Amy, you're right, the '70's homage to all-things-plastic often crossed the polyester-pants boundary and leapt into such brilliant things as chairs made in the shape of huge, molded plastic hands....or even sometimes the fake wood paneling of which you speak.
However: My mother can attest to the paintability of even the most repellent molded plastic surface. You may not recall this, but my mom's kitchen was a '70's dark-wood-with-avocado-trim shrine. Being a cheapskate, she wanted to update the look of her kitchen without all the inherent costs, both of pocketbook and manual labor, of actually replacing things (unless it was really necessary, like replacing a non-working fridge).
Problem was, the kitchen cabinet doors were all made of some tacky avocado vinyl-like substance--perhaps some weird '70's laminate, I don't know. At any rate, the doors were a uniform hideous color and apparently shatterproof, water-resistant, and paint-resistant. Kind of like a bunch of avocado roaches.
My mom doesn't give up so easily. She looked at those cabinets for a long time before finally deciding they were in good enough condition to keep--after all, they were strong, sturdy doors, and none of them broken--it was just the color that was objectionable. So, she did what any tightwad would do in her place: despite evidence to the contrary, she figured those doors COULD be painted. So she painted them. The trick was, she SANDED them first. A light sanding with a coarse sander, and the cabinet surfaces were roughened up just enough for the paint to stick.
Of course she had to apply a few layers of paint to completely mask the hideous avocado color, but that worked out fine. I must say the cabinet doors look pretty good.
However: My mother can attest to the paintability of even the most repellent molded plastic surface. You may not recall this, but my mom's kitchen was a '70's dark-wood-with-avocado-trim shrine. Being a cheapskate, she wanted to update the look of her kitchen without all the inherent costs, both of pocketbook and manual labor, of actually replacing things (unless it was really necessary, like replacing a non-working fridge).
Problem was, the kitchen cabinet doors were all made of some tacky avocado vinyl-like substance--perhaps some weird '70's laminate, I don't know. At any rate, the doors were a uniform hideous color and apparently shatterproof, water-resistant, and paint-resistant. Kind of like a bunch of avocado roaches.
My mom doesn't give up so easily. She looked at those cabinets for a long time before finally deciding they were in good enough condition to keep--after all, they were strong, sturdy doors, and none of them broken--it was just the color that was objectionable. So, she did what any tightwad would do in her place: despite evidence to the contrary, she figured those doors COULD be painted. So she painted them. The trick was, she SANDED them first. A light sanding with a coarse sander, and the cabinet surfaces were roughened up just enough for the paint to stick.
Of course she had to apply a few layers of paint to completely mask the hideous avocado color, but that worked out fine. I must say the cabinet doors look pretty good.
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