabinet doors to a place where you can paint them horizontally and let them dry.
• Remove knobs and handles and keep in a safe place unless you are going to buy new ones.
• Clean and degrease surfaces and allow to dry thoroughly.
• Follow the instructions to mix TSP with water and wash the surface. Leave to dry for a few hours.
• Remove dust and dirt in the corners and sand the surface thoroughly. Apply the primer with an 80-100 grit sandpaper.
• Apply a primer and allow the cabinets to dry. This should be a good quality product that offers good adhesion for the top coat. Drying should take about four hours. This is an important part of the process. Make sure nobody is in the house where you are working.
• Lightly sand the surface of the primer with 240 grit sandpaper or finer.
• Take a natural bristle brush and apply the melamine paint in gentle up and down strokes to achieve an even glossy finish. (Some vendors recommend using a foam brush or high-density foam roller).
• Best results are achieved by applying three thin coats instead of one or two thick coats, allowing sufficient drying time between coats.
• If you paint over a dark color, apply two coats anyway. Allow at least sixteen hours to dry before applying the second coat.
• Allow sixteen hours or more to dry before re-hanging the kitchen cabinet doors. Note that full drying is required for best results and is worth it. Also keep in mind that most melamine paints can be touch dry in a few hours but will not be fully cured for a few days. So let them dry longer before remounting the doors and wait until they are fully cured.

Cleaning erasers: A “must have” for many daycare centers

Some products used by childcare professionals are not universally popular but have a loyal following that they wouldn’t want to be without. This is the case with melamine foam erasers. These so-called “magic erasers” — a popular variety has “magic” in its name — are known for their ability to remove stains and scuffs that other cleaning products beat.

Although the eraser is soft to the touch, it has a hard microstructure that allows it to appear like superfine sandpaper. The eraser is moistened with water before use; a “test rub” on a small, hard-to-see part of the surface to be cleaned is a good idea.

Although melamine foam has been around for several decades, its potential as a cleaning product has only recently been discovered. The technical name for melamine foam is formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite copolymer foam. It is manufactured by the German company BASF. It was invented as an insulator and flame retardant; The cleaning power of the material is a happy coincidence.

Melamine is an extremely tough polymer with uses that give Formica laminates their rigidity. But when pumped full of air Melamine Foam, the tiny strands that make up the foam’s matrix feel soft. At a microscopic level, these rigid little strands are very abrasive, like superfine sandpaper. Rubbing a dirty area with the eraser essentially grinds the dirt away.

A cook at a day care center in Illinois happily praised the product. “I think they’re great,” she said. “They just pull off everything you can think of!”

Workers there use the erasers in the kitchen and classroom, where the product works its magic on handprints, heel marks and who knows what else.