Mr Fuxit wrote:
On 27 Jun, 20:16, "GB" wrote:
I have some MDF doors in the eaves cupboards, just plain 1.5 cm MDF. There
is quite a lot of pine in the room, and I have varnished that. It looks
great. I tried varnishing the MDF doors, and it looks pretty awful, just a
plain kahki colour, and the finish is not good, with the varnish sinking
into the MDF. (I have just finished the second coat and it looks the same. I
guess that if I keep going I will eventually get a decent finish, but it's
only MDF after all.)

I could paint the doors gloss white, which would go with the walls, which
are white emulsion. Any suggestions before I do that?

Personally I wouldn't do anything else with MDF except paint it. It's
not intended to be a 'finished' material like natural timber; varnishing
etc really isn't appropriate.

I use MDF primer first - TBH I've never really worked out whether
special 'MDF' variety is really necessary, or whether it's just a
marketing ploy! - followed by undercoat and then gloss. Don't use emulsion.

By the way, I have varnished the room side of the doors. Do I have to do the
same to the inside to stop them warping?

You must treat both sides the same way.

For real? I find that very hard to believe. Though I think personally
in all cases where I've only painted one side of an MDF panel it will
have been screwed down, so warping woudn't be evident.

David