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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Before & After: Painting My Countertops

BEFORE & AFTER





















When we moved into our house we had these awful veneered wood cabinets and orange and cream faux marbled laminate counter tops. Without the money to replace either, we made do. This post is about the countertops so lets just stick with that story for now. Maybe I'll show more on the cabinets later.
We took off all of the countertop fronts for this, and replaced them when we were all done. First I cleaned the surface of the counters super good. Use a s.o.s. pad or something abrasive. No need to sand because I used Glidden's GRIPPER primer. Get a good layer of the primer over every inch of counter top.

One the primer was nice and dry, it was time to tape! Since the next step involves spray paint indoors, you want to protect the walls and cabinets really good. Tape plastic around everything that is within a a few feet of the area you will be spraying, sorry I didn't take pictures of the step. Once everything is nice and safe you want to lightly spray a few layers of stone spray paint. There are a lot of different brands and colors to choose from. I used Rustoleum American Accents STONE spray paint called granite stone. Its a gray base with white and black flecks.



I think I did about 3 layers. If you want you can take a feather and lightly run it over the wet spray paint. It will give it a bit more realistic look, not so perfect looking. I skipped that step for fear that I would mess it up. But on my practice boards it looked really good. Oh yeah I almost forgot the most important part... make a few practice boards on cardboard or plywood that you have. Just to see what the look will be when its all finished, because once you put on the EnviroTex (I'll get there in a minute) it changes the color just a bit.
Make sure the spray paint is completely dry before you move on to the next step. If not, the flecks will run together and look a bit blurry in spots (something I learned on my practice board).
Mix your EnviroTex Lite together (you will probably want a mask for this part because it is strong). You can buy it online or at Michael's craft store so you can use a 40% coupon from the newspaper ads.

You might need to do 2-3 coats of the envirotex to make sure all the surface gets super even. I did 2 coats and I have a bit of unevenness in a few small areas. I need to do a 3rd. You can see more examples (some good, some not so good) of other painted countertops and hear real peoples advice at this site.

So there you have it! I did this small section (above) for only about $20. I haven't finished the rest of the kitchen yet. It is all primed and ready to paint....

56 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, this turned out awesome! I had never even heard of painting counter tops...what a great idea! :)

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  2. what a seemingly crazy but actually really good idea.

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    1. I did that and a month or so later the paint had turned yellow!

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  3. You know, you really should link this up to Kimba's DIY party at A Soft Place to Land. I bet people would flip over this - it looks gorgeous, and I would love to see the cabinets and the walls! That blue color swatch you have up looks so pretty.

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  4. It looks awesome! I love it! What a huge transformation! I can't wait to see it all done!

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  5. I can't show any more! YET. Its still a disaster. =)

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    1. Just bought a fixer upper, need to penny pinch as much as possible, this is a great idea, want to do my kitchen in blue, can't wait to see your finished work

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  6. You did an awesome job! What a HUGE improvement a little paint makes!
    Roeshel

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  7. Nice job! I've read that Envirotex Lite doesn't hold up to heat (having warm or hot things placed on it -- even a hot cup of coffee!). I am thinking of doing my counters. Have you en-countered this problem?

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  8. do you find that the EnviroTex is easily scratched on new countertop? i've heard that it easily scratches and leaves fingerprints even months after completion.

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  9. It didnt scratch too bad. Food would stick to it much easier then regular countertops, and in order to get it off I would have to use a mild abbrasive on that area. The abbrasive would obvisouly scratch, in the form of a "foggy" spot. It wasn't noticable unless you were really close to it though. A couple of spots stained where red wine had sat too long. No finger prints. I wouldn't recommend it though. Althought most people who have come over loved it. I changed it out to butcher block already.

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    Replies
    1. Try coating with self leveling epoxy. It's the epoxy restaurants use on tables. It takes heat, durable to scratching. Excellant choice for counters.

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  10. how did you get the gloss on the vertical sections as from other articles I read you need to spread it out with a straight edge, not a brush. thanks. oh and thanks for the tip the Michaels carries it, hehe... I gather from your comments, its not food safe you need to rely on cutting boards?

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  11. This is incredible! I googled this project and I was specifically looking for blogs because they are more realistic and practical than the product websites. So glad I found your site- love your style! I may be emailing you for tips when I try this out at one of our rental properties.

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  12. Marble is a natural stone which can look very attractive. For kitchen benchtops its big problem is that it is porous and not very acid resistance. Any breakdown of the surface sealant will result in staining which is nearly impossible to remove.

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  13. I am really glad I found your site,( i googled "can i paint my countertops with rust-oleum stone spray paint) I ran across the stone paint yesterday and I'm redoing my kitchen and thought that it would look awesome on the counters but wasn't sure if it would work, so thanks for posting about it!!

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  14. So glad we stumbled across this. We are in the process of replacing some countertops and this will definitely make us think twice about just buying new. Thanks!

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  15. I did this same thing with ours! Ours were a mint green color and bought the sandy/tan color. I however didn't do the last step. Instead, I topped with many coats of polyurethane. It took a while between dryings and such but turned out pretty nice for my first time and everyone can't believe I spray painted our counters because they look so good! :)

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  16. I know it's a bit late, but I must say that the outcome was great. Its glossy texture is wonderful, and the sandy effect is more. But I wish you retained the color of your counter tops. It really complemented with the color of your kitchen cabinet.

    WoodsCustomKitchens.com

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  17. HA! Great minds DO think alike! I had the idea in my head and wanted to see if anyone had done it and wrote about it. Looks like I am in business, your countertops look really really great, you did a great job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  18. Thanks, i have been looking for some direction on how to do this. It looks great!

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  19. I painted my kitchen coutertops a few years ago with the Giani marble faux system and have been very happy with the results. I saw your post while looking for red countertop paint. You gave me the idea to use your idea with red spray paint. I primed the bathroom counters today and glossy red spray paint will go on tomorrow! Wish me luck!

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  20. Anonymous ....how did your counter come out I'm interested in trying this myself....what did you use ?? Please let me know thanks

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  21. Would this work on laminate?

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  22. I have used the stone paint and sometimes it comes out without texture. Do you have any tips for application resulting in even coverage on the counter. Has any of the paint come off with daily use?

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  23. one of your project links not to the project but a sex site

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  24. Helpful post for the readers who wants to paint their countertops, but don't know how to. Thank you so much for sharing this helpful post with us.

    Pegboards

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