How to paint a doll's house which is made of MDF

B

Bronte

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Could anyone tell me what type of undercoat, if needed, and topcoat for painting the inside and outside of a doll's house which is made of MDF. Is a small roller the best or a brush? Also is there such a thing as spray paint for the windows as they are quite fiddly. Thanks
 
You need special paint for painting MDF. You can get 750ml pots in your local h/w store. Once that is one, you could paint over the white with your colour of choice. I would use a brush for a small area like a dolls house
 
tosullivan said:
You need special paint for painting MDF. You can get 750ml pots in your local h/w store. Once that is one, you could paint over the white with your colour of choice. I would use a brush for a small area like a dolls house
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Of course you don't need special paint! Acrylic (quick dry) undercoat and some acrylic eggshell will be fine. Or artists acrylics for small areas.
 
Here's a link that might be helpful...

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=26508

The edge treatment is the key to painting MDF otherwise it will soak up coat-after-coat without sufficient 'build'. This applies to any sawn or moulded edges. One of best solutions for sealing MDF edges (on a small scale) is to use car body filler such as Isopon. Mix it up, smear it on well and cut it back with a suitable sand paper. Start with 150 and then go to 180 grit which should be fine enough for most paint finishes.

Most MDF these days has a polished surface when it leaves the factory. Acrylic should not sink into the surface too much. Two coats should be enough. Avoid waterborne finishes for the reasons stated in the article.

If you want to have your dolls house properly finished then have it sprayed with a polyurethane base and topcoat. A very durable finish (usually used for contract furniture and kitchens) which will resist scrapes and dings very well. It has to be applied professionally though using a spray-gun.

BEWARE! Polyurethane can contain a catalytic hardener similar to that found in Superglue (Isocyanate) which is hazardous if inhaled! For that reason it must be sprayed professionally in a correctly ventilated space.
 
tosullivan said:
maybe so, but I painted a MDF box with the paint specifically designed for MDF and it's lasting a lot better and it gets a lot of abuse
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I've used ordinary paint (emulsion and oil based) on all my MDF stuff and haven't noticed any problems with same.
 

For the edge I usally use one or two coats of white undercoat paint and it seems to do the job. If the MDF is thick (100mm or more) I use a waterbased filler to start with, something like polycel hairline crack filler, rub it on thinly with a putty knife and sand later, then use the undercoat paint.
 
I haven't done any MDF work in a while but I used to rub PVA glue onto the edge and it seemed to do the trick for me.

The other thing I used to do was prime it with a coat of lacquer (very fast drying) then paint it with whatever I wanted.

I recommend oil based paints for MDF for the finish coat
 
hey bronte
all you need is acrylic primer for the first coat,its water based and safe,just finished a job where there was loads of mdf,and thats what i used get a few sanding pads cause the edges will need too be sanded after the primer has dried(use a mask cause the dust from mdf is not good for you)and as slf says use oil based for finish coats.
 
Ancutza said:
Most MDF these days has a polished surface when it leaves the factory. Acrylic should not sink into the surface too much. Two coats should be enough. Avoid waterborne finishes for the reasons stated in the article.

.
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Thanks all you guys for the advice, and yes I can read the tin but it's not in English as I'm abroad so I want to understand exactly what I have to buy.
Ancutza or anyone else, is acrylic paint water based, the house is a flatpack and the surface is polished. The point is that MDF will soak up a water based paint (I assume) and that would make it swell up I guess. But maybe acrylic is special for MDF. I'm not a paint expert so sorry if the question sounds stupid.
 
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