No worries Stu
I use paint grade edgebanding from edgeband uk
no glue required as it is pre-glued. Just an iron and a bit of elbow grease. Cut the edges with a stanley knife or similar. Takes a little bit of practice, but is easily done eventually. Or make life easy and buy the virotex or fastcap tools for trimming ends and then along the length. In my opinion it makes for a better cut than a blade and is much quicker.
Paint can be either Johnstones or Dulux. Always trade paint never shed paint. I always use waterborne which is quick drying and non yellowing unlike many oil based paint. It also is less toxic and easier to clean up. Avoid farrow and ball as it does not dry properly and is patchy at best. Johnston's do a decent matching service.
Suppliers. I get all my parts pre cut by a local timber merchant with beam saw. Precision is unrivalled and I am not interested in cutting mdf for dust reasons and the shear boredom of it. Even with a festool track saw it does not make sense to cut this stuff yourself. I get my sheet goods cut and delivered either to my workshop or direct to the jobsite.
Laying off is a term used to define the technique used to 'finish' the brush marks in paint work. It means to very lightly lay the brush over the paint work in one final direction with the least amount (usually) of pressure that you can to eliminate or disguise the brush marks. It has a positive value in that some people do want to see the very slight brush marks left, which in turn give the furniture a feel of hand made and more importantly hand painted, which in turn can be important if you are working in more period properties. Its all subjective though. If you work quick..you can apply with foam roller and gently lay off with brush, but I find the foam roller gives a very good finish, albeit a very light stippled effect.
Final coat is applied by roller and not laid off. I generally paint all the parts flat before assembly, with a final coat after assembly. I wouldn't dream of putting 4 coats of paint on something like this after installation with all those small cubby holes! That would drive me mad. Much easier to paint it flat and yields a much better quality finish.
Hope that helps Stu
Tel
