does anyone know if you can use plaster - or something - to refinish those ulgy while melamine
cabinets. how you do this etc. etc.

thanks!

It depends on what you whant them to look like at the end. Give us some more info on what you want them to look like. There are many methods...
For starters you need to thoroughly sand them...

Thank you!

Anything but that horrid white malamine would be fine in the end .

A coat of some type of cement-like texture would be great. Either coated with a poly afterwards or maybe just matte.
Possibly some kind of material that would take a tint before application - or could maybe be stained
lightly afterwards - maybe a deep tile-like blue.

At this point I'm so sick of looking at them that I'd be just as happy with grey as well. Do you think I can get away with sanding by hand?

don't sand into the material.
you need fist something to adhere to the melamine - surebond,esp or whatever it is called in yr neck of the woods;essentially tell the paintshop you want something
that will let you paint on ceramic tiles because it is much the same problem.
this esp stuff you wipe it on leave it for some time
wipe it off and then go for it.
so!
once you have established a transitional substrate
you can have some fun.
silicate based paints are soft to the eye and highly
alkaline and so resistant to mould and anti bacterial.
they are flat and wipeable.
you could use three close colours and one brush - just hassle them until you like the look.

cement paint is not the best option.
some limewashes like above...but somewhat dilute would look nice as well but probably wax finish over the top,
which will impart a glow and slightly darken the appearence.
cheers joe.

Hi Re45 This is a great solution/method!

There is this stuff called "skimstone". It actually is Portland cement, some silica fume and some sort of polymer admixture which allows it to stick to a lot of substrates. They sell it as a floor resurfacing treatment, but I (and others) have messed around with it in a variety of other applications and it seems to be a pretty good product. There are a couple of places to check it out skimstone.com and cemetics.com. I would certainly still do sanding or deglossing, and use an appropriate prime on melamine

>does anyone know if you can use plaster - or
>something - to refinish those ulgy while
>melamine
>cabinets. how you do this etc. etc.
>
>thanks!

I would recommend going to the library. There's a ton of good home improvement books with information and photos. I was able to turn some crappy vinyl blinds into nice looking faux wood blinds. You can't even tell they aren't real wood.