Dyeing fabric in my apartment kitchen almost ruined my landlord's countertops

I was in my tiny apartment in Austin trying to dye some old denim jackets a deep indigo. Thought I had everything covered with plastic sheets. But one splatter hit the white laminate counter and stained it blue within seconds. I panicked and scrubbed with bleach - made it worse. Ended up using a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide left on for 2 hours. It faded most of it, but there's still a ghost stain. Has anyone found a trick for getting dye out of laminate without sanding it down?

2 comments

2 Comments

joel_mason2217h ago

Wait, you put bleach on a laminate counter? That stuff eats right through laminate and makes it worse every time. I'm not gonna lie, I think that ghost stain might be permanent now from the combo of dye and bleach damage.

kair655h ago

Oh man, I gotta push back a little on that. I actually had a nearly identical disaster with Rit dye in my old rental and I got the stain out way better than I expected. Bleach is definitely not the move on laminate, but I think you can try a few things before giving up on it. Magic eraser with a little rubbing alcohol worked surprisingly well for me, just go gentle and don't scrub too hard. You might also try leaving a paste of oxiclean and water on it for a few hours, that pulled out a lot of color from my counters without damaging the finish.