Countertop Overhaul

I am not a DIY'er. And this is not a DIY blog. But I got several questions on Facebook about how this whole counter top painting thing works, so I thought I'd do a post about it!

The first dinner-at-home invitation Ryan and I received after we started dating was at our friends Adam and Sara's house. {The same Adam and Sara who were in our wedding.} They had done some work on their house, including an overhaul of their counter tops...which they had done themselves, using this paint kit.

The kit is from a company called Giani, and they actually sell different kits in different colors. We went with Sicilian Sand. The kit runs right at $70, and you get all the paint, a sponge, two rollers {and a handle for them} and a little foam brush.

Okay. So here's the deal. We have a small kitchen. It's a galley kitchen. {I like to call it a butler's kitchen because it sounds fancier pantsier, but it's really a galley kitchen.} My grandparents were the last to update the kitchen...in the 80's. And you know...the 80's were a while ago. So it was just time for an update. But as you know, kitchen updates are costly. So we're trying to update the room on a budget.

Here's a section of our counter as it appeared before the updates.

 And in case you can't fully appreciate it...here's a close up.



Not horrible, by any stretch, but just...80's.

So we got to remodeling!!! The prep work took a bit of time. We actually are doing quite a bit of other work on the kitchen too, so we spent time hauling most everything out of the kitchen, including two sections of cabinetry/counter tops that are not attached to the wall. We put those in the dining room.

We started by hard core cleaning and repair work. We had to clean off the counters really well - to make sure there was no dirt or residue left behind. And Ryan tried to fix some of the end pieces that had come apart.

And then...the taping. We taped off the walls behind the counters and taped some paper onto the cabinets below to protect them from any dripping paint in the process. The worst part was taping around the sink with all its curvy edges and such.

The paper also doubles as a way to leave each other love notes if you want to spice it up a bit:

The first painting step is a primer. In our kit, the primer was black and resembled chalkboard paint. My job was to go along and use the foam brush to get the corners, along the backsplash, behind the sink {and any other tiny areas} and check for areas that needed a bit of an extra touch.

Ryan came along behind me and used the roller to roll on the primer. {If you're doing the project by yourself, they recommend that you do two foot sections of the counter at a time, so your paint from one step doesn't dry before getting to the second step. We were able to skip that method since there were two of us.}

This step actually went pretty quickly. The paint went on nice and thick...and it does start drying right away. We had to let this step dry for 8 hours before moving on, so we did it in the evening and let it dry overnight.

The next day, we started the sponging process. This is what gives it the granite look. There are three colors in the kit. {In our kit, they were brown, gold - which was really tan, not like GOLD gold - and white.} I was scared TO DEATH to start this part...because if I messed up and we had to start over, it was going to cost us another 8 hours!! This first little section of cabinet took forever because I was so scared, but once we got going, we figured out a groove and it really went pretty quickly!

So the brown was the first step, and here's what it looked like with just the brown.

We didn't have to wait for that to dry to do the second sponging step....which was the gold...and here's what it looked like after that:

 And then the white on top. {You can put on as little or as much as you want to achieve the look you like.}

 Once all the sponging was done, we had to wait four hours for that to dry...and then we could apply the first layer of top coat. {Oh...we had to go over it quickly with a light sandpaper first just to smooth down any peaks of dried paint.} The top coat was a translucent looking paint that we rolled and sponged on the same way we did the black primer coat.

 And here is our new kitchen counter top look!!

The next day, we put on a second layer of primer just for extra sealing, and it dried in about four hours too. Just so you know, within a day or so, you're able to start using the counters again, but you're supposed to wait two weeks before doing any aggressive cleaning.

There it is...before and after! We are SO pleased with the results. For $70 and one weekend of work, our counters look brand new and we are so excited to see how they look with all the other budget-friendly kitchen renovations we're doing.

Bottom line - we would say if you're looking for a way to spruce up your kitchen without spending a fortune, this is a great investment. Adam and Sara's kitchen looks great over a year later and they've had no problems with the finish, so we're looking forward to enjoying the same great results!

{Please excuse the paint can in the sink.}