Valspar Cabinet & Furniture Oil-Enriched Enamel - Cabinet Issues

[Mark S.]

We hired someone to paint our cabinets in our kitchen. They highly recommended we use Valspar Cabinet & Furniture Oil-Enriched Enamel. He said it wouldn’t leave brush strokes and it’s a great paint.

The marketing bullet points, even on the front of the can include:

-Strong, factory-like finish

-Fade, scratch, and scuff resistant

-No sanding or priming needed

-Soap and water cleanup

Our cabinets are laminate (not real wood, I guess). He said you don’t sand laminate because it will show brush strokes. Instead, he used a degreaser on the cabinets. They looked great when he finished them.

We left doors and drawers open for about 6 whole days and barely used the kitchen during that time to give the paint time to cure (I read oil-based can take 3-7 days). During that time, there have been numerous little places where the paint peels right off. Perfect example: we had our countertops installed yesterday (day 6), and I put my hand around the underneath of the countertop to feel it, my finger nail nicked the paint, and it peeled right off.

Something doesn’t seem right and we’re fearful we may have to have our cabinets re-done. One of our friends knows someone who supposedly used the exact same Valspar cabinet paint and has had no issues. Supposedly they also used another Valspar product (can’t recall - maybe a primer?) before applying the cabinet paint.

Anyone have any experience painting laminate cabinets or specifically with this type of Valspar cabinet paint?

I’m just trying to figure out if our contractor took a shortcut and it has to be redone or maybe the paint hasn’t yet had enough time to fully cure. Just really scratching my head on this one and hoping we don’t have to have everything re-done.

[Jaysen Medhurst]

Paint is not going to stick to laminate without giving the surface some tooth first, @Mark S. Paint (of any kind) needs something to grab onto. So, yes, your contractor took a shortcut. Overall, probably not a good idea to try and paint laminate under any circumstances.