Within the first few months we replaced the blue countertops
in the kitchen with granite. And even
though we completely hired out for the job, it wasn’t easy. Now that its finished there are several
things I would have done differently but that’s a different post. Not to mention the kitchen becomes unusable
for a week and during that time we had a makeshift kitchen in my laundry room.
The Laundry Room.
That’s where it all started. The
entire remodel process. Looking back I’m
not sure if my husband would have told me “fine, practice your makeover on the
laundry room and if its successful then you can move on to the rest of the
house”. Cause that’s exactly what
happened. So, because we obviously had
so much work to do on the rest of the house, we opted not to replace the blue
countertops in the laundry room right away.
I thought to myself, “I wonder if I can paint that?” haha which by
the way is a thought I have most of the time but this one took some research.
I found out its possible to paint your laminate countertops. And what do I have to lose if I
mess up blue countertops? Either way
it’s a bad outcome right?
I picked up a can of Rustoleum Countertop Paint from Home
Depot. The paint can be tinted to match
one of several colors on the can, and I chose the color Putty which is a darker
gray. Even after purchasing the can of
paint, painting tape, a mask, foam rollers, painting tray and foam brush, it
was still a very cheap makeover at less than $40.
I started by really giving the countertops a good
cleaning. Its important to scrub them
really well or the paint won’t hold up in the dirty spots. Then I sanded the countertops with a 220
grit, and again wiped the countertops with a damp cloth to remove any trace of
dust. After it was all dry, I taped off
the countertops to ensure that I wouldn’t get paint where I didn’t want
it. I used a foam roller to apply the
paint and a foam brush for the edges and corners. Don’t forget to use a mask! The smell is horrible, far worse than any
paint I have smelled before. Luckily my
laundry room has a window and even with it left wide open and the door closed
it still stunk up the house. That was
probably the biggest drawback. After 24
hours of applying the first coat, I applied a second coat in the same way. I let it dry again for 24 hours and did two
coats of polycrylic in semi-gloss with 2 hours of dry time in between coats. I’m not sure that the polycrylic was
necessary, but I used it anyway.
I painted my countertops over a year ago now. During our entire house remodel, all of the
tools were piled up in the laundry room on the countertops, filled with screws
and nails and hammers and lots of sharp objects and I’m happy to say they have
held up very well. There are very few
scratches and they are very small and not noticeable. For a $40 transformation I think it was well
worth it! For the final reveal, here is
the before and after:
And here is the Final Version after updating the Laundry
room with fresh wall paint and cabinet paint:
