Kitchen Countertop Makeover!

  
Since we had such success refinishing our kitchen cabinets with Rustoleum's Cabinet Transformations Kit, we decided to try our hand at their countertop kit, as well. We have a small kitchen, so we were able to use the small kit, which only cost us about $160. Our goal is to update our entire kitchen in under $1,000. With paint, cabinets, & countertops done, we have only spent about $400 so far. All we have left is the flooring (can you say, "goodbye, dirty kitchen carpet"?).

We have to say, we were a bit intimidated to start on the countertops, but figured for the price, we really couldn't go wrong. We picked a weekend, planned ahead, and started on Friday night by clearing the counters off and sanding them, using the diamond-embedded sanding tool included in the kit. I was surprised at how easy it was and how little time it took. On Saturday we taped everything off, and painted the tar-like black base coat over the countertops. This was probably my least favorite part. You're supposed to put it on pretty thick, but you also want it even. It was a little difficult to keep from leaving brush marks where the countertop showed through. However, it ended up fine. As soon as you are done with that step, you take the wetting agent and spray it lightly on the surface to keep the base coat wet longer as well as to help the decorative chips stick. The next step was my favorite! You get to shoot the chips out all over the surface of the counters until every inch is covered completely. So much fun (and being a perfectionist, I appreciated the fact I couldn't really mess this part up)!
  

Then on Sunday afternoon we sanded the counters down. Again, we were surprised at how easy it was. You don't need a lot of muscle to do a good job. We used our shop vac to continuously vacuum up all of the dust and extra chips, sanded again, and vacuumed some more. This probably took the longest amount of time, but again, it wasn't bad.
  

Finally, Sunday night we finished by painting a clear top coat over everything, which needed to dry for 48 hours before resuming light use of the counters.
   

On Monday night we took an exacto knife and scored the painter's tape before peeling it off. Okay, this was the worst part. After peeling the tape off around the sink we noticed several spots where you could see our old countertop because peeling the tape off perfectly is a bit difficult and evidently the taping needed to be extremely precise...like, perfectly precise (which, by the way is how we thought we had done it). But we bought a little black caulk and now it is as good as new! We also have a hate-hate relationship with "painter's tape" as it rips the paint off our walls every single time. So, we still have to touch up those spots. That's pretty much it, though we will need to wait an entire week before resuming full use of the counters. While it's been fun cooking our food in the living room with a toaster oven on the dining room table and the microwave on an end table by the t.v., I'm looking forward to having my kitchen back!
 

Before:

After:

  

Countertop Transformations "Charcoal" Kit

We are very happy with the results, for such a small cost and  with such little work! We actually enjoyed the process we had been dreading. Now hopefully we'll find it's as durable as it is pretty.


Next up: Our flooring!