Painting the Countertop: Making the Best of a Bad Thing

Our house was built in the sixties. We are only the second owners of the home and the original owners didn't update a single thing. Needless to say there is A LOT that we want to change/improve in our home and if we had unlimited funds it'd be easy but since that's not the case, we make it work!

Thanks to hand-me-downs from family, our downstairs family room is coming together and we're spending more time down there. So this beauty has been screaming at me for a makeover!

Lovely isn't it?!?! Just ignore the mess, aren't before pictures supposed to look bad? 😉

Long term, this counter top will be removed entirely, so I was willing to take a risk on painting the counter top. It couldn't get much worse than the bright yellow it already was, right?!

I read this tutorial and felt confident that I could replicate the look with materials we already had. Here's what you'll need:

Painter's tape
150 grit Sandpaper
Primer
Paint roller or brush
Paint tray or paper plates
Paint colors of choice: The tutorials I read all used acrylic craft paint but I didn’t have that so I just used leftover paint. I had white and gray for my main colors and black and tan for the accent.
Fine glitter: I used spray paint because that’s what I had.
Aluminum foil, plastic bags, or if you’re fancy, sea sponges
Sealer: I used several coats of Minwax Polycrylic from a previous project.

First, wipe down the counter tops to remove any dirt/grime/dust/etc. Then use a 150 grit sandpaper over the entire top to rough up the shiny laminate and help the primer more easily adhere.

After you're done with the sanding, you'll need to wipe down the counter tops once more to remove the sanding dust. Now tape off everything you don't want to get paint on. For me, that was a small part of the black posts and the electrical strip on the counter top. But I also planned on painting the electrical strip black after I was done with the countertop, so I only taped the actual sockets.

The only carpet downstairs is on the walls! Ha ha!

Alright - so everything should be prepped, cleaned and taped now. Time to prime! The primer should work as your base coat. The primer I had on hand dries clear, so after priming, I did a base coat of the main color I was going for. Already looking better, right?

Once your primer is dry it's time to sponge paint. I didn't have sea sponges, and didn't want to buy any for a temporary fix project, so I used bunched up aluminum foil and a bunched up plastic bag. Load two sponges (or bunched up aluminum foil, bag) with your main colors. Our main colors were white and gray and the accent colors were black and tan.

I paid all of four dollars for this paint! The gallon of Behr was left by the previous owners, the Comex was a mistint at Sherwin Williams for $2, and the samples in front were obtained during a sample sale for 99¢!

Start sponging across the counter top. Try to be random with your application but also distribute the colors evenly. Here's what ours looked like after the first coat.

It looked pretty good at this point. WAAAAAYYYY better than the yellow. I almost decided to just stop there and cut my work short. But in the tutorials I read, they had similar thoughts and pushed through to even better results, so I followed suit!

I waited for this coat to dry then started the second. I've read a couple tutorials since I've finished, where they didn't wait for each coat to dry. They'd get to the end of the counter and start back at the beginning with the next colors. If I had read that before I started, I would've done it that way and saved myself some time!

On my second coat I used the accent colors black and tan and tried to create some veining. Using the same technique, load your sponge with your accent colors and sponge on. While the paint is still wet, lightly add glitter to the veining. I used Rustoleum Glitter Spray Paint left over from painting pine cones.

This is the only picture I took of the second coat, I didn't love how it looked and was second guessing myself. Ben told me, after I had completed the project, that he was really skeptical of the whole process after seeing the counter like this! You can't see in the pictures, but the glitter was also overwhelming. I was really counting on the third coat to calm everything down. and it did - so don't lose faith at this point!

The third coat is a repeat of the first. I decided to try a bunched up plastic bag instead of bunched up aluminum foil on this coat. It worked much faster than the aluminum foil, but it was also sooo messy! It easily cleaned off my hands , so if you're looking for quick, try the plastic bag route over aluminum foil.

Here's how it should look after the third coat.

And the closeup of a vein. Looks good, right?! Glad I powered through all the coats!

Now, using your sealer of choice, seal your counter top following the product's instructions. If this counter top was going to be a permanent fixture in our home, I would've purchased Envirotex like the tutorial I read. It really does look like granite! But being frugal I went with the free option and shopped our own supplies. We had Polycrylic so that's what I used. I wanted the counter top to be durable and hold up to the kids playing Legos, so I did seven coats.

I had one more step with the electrical strips. I used more of the leftover black sample paint and painted those after scuffing them up with sandpaper. It completed the whole transformation.

Here's the After! Told you I'd clean up. Ha Ha!