Painting a counter

So…  I’m doing things a bit out of order in these posts but…  The counter was a big deal for me. I hated that yellow so much and desperately wanted a change. You’ve, no doubt, seen that it’s not yellow anymore.  After my dinner party, I snapped.  I decided to go ahead and do the one thing I swore I wouldn’t do.  I painted it. So, let’s talk about what painting a counter entails.

What to use

I went to Lowe’s and bought Rustoleum’s Countertop Coating.  It was tinted to Light Ash.  I barely used a quart for my counters.  

First, I needed to remove that weird mini backsplash thing. It needed to be removed so I could add the subway tile.

After removal

It really wasn’t pretty underneath.  I had to patch some holes in the wall because seriously, that thing was built to last.  Since I was putting up a backsplash, I wasn’t too concerned about how bad the wall was.  I just needed it smooth enough for tile.  

Don’t forget to tape things off. You don’t want this paint on your cabinets.

Start painting

Next, I painted the counter…  I highly recommend doing this project in the summer months.  It has a strong odor and being able to open the windows would be preferred.

Losing the yellow felt so good.  I know, with the ugly walls and the blue tape, this isn’t the most impressive look but it made me happy nonetheless.

Lesson learned

Except, it wasn’t good enough.  Once it dried, I could see a lot of the roller marks.  That bothered me.  What bothered me more than that was that the texture didn’t feel consistent.  In some places, it was so smooth while in others, there was a bumpy texture.  It REALLY bothered my perfectionist’s mind.  

Honestly, I drove myself crazy over it.  I wasn’t sold on painting the counters anyway. This felt like a huge fail. It took a good long talk with one of my best friends to set me straight.  She pointed out a few things to me.  First, this isn’t a forever countertop.  It’s a placeholder until we come to a decision and/or budget for something else.  Second, I’m the only one obsessing over the flaws and Finally, the big one.  IT’S NOT YELLOW!!!! 

While the conversation took longer than those 3-5 sentences, she was so right and she talked me right down off the crazy ledge.  I decided to give it one more chance, sand it down and give it one more coat of paint.  I used a velour roller this time.  It was recommended by a friend and the paint guy at Menard’s.  

A second chance

I definitely think the texture is better this time.  I can still see roller marks but short of spraying this on (which I think would be an awful mess), this is as good as I think it will get and I think I can live with it.

Twice now, people have come into the kitchen and thought I had concrete counters. Since concrete is what I really wanted, it is clearly a fantastic substitute. Turns out, painting a counter is the budget friendly solution I was looking for.

xoxo

Donna

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