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Faux Granite Painted Countertops – Guest Post by Creative Kristi

Hey all, I’m super excited to share a sweet friend with you today. I met Kristi at Blissdom and she is one of the most unselfish women I’ve ever met. She blows me away when it comes to her blogging knowledge and business savvy . But, what I really wanted her to show you was her faux granite countertops! If you hate your countertops, you are going to want to see this!

But, first a little more about Kristi’s blog. Kristi truly is creative, she blogs about crafts, home renovations, and oodles of other ideas! Check out this ingenious solution she came up with for hiding an access panel in her home:

She turned it into a cute framed chalkboard!

Be sure to hop over to her blog to get the full effect of Creative Kristi!

Now, please welcome Creative Kristi to Pretty Handy Girl:

 

Hey all! My name is Kristi & I blog at Creative Kristi. A little about me: I’ve been blogging for over 2 years & just love it-it’s my creative outlet. I’m married for 4 years to my wonderful husband, Military Man, who is in the Army National Guard. We have two beautiful kids- Little Man who is 3 & Miss E who is 8 months. We live in Maine & are SO READY for spring – how about you?

I’m so happy that Brittany asked me to share my counter-tops with you during her “Fall in Love with Your Home” series because doing this really did help me fall more in love with the home we have rather than always pine about what we didn’t have.

See, I had these ahem lovely baby blue countertops (with matching wall paint) when we moved in:

While I’m sure many of you are just so jealous of my very 1980’s kitchen, I was not so much a fan. But getting new countertops was not in the budget for a very long time. So I started researching alternative countertops. I loved concrete counters but when I priced it out it was still pretty expensive-even the DIY version. Then one day I stumbled upon someone who had painted their countertops to look like marble. I’m not a fan of marble but I thought surely the same concept could apply to granite counters. Nevermind that I am not an artist-I can’t even draw a person! I decided to just go for it. The materials listed online were very expensive paint and sealer-I figured I could try it with little bottles of acrylic craft paint and a glossy sealer (supplies listed below) I found at my local hardware store.

It took me one week and many bottles of acrylic paint but less than $30 later I had my ‘granite’ countertops!

It worked, looked amazing & two years later it still looks new! (You can read more about the transformation HERE.)

I even put together a video tutorial so that you can do your own if you’d like! You can watch it on YouTube HERE.

Here is a close up of the ‘granite’ I created.

I know that there are counter top paints now out on the market but I can pretty much guarantee they don’t come close to this level of ‘fooling’ people because they are usually only one or two colors, you need multiple colors & varying patterns in order to mimic mother nature. Besides I think acrylic paints, a gloss sealer & paper towels might just be cheaper! I still (2+ years later) get asked all the time when we got our new granite counters!

Supplies:

  • One U-G-L-Y laminate countertop (mine was blue)
  • A cleaner of some type and a rag (I used a 50/50 mixture of vinegar to water- as I do to clean most surfaces in my house)
  • 1 Quart of Kilz primer (or other stain blocking primer-you need something that will ‘block out’ the color underneath & also give your acrylic paint something to ‘stick to’)
  • Acrylic Paint in colors to match a print out of granite you like. (Just google granite countertops and find an online store that has close ups of the granite…find one you like, print the picture and head off to the craft store!)

I used FolkArt brand (made by Plaid) and the colors I used are: 938-Licorice, 425-Medium Grey, 2381-Battleship Grey (I did one section of my counter top in this and didn’t like it so used it very very sparingly after that), 450-Parchment, 602- Country Twill, and applied with an old toothbrush to just lightly mist the counter top: 660-Metallic Pure Gold.

  • An old toothbrush
  • paper towels
  • a piece of cardboard or something to squirt your paint onto.
  • Foam brushes (for clear coat application)
  • Some form of high gloss clear coat-non-yellowing (I used: Water-based Polycrylic Protective Finish in Clear Gloss-I only bought 1 QT. I believe but it will depend on how much counter space you are painting)

Thank you again Brittany for letting me share my favorite tutorial & if any of you try this please feel free to send me pictures-I would love to see them & feature them on my blog!

Have a happy day,

Thank you Kristi. Okay, so seriously, isn’t that an amazing transformation! I love that she was able to re-create the look of granite so successfully.

I know there may be some doubters amongst you that don’t believe that you can repaint laminate counters and have them last. Well, I can vouch for the fact that you can re-paint laminate countertops because ours has lasted over three years. You can see them in my guest bathroom vanity makeover where I painted over the harvest gold counters.

Those counters still look almost new. The only issue popping up is that there are hard water stains right behind the sink, but that would happen regardless of the counter surface. I hate hard water.

I hope you are enjoying the “Fall in Love with Your Home Series”.

 

37 replies
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  1. Brett
    Brett says:

    This look amazing!!! Such an awesome DIY! I’ve been thinking about trying this in my kitchen and bathroom but I’ve been nervous! I’ve come across a few diferent brands of faux granite paint and I like Spray Stone USA. My neighbor used them to paint the outside of their office building which is pretty neat and it looked awesome. Ill have to report back on my experience!

    Reply
  2. Cheley
    Cheley says:

    Hi there – I realize this blog dates back to a few years ago, but I had a tip I wanted to share. I faux paint for a living and have done numerous countertops using the method you describe. I usually apply 7-8 coats of polycrylic and let them cure for about 2 weeks. (It’s okay to get water on it after a few days, but be sure to wipe it up right away.) Once fully cured, I use a quality car wax over the protective top coats (apply just like you would to a car). This step really helps with (hard) water stains. The countertops can be re-waxed every few months – and it not only keeps the finish looking new, but helps to prevent scratches in the clear coat.
    Cheers! ~ Cheley

    Reply
  3. Jack
    Jack says:

    So I have a question. I am at the end of 7 coats of polycrylic on my faux granite counters and it dawned on me that my wife and I drink coffee and tea and it is hot. Will this affect the poly?

    Reply
  4. Cala
    Cala says:

    Thanks for posting this. It’s the best tutorial I can find online – We’re going to be jumping into this project very soon! Also, I saw the pic of your sink with the yellow/orange stain from hard water, we use Works Toilet Bowl Cleaner. Our water is so bad I have to frequently use it to fix our sinks/toilets/ and showers. I DETEST hard water as well. That’s country life.

    Reply
  5. Bonnie
    Bonnie says:

    Kristi, I just did my first “Faux Granite” countertop restration last night. It looks so good. I am a Realtor and have a client (home for lease) who had ugly “lilac countertops” and a section that they had replaced that was teal/black. I made them all match and they are beautiful. I sanded them, coated them with a mixed color of Rustoleum Oil-based paint. I used Hunter Green and white to mix the pretty base coat. You can wait for it to dry, but I did it both ways and it really didn’t matter. Then, I took about a teaspoon of white and sprinkled over it with Hunter Green and then with a glossy grey. Then I took a natural sea sponge and dabbed the mixture (without mixing) and then just dapped the countertop until I was happy with the 3 dimentional look. I will coat with a clear-coat. It looks great. You can see pictures on my Facebook page: Bonnie L Waller

    Reply
  6. painting contractors Denver CO
    painting contractors Denver CO says:

    Painting bathroom tiles can be a good alternative to spending a lot of money on replacements. Acrylic paint can be applied to the tiles to achieve excellent finish. On the other hand, Items such as spray paints, enamels and epoxies are not appropriate for tiles because they can flake easily.

    Reply
  7. Kelly
    Kelly says:

    Just finishing up doing this treatment on a guest bathroom. I wanted to do something unique and was going to lay stones and grout as my countertop but then found your post and loved the idea. It was super easy, everything dried way faster than I thought. I got it all done on one small bathroom counter in 1 day! The base of my counter is white with tan relief squares so the colors I chose (pretty similar to yours) really tie in well. I will definitely being using this again. Thanks for the great idea!!

    Reply
  8. Marie E.
    Marie E. says:

    kristy, i have a question on polycrylic protective finish, i doing your granite looklike in my bathroom countertop, is the polycrylic safe to use. i heard it toxin. is there another safe sealant out there.

    thanks

    Reply
    • Kristi @ Creative Kristi
      Kristi @ Creative Kristi says:

      Hi Marie! I’ve never heard that it was a toxin but I’m sure many sealers are. I don’t put food directly on my countertop (I use cutting boards when chopping & the rest of the time food is usually on a plate) but I have been recommending that people check out EnviroTex as a sealer since they use that to seal table tops & bar tops in restaurants. In fact, Brittany actually wrote a post about EnviroTex awhile ago here on her blog: https://prettyhandygirl.com/2011/06/dream-big-butterfly-window-resin-craft.html you could look into that if you’d like? My family is moving soon and I’ll be re-doing my counters in my new house and using EnviroTex as the sealer since I hear it dries super hard. Hope that helps!

      Reply
      • Carolin
        Carolin says:

        Help. I did the same thing but i used rustoleum countertop paint as my base and it looked awesome. I did it all in one day but as the night went on I noticed a crackle effect coming thru. Granite should not crackle. What can I do? I am guessing that I should have let the rustoleum dry for a complete day but it was dry to the touch so I proceeded. How can I fix this with out sanding it all down and starting over?

  9. Rose
    Rose says:

    I like your counter top. You did a beautiful job. Keep up the great work. You may oneday turn your art skills into a business. You never know:) I am sure there are many people who would love to save a little money on refurbishing their counter tops. I bought counter tops for my new kitchen and it wasn’t cheap. Wish I had known about this technique.

    Reply
  10. Kim Mossisawesome
    Kim Mossisawesome says:

    Wow! Great job! I was going to go with the Giani version, but figured I’d do it on my own too. We’re redoing the powder room as a test site for all the faux techniques. So far we’ve done a faux coved ceiling treatment, painted walls, cabinets and I just finished the faux granite countertop and it’s BEAUTIFUL! I had a few issues along the way though, and made a blog (http://mossisawesome.wordpress.com/) about it with hopes that it would help others just like your blog helped me. Next, I’m working on the paper flooring treatment. Have you tried that yet?

    Reply
  11. Natalie
    Natalie says:

    This seems completely unbelievable … but great! I really want granite counter tops, maybe a dark gray … this could be the money-saving alternative. Thanks!

    Reply

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  1. […] a faux granite pattern and then put a clear coat on top of it.  You can find instructions for it here.  Here’s a close-up of […]

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