How to paint MDF - DIY tips!

today I'm going to be showing you how to get a finish like this on MDF welcome back to Gaza Thunderman in the Gaza Thani one tips library I hope you're having a fantastic Saturday morning if you're watching this on a Saturday when it's just come out and if you're watching it at another time I hope you're having a wonderful day first of all if you're new to the channel a massive welcome to you it's awesome to have you here my name's Andy I run a little joinery business up in Newcastle in the UK I've been making things out of wood for most of my life I don't profess to be an expert would work out by any stretch of the imagination most of what I make is kind of utilitarian stuff out of MDF and soft woods and stuff like that sometimes I get to work with hardwoods but it's fairly few and far between be honest most stuff that people want these days is ultimately gonna be I would say 99% of what I make is built and designed to ultimately be painted white I know people will disagree in the comments about this but far as I'm concerned there's no better material to work with if you're going to be painting it than MDF it's highly stable doesn't suffer from the same sort of contraction and expansion problems that you get with real wood it paints really really well it's easy to work with you don't have grain showing through the paint and other than the fact that when you cut it you get kind of noxious dust that probably will kill you if you inhale it other than that it's just a pleasure to work with I repeatedly say people either panicking about painting it or making a right hash of it so I thought it would be nice to just give you a few tips on how to deal with MDF and how it upend it and how to get a really nice finished edge green on MDF don't get us wrong you can get a better finish if you want to really push the boat for example I'm not gonna get into spray painting I don't have the room to spray paint but you could push it to that level if you want and for a sprint finish you can do things obviously like edge banding I think edge banding on MDF is far too much hassle for the benefit that you get and too many times I've seen the edge banding coming off over time edge banding by the way is this stuff hitting came to see and that gets I am to the edge of the MDF and as the iron on the glue melts and it sticks on and then you trim off any excess and you can get machines that do it you can actually get industrial machines for edge banding if it starts to come off it just looks terrible it's just not worth the hustle that's a perfectly good finish I've got on the edge of there without any sort of filler or edge banding or anything if you want to know more about alternative treatments because you can also use a filler on the edge as well and that works really well again it's not worth the hassle but you can do that if you want if you want a really really old remove edge I'm not going to bother putting a video together because charlie di white I'll put a link in the description he's done an excellent video comparing all the different treatments of MDF edge green he generally agrees with me that the easiest solution is what I'm gonna suggest in this video without further ado let's get on with it and show you how to paint MDF properly you're gonna need a good acrylic primer I use Leyland I'm not being sponsored by them or anything I'll just find this works really well I also use Leyland fast drying gloss it's not as shiny as some other gloss paint it's easy to work with and it gives a level of finish that I'm happy with and my customers are happy with more importantly use whatever brand of paint you want I use paint that I'm comfortable with and once I've hit on a brand that I'm happy with I generally stick to it unless I'm having problems anyway let's crack on I've got a synthetic brush a delta T class brush which you've probably seen us use before dead sheep nothing special nice fine bristles we've got foam roller again these are dead sheep chips but because he using water-based paints they're easy to clean as well so this is a one that I've used loads of times it still got plenty life in it absolutely fine if you want to throw them in the bin fine I'm far too tight for that and in case you're not aware they just slip off and you can put new ones oh I have a damp cloth and I have my acrylic primer undercoat the thing that I'm going to show you is a panel door kind of mock-up that I've made and this gives almost every scenario of all the different problems that you're likely to run into when you're painting MDF because we've got face green we've got Edge green and we've got the panel molding cut out which is kind of a combination of face grain and edge grain this can be kind of the most problematic thing that you might run into but again when you know how it's dead easy so don't don't panic so the first thing that I'm going to do obviously this is already sanded nor ready for paint just giving it a quick blow down with the airgun obviously if you don't have an airgun you can just blow it but this does a bit of a better job and then I'm just gonna give it a light wipe down with a damp cloth this raises a grain a little bit just make sure that it's nice and clean and ready for paint let's slap some paint on this I'm gonna start with the edges and I'll do the ruler after this is a brand new Potter paint if it's an alder pot just watch with the water-based paints because any paint that kind of builds a brand of rim here because it dries so quickly those bits wants to do dry can just crack off and fall into the paint you end up with lumps in your paint so if you are finding that you're getting lumps in your paint you can save your paint either through a paint sieve or a household sieve or even you can use like probably a pair of tights or a pair of socks or something like that yeah I'm sure you can sieve it through anything just to get the lumps out this is a brand new pot so we should be fine I'm actually going to do the edges first on this I think it'll just make life a little bit easier and all I'm going to do here I'm just going on the back side of it and I'm you see how we get these little came to tramline to paint around the edge I'm just gonna smooth those out I'm not going to show you paint on the back of this but you would go over that obviously when you come to paint the back so I'm going to just do this middle kind of panel section here first now that I've done the edges again these are the most Awkward bits because it kind of absorbs the paint like a sponge so you might need a little bit more paint not too much so you want enough to cover it and no more certainly at this stage we're not aiming for the wood to be turning white we're aiming for everything to have a really nice even coat of the undercoat what color it is at this point I don't care quite a thin coat of anything just going over these edges again they get any kind of thick bits of paint off the edge and obviously for a small door like this whether or not you would bother with a roller maybe you would just brush the whole thing but I'm gonna show you how to get a spray paint finish with a ruler you see this little kind of blob of paint here you don't want to leave anything like that that will show through on the final surface so I'm just now gone around all these edges just checking I haven't left any runs or blobs unless you just want a nice thin coat of the undercoat again little blobs of paint let's just brush em out and then we'll roll are these sections you know you can get a paint tray out and all that or you can just use your brush to load some paint on to the piece that will work this is a completely dry roller so it's gonna suck up this paint really quick in a minute so we might need to put a bit more on once you roll it's got some paint on it it's much easier at the moment this rule is dry okay so that's actually gone on fine so all I've done here is I've got an even coat the paint on and now I'm just going over it really lightly with the roller just to leave a nice finish really that's it we're not aiming for perfect coverage at the minute if your piece is bright white at this stage then I would be worried because you've probably put too much paint on at this stage it shouldn't be white it should be a kind of off brownie gray color because it takes a good three coats of paint to cover MDF and make it turn white and fat for any paint one coat primer two coats final coat is he a general rule of thumb that's it I just can leave it just double check whether or not I've managed to look the panels which I think I've caught the ruler there a little bit but generally that's fine I would rather not have a brush mark down there if possible let's make this light ultra amaze and get it covered and then lay it off gently with the ruler just to get your perfect finish sample look I'm hardly putting any weight on that roller at all you could literally you could lay it off laying off is where you go over it with a dry brush or roller to get your brush marks out No what's this no okay here I don't know you can see it let me just zoom in I thought that that was actually a lump in the paint but it's not it's where the surface the grain of the MDF has started to rise very slightly and that can happen when you paint MDF you know what it is unless you this isn't moisture resistant MDF by the way this is just normal MDF but it's fine find the paint moisture-resistant you tend to get less problems with the grain raising but honestly I'm going to show you that that's not gonna turn into a problem so we're just gonna leave this to dry now right so this is hard a couple of hours to dry no probably two three hours to dry I would have said it does dry a lot quicker than that but would want this to be bone dry for this next bit because this is probably the key bit in working with MDF that people don't bother with and this will make all the difference between having a good finish and a mediocre finish once it's bone dry we just need to give mainly the edge grain and any kind of combination grain like this we just need to give it a very very light sand now I've got just a an old bit off me orbital sander here this is an old piece it's 120 but it is used so it's probably close set there may be a hundred and 150 or even 200 I would say and all I'm doing is just giving a lie rub and I see not much and it's just to knock back the green a little bit because the painters has just raised the surface of the grain very slightly and all I want to do is knock that back if you've got any bits that are tricky to get into what you can do is just wrap a bit of sun paper around a filling knife like that and then you can get into all these little grooves honestly two swipes isn't enough you don't want to take the paint off you just want to bring the grain down again so I'm gonna just do that all the way around only really on the edge grain and kind of combination face grains that we're gonna have to do this on if you want will have got a tiny bit of grain raisin hear it and feel it and if you want you can give that a very very light rub but not too much you can also try steel wool instead of sandpaper if you find the sunpapers not getting into all the corners give steelwill a try get and feel when it's done a little bit on the edge green yes again you know the Greens not come up that much this isn't moisture-resistant MDF this is just normal MDF it's not bad at all shouldn't be taken any longer than I would say five minutes if this was a cabinet door no more than five minutes if that that's no perfectly smooth it's hard for you to see but that's really really smooth that'll paint lovely what I always say is if you can feel faults in the paintwork you'll see it just gonna give it another quick blow with the air gun now the quick wipe-down just with a damp cloth not wet damp and we're ready for our top coats you can watch my other video where I've had a bit of a more detailed look at different water-based gloss paint I really like this Leyland one but you know you like whichever brand you get used to using this particular paint I think this is the one where it says don't stir do not stir exactly the same as before synthetic brush again another tee class brush I've got the one-inch brush now this is where with this particular water-based gloss you've got to work quick nay mucking about with this one some kind of get straight on the edge first really quickly get the paint on so I've got a nice even coat painted on lay it off with a slightly once the brush is a little bit dry this edges well it's a little bit awkward because I'm trying to make sure that you can actually see it in the camera the camera is standing exactly where I want to be stood so I'm a weird kind of angle trying to paint this at a minute I'm just getting any excess paint off my brush here okay see wondering why I'm putting paint on the top so don't want too much just a thin coat that'll do same as before just get any tram lines and runs off back edge so we don't have to otherwise you're just gonna have to sand them off if you want because I am conscious that I haven't actually embed code they said yeah obvious obviously what you would have done by now is he would have under caught both the back and front I'm just wiping it down with a cloth I just really want to make sure I haven't got any big blobs of paint on that side quick coat on this molding as I say with this water-based gloss you need to work quick otherwise your wet edge disappears very quickly and then same as before for the top coat you can use like a fluffy roller like this but I always find with these they always leave bits of fluff in the paint and I'll get really angry so I'm back to a foam roller again it's not even a brand new roller that'll be fine get a bit paint on again ideally you would you be using a roller that's already primed with paint but this one isn't so just need to get the roller charged up the paint of it if you haven't let your primer dry for long enough this is the point where you could end up taking some of your primer off with the topcoat so you'll soon know whether or not you've left your primer long enough I would say a good two to three hours minimum if you want you can always go over it with a hairdryer to accelerate the drying but you don't want it to dry out too quickly otherwise it doesn't get a good bond with this surface that needs painted you say that you can see it it's already looking plenty people would leave it at that it does definitely need another corner it's gonna put a little bit extra paint on this is way it and start to be a bit more liberal with the paint if you want just little bit not too much because from here the grain on the MDF isn't really going to raise any more than it's already done the primers done its job it's sunk into the paint it's formed a good base to get our finished coats on as I say this would have been a bit quicker had I primed the roller in advance which I hadn't so all I'm going to do here very very quickly do a little bit extra on the outer edges again not just kind of if there's any globs of paint that have started to form I'm happy with that so I'm just going to leave that now we'll come back to it very shortly and again just watch out for bits you see these sort of bits just watch that they don't fall into your paint because over time it can kind of all build up on this edge and once that starts falling in your paint you've got problems and you can end up having this if you paint because honestly you'll be picking out lumps from your paint for the rest of time depending on how much paint you're getting through obviously if you're getting through a lot of pain then it's less of a problem but over time all these little bits fall into your paint and you get lumps and you have to pick them out and it's a nightmare so just try not to get any of these in the actual pinned right so the first quart of the cloth is pretty much dry where it is completely dry now all I'm going to do is give it a very light go over with a cloth just to make sure there's no kind of bits of dust falling on it or anything like that that'll do now some people recommend painting onto the wet surface like that I haven't had and particular success painting onto a damp surface I prefer to paint onto a dry surface if you find paint not the wet surface works that's fine right and now final coat again I'm just going to start on this edge this time and everything else I'm now just going to do with the ruler plenty paint on this court because this is our final coat the MDF is well sealed now so I don't need to worry as much about putting on too much paint other than just looking for rooms and that sort of thing but the water-based paint because it dries so quickly it doesn't really run very much at all I found certainly not compared to oil base the faster the paint dries or less runs you're gonna get but also the faster the paint dries the harder it is to get a nice finish so it's a bit of a kind of double edged sword and a bit of just takes a bit practice really if you're doing this properly you would have a paint tray for your roller but I'm just showing you how easy this is I'm gonna lay that off in a minute don't panic quickly do the edges open I've got enough on me we're all that maybe heaven can you see how we've got this little tram line of paint along there that's what happens when you just press a bit too hard on the rollin we've squeezed the paint around the corner basically so I'm just laying that off again just to remove that mark that is pretty much as perfect as you're gonna get it again you could also you could sand between your coats of gloss if you really really want to push for the most perfect finish you can possibly get but you know double-check that I've not left any runs in here but to be honest we're almost at the point where this paint drying already leave that dry and that's gonna pretty much do it I know I've called this a mustard class but let's just click be it really all I want to do is show you what I've learned over the years of working with MDF and give you a few hopefully helpful tips obviously and push this as far as you want in terms of getting the ultimate finish on MDF but I'm trying to keep it to the best practical finish that you can get without going down the route of either making it prohibitively expensive or using tools and materials that you just generally aren't gonna be in your average workshop but honestly don't stress about painting MDF here's a boot case I made a couple of weeks ago this bit on the right is face grain MDF this bit next to it is edge grain MDF and there's virtually no difference at all so there you go I hope you found this useful have a fantastic Saturday if you're watching this on a Saturday if you're watching it on another day well have a fantastic whatever day it currently is if you knew the channel welcome to gothis handyman thanks for watching have a wonderful weekend or week or day or year or month or whatever see you next time [Music]

Channel: Gosforth Handyman

Views: 922,506

Rating: 4.8159804 out of 5

Keywords: painting mdf for dummies, easy how to paint mdf, simple mdf paint, what paint for mdf, what paint to use for mdf, leyland paint mdf, how do i paint mdf, problems painting mdf, how to paint mdf, mdf paint, paint for mdf, primer for mdf, undercoat for mdf, mdf edge grain, painting mdf edge grain, how to paint edge of mdf, water based gloss paint, leyland paint, mdf, ghtl, ghtl#9, how do i paint mdf furniture, paint for mdf wardrobes, painting mdf

Id: htrEiKrD7AY

Length: 24min 4sec (1444 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 18 2017