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Ask Curbly: Painting IKEA Furniture, Gluing Fabric to Formica, and Replacing Damaged Carpet

by on Oct 8, 2010

Hey, Curbliers –

There’s a great series of inquires happening in our Ask A Question forum. If you have any tips or ideas, post them in the comments here or in the forums.

  • ahohl41189 asks, “I bought a bookcase from ikea 2 years ago and its that fake wood kind. Im moving and I want my new room to have a different feel so I was thinking about painting some furniture. Has anyone tried this before? What kind of paint do you need to use and do you need to sand  the top coat off before painting?”
  • kymsmum pleads, “HELP!!!!!!!!!!! I have a fabulous 1950s cabinet BUT it has a formica, laminex , melamine (I don’t know what terms Americans use) top & doors.The rest is wood. I can handle that. Has anyone glued fabric or wallpapering or paper to this less than wonderful man-made fake wood nightmare.”
  • jennifersculpts says “We live in a rental cottage that has wall-to-wall Berber carpeting. There are a few sections (about 5″ x 3′ on average) where the loops of the berber have pulled up and unraveled leaving just the webbing. We have remnants of the original carpet and would like to remove the damaged areas and insert the remnants. Is this a possible solution to the problem? If so, what is the best way to cleanly cut & remove the damaged area and install the remnant?  We can’t afford to replace the entire carpet.”

Good questions, each. Can you paint IKEA furniture? If you have any ideas, please help out the Curbly community!