Painting on Melamine finished MDF

I have used MDF but without the Melamine finish.. if I remember correctly as it was a few years ago I gave it several coats of gesso . I really enjoyed painting on its surface ,smooth textured and firm. The downside I discovered was the weight of the finished painting , it was a large picture. I gave it to a friend for a present and it now is mirror plated to their wall simply because of the weight. Though this would not apply ion a smaller board also one which is less thick. More to the point it was at least ten years ago and no signs of any deterioration....oh it is an acrylic painting with varnished finish. .

Why would you want to paint on a smooth surface?, it's thwart with problems I'm sure; you would need to rough up the surface and then apply several layers of gesso. I use standard MDF occasionally and so do many other artist's, this makes a good support for either oil or acrylic once it has been covered with a few layers of gesso after first being given a rough sanding. I'm sure that the ever knowledgeable Robert Jones will be able to give you more specific reasons as to the suitability.

It is designed so that nothing will stick to it, so you would have a better chance if you turned it over and painted on the reverse side.

Does it have a reverse side, or is it coated with this stuff whatever it is on both sides? If you have a 'bare' side, apply acrylic gesso and paint on that (a la Splosh). Without knowing what this coating is, it's not easy to hazard a guess as to what might happen to it. In theory, and if you want to risk it, sand it down if it offers two coated sides, and apply gesso. Leave that for a few days - come back to it and check for any bubbling or lifting; run a fingernail across it - does it lift, leaving you with a tram-line in the gesso? If so, don't use it - it doesn't have enough tooth to give a satisfactory bond. On the whole, I would usually prefer professionally-made surfaces intended for artistic use rather than off-cuts of bits of furniture or work-surfaces - you CAN sometimes use them, and they can work, but I'm too neurotic to use them - I'd be forever worrying about what'll happen to them, and so could never sell them with any confidence. I think you're right that this is a very thin laminate rather than melamine - but consisting of what? Is it plasticized paper? What glue was used to bind it to the MDF? Is it even intended to be water-resistant? It doesn't look smooth to me so much as slippery, and that's not likely to be a good surface for acrylic. There are other ways of preparing a board to give a smooth surface, if that's what you're after. Finally, Sylvia's right about the potential hanging problem - I too used a piece of heavy-duty MDF for a couple of paintings, and once you put a frame on them they need very firm fixings to the wall. On the plus side though, they don't warp.