Painting Laminate Bookcases

I'm sure we've all had one of these at some point - either in college or graduate school - the laminate bookcase.  You know, the cheap bookcases made of wood like paneling? I bought two from KMart many, many, years ago and they were at my mother's house holding all my college and law school books.

Since I need to cut costs wherever possible in decorating & furnishing my house, I decided to give those old bookcases a makeover.

This is the before:

 First, I wiped all traces of dust of with an old towel.  Then I painted each bookcase with a coat of oil based primer.

Without this primer, paint won't stick to the laminate surface!  So it's very important not to skip this step.  I was very thorough with the primer and made sure each nook & cranny was covered.  Then I let each bookcase dry over night.

The next day I applied two coats of paint to each bookcase.  One in stark white and the other in chocolate brown.  I let that dry over night.  The next day I placed them in the room and merchandised them up, and voila!

Here is the one in white:

And the one in chocolate:

Here is a side view of the chocolate brown:

In person, the paint looks even and not at all splotchy.  I had to use the flash on my camera for these pictures though and it shows some splotches that you can't see in person.  FYI.

Total cost: primer and paint = $40.  Not bad too give some old bookcases a new life.

Eventually, I intend to replace them with some "real" furniture, but for now they will do quite nicely!