I tried painting the edge of the plywood. Used nippon wood paint, and painted 3 layers over a period of 1 week, result not what i had hoped for. See photo below (the 2nd photo), the edge is patchy, the wood edge somehow absorb the paint in the end give up and finally found the edging strip to cover it. can refer to my thread for details - http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=42861