painted countertop!

[florep1]

Good job!

 

[dawson5]

I just finished taking the border off in the laundry room. While doing that I found out that the people that we bought the house from, didn't bother to wipe down walls before they painted. Lots of painted dustballs on the walls. Looks like I'll have some sanding in my future. (PSA: Don't use sticker like borders. I had to get steel wool out to remove all of the adhesive that stuck to the wall.)

I am really curious how those cabinets turned out for TxRabbit. That is what I want to do with that laundry room. It's small & kind of dark. I want to strip the cabinets and go lighter or way darker, add beadboard and a high chair-rail. I really want a darker paint, afraid to with our cabinets--unless I refinish them. I had to paint our kitchen three times. Seemed like every color that went with our family room, clashed with the cabinets. I'm not afraid of work, just afraid I won't like my finished product.

Those counters look nice, curious about how they would stand up to my kids... and my cooking. I hate our kitchen counters too.

 

[MinnieGirl33]

Great job!

FWIW, the appliance paint works great too. Painted my fridge about 5 years ago (from almond to white) & to this day you'd never know that's not how I bought it. No problems scrubbing it either.

 

[katybugsmom]

I can't believe I found this post! I just spent last weekend looking on-line for vinyl spray paint(discovered you can make your own vinyl clings and you need the vinyl paint for items that need to be white-long story-love to decorate resort windows when we go to WDW!) I googled the spray paint and found the Rustoleum website. I found the vinyl spray paint and right under it was the countertop paint! We are re-doing our floors and painting, but don't have the money for new countertops, so this paint sounded perfect, but it also sounded too good to be true!! I'm so glad it works!!! This will be my first project when school gets out! I'll post pictures when I finish! Thanks again for sharing!!!!

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

Thought you budget board DISers would be interested in my latest DIY project. I bought Rustoleum Countertop paint from Menards and painted our master bathroom pink laminate counter a really nice dark gray!

LOVE your countertops! What is Menards? I assume it's the name of a store. Is there a comparable substitute for a nationwide chain?

Thanks.

 

[fronkfam]

FWIW, the appliance paint works great too. Painted my fridge about 5 years ago (from almond to white) & to this day you'd never know that's not how I bought it. No problems scrubbing it either.

I was wondering about that paint. Thanks for the info! Did you paint the handles of your fridge? Ours is off white with off white handles. Would love to paint it a different color. Just don't know how the paint would hold up in those areas.

 

[dawson5]

Menard's is like Home Depot or Lowe's.

 

[gretchenohar@hotmail]

Menard's is like Home Depot or Lowe's.

Thank you. Will be checking out Lowe's this weekend...

 

[coupon2010]

I did this as well in my kitchen with appliance paint. They used to be roach colored brown and now they are bright white and beautiful. It has been about 2 years though so I prolly will touch up some spots around the sink.

 

[SalandJeff]

We used the appliance paint many years back on a fridge in some rental property. The tenants did not bother to tell us that the fridge started to get rust spots on the outside (can't even figure out how that happened). We thought we were going to have to buy a new fridge, but someone suggested the paint and it worked great.

To the person who was talking about redoing the cabinets in your laundry room....if you are going with a painted finish, you don't have to strip them. You need to use a primer as your first coat.

I have been working on landscaping right now. I have so many things to do inside, that I don't know where to start!

 

[TxRabbit]

I am really curious how those cabinets turned out for TxRabbit. That is what I want to do with that laundry room. It's small & kind of dark. I want to strip the cabinets and go lighter or way darker...I'm not afraid of work, just afraid I won't like my finished product.

I just finished the base cabinets in the kitchen. That's the third set of cabinets and I think I got the process down! Each cabinet came out great, IMO, and certainly better than the way they were, considering they are all 22 years old. I made some changes with each one. The kitchen process was definitely the best. I'll take pictures of all the cabinets I did tomorrow. This process is a result of research and experience:

Step 1. Wipe down the cabinets with Mineral Spirits. Rub the Mineral Spirits on and let dry. If the cabinets are tacky, then rub with more mineral spirits until the cabinets have no stickiness. (Even if your cabinets aren't tacky to begin with, this step makes a difference in step 2, so I recommend doing it.)

Step 2. Use Klean Strip brand TSP substitute. I don't recommend any other brand. They don't work as well. I was able to find it at WalMart for under $5 a quart. Use all the safety precautions for using this harsh chemical. Otherwise disregard manufacturer instructions. They don't work.

Use coarse steel wool and scrub the cabinets with the TSP substitute. I had two buckets. One with some TSP substitute. One with water for rinsing. Rinse your steel wool often. Wipe off the TSP substitute. Don't let it dry on the wood. ALSO, watch the little bits of steel wool that come off. If they stay on the wood, they will leave a black mark. Only scrub in the direction of the wood!! Very important.

With experience, you will recognize the "wet look" of the bare wood and be able to keep scrubing your wood to match that look. If you have flat panels, this is easier. If you have raised panels, this is a major finger cramp to get into the groove of the raised panel where you have to short stroke the groove to stay with the grain. MAJOR finger cramps.

When you finish this step, the wood will seriously look like the "ready to finish" cabinets sold in the home improvement stores. It will be back to bare wood. You may need to repeat the scrubbing in sections.

Step 3. Let the wood completely dry before sanding.

Step 4. Sand. I didn't own a palm sander for the first two cabinets. I painted the first ones, so it didn't make as much of a difference. However, for the stained ones, the sanding step made a big difference when I used the palm sander.

I used 180 grit sand paper. You could also go smaller but I liked it here. It left the wood still open enough to really take the stain.

There were some places where the stain was too difficult to get completely off. Because of the chemical attempt though, the sander was easily able to remove whatever remained without having to remove too much wood.

Step 4. Tack cloth and whatever other steps (I also vacuumed) to get all the dust off.

Step 5. Stain following the instructions of whatever stain you use. Or paint. Or skip this step.

Step 6. Polyurethane the cabinets. I used a Fast Dry Miniwax one in the Master Bathroom. After the issues there, I tried the Wipe On Miniwax product in the kitchen. OMG!!! Wipe On is INCREDIBLE. I loved it. Really really loved the results. So much better than the other. Takes more layers, but the coats are faster and the result is much, much better. I had some drip issues with the brush on, especially on the vertical where I did the cabinet boxes in place and also where the edges would puddle and then run to the opposite side. But then, I'm a total amateur, so your results may vary with the regular brush version.

Step 7. Reinstall everything. Okay. Just realized that removing all cabinet doors, all drawer fronts, and all hardware for all wood would probably be step 1.

Like I said, I'll post the pics tomorrow. One set was painted white. One set was stained a dark chocolate brown. One set was actually left natural and poly only to match the newer cabinets to the best of my ability. They all started as a honey oak like stain.

I don't mean to hi-jack this thread. So if anyone has any other specific questions, please feel free to PM me.

 

[englishteacha]

Just make sure not to use an abrasive cleaner on it!

 

[mimicat]

You are braver than me but we did have my daughters friend paint our kitchen countertops to make them look like granite and they are great. We have received many compliments and people wanted to know who did it for us. I felt like I got a new kitchen.

 

[dawson5]

I did this as well in my kitchen with appliance paint. They used to be roach colored brown and now they are bright white and beautiful. It has been about 2 years though so I prolly will touch up some spots around the sink.

I was watching one of those home improvement shows and saw that they sell something that you could put over your appliances to make them look like stainless. I was amazed at how good it looked. I think she said the price was comparable to the paint. It came in a roll like a big sheet of contact paper.

TXRabbit. I will be saving that, thank you. I already talked with my husband. I wanted to start in the small area first (laundry room) because if I royally mess it up, less to do or less to replace. Our cabinets seem to be about the same color and age as yours. Hubby loves to collect tools, I know we have a few sanders around here and a dremel too. Hopefully those can help with the sanding part. Thank you again.

 

[katybugsmom]

For those interested in the countertop paint Lowe's has it in-store and on-line for under $20!!!!!

 

[hickchick]

For those interested in the countertop paint Lowe's has it in-store and on-line for under $20!!!!!

We have had no problems with the durability of the countertop paint so far. It cleans up really nicely.

 

[TxRabbit]

Well, Everyone, please forgive the messes all over. We are in the final stages of four years worth of budget home renovation, getting ready to sell and well, things get messy. So please ignore the mess while looking at the actual cabinets...

Here is a good picture of the before look of the bathroom cabinets. Never mind the bow on the photo, I have a young man in the house...Honey oak that had faded to a rather ugly orange after 20+ years:

We removed the wallpaper in the powder room, framed out the mirror with molding, added wainscotting, replaced the vanity top, replaced the faucet, replaced the light fixture, and painted the cabinet. This was the first cabinet I attempted. It came out awesome, IMO:

The wood had gotten to bare so well, that I decided to give staining a try.

We removed the wall paper, replaced the vanity top with a tile counter with drop sinks, replaced the faucets, split the single hollywood style light fixture into two, replaced the builder mirror with framed mirrors, replaced the hardware, and added the contemporary drawer/door pulls from Ikea on the false fronts of the sinks for hanging hand towels.

I really wanted darker cabinets in my bathroom. The picture will show you how unevenly these cabinets took the stain. If you look closely at the very tops and the very bottoms of the flat inset panel (where it was very hard to scrub with the grain), you can see how the stain color is influenced by the previous stain. I admit that this cabinet doesn't photograph well, and highlights what I think sanding with a power sander could fix, which it did in the kitchen, but just realize that in person, the effect is really pleasing. I see how I would have done it differently, and did in the kitchen, BUT, it still is much improved on the old orange:

With staining, here's what you have to do if you have the "paper" toe kick and side of the cabinet. We got the unfinished toe kick in the kitchen section at Lowe's ($8) for an 8' piece and we got 1/8" oak plywood to cover the end panel. This new wood stained beautifully. It helps the overall look in person.

The kitchen came out AWESOME, if I say so myself. We took down soffit cabinets between the kitchen and breakfast area. Took out the soffit. Replaced all the wall cabinets with 42" cabinets. New countertops. New sink. New faucet. New tile backsplash. New electrical outlets and plates. We refinished the base cabinets to match the new wall cabinets. The new wall cabinets were "natural oak." I decided not to stain the base cabinets at all, but sanded them much better than the master bath and poly on top.

Here's how orange they were. I took this the day the new countertop was installed (which explains why the counters are so clean! LOL):

Here's the refinished product:

editted to add: btw...I haven't finished the toe kick in the kitchen! You can see the raw wood there, waiting for the magic that the poly coat produces.

I hope this helps everyone in their decision making processes!! It isn't really hard to do. It just takes a bit of elbow grease and putting up with some hand and finger cramps. Talk about working out your arms and shoulders! Your forearms will hurt too. LOL.

Again, I don't want to totally hijack the thread, I just want to contribute. It a budget way to refinish your cabinets with a whole lot of labor and very little expense, so if anyone has any specific questions to ask or want to talk the process, please PM me!

 

[bucket o' butter]

After seeing the pictures on this board, we decided to try it in our kitchen. We have harvest gold countertops so we are eager to be rid of that color. My husband painted the island part a "wheat color". The paint went on very nicely and it looked good - well at least I thought it did. He is a perfectionist and decided to go over it again because there were a few little scratches left from the paint brush. (Honestly, you would have had to be a flea to see them!)The directions clearly state to wait 3 days before putting anything on it. Please abide by this warning because when he went over it, the old paint was not set and started pulling all the bristles out of the paintbrush and roller. It was a disaster!!! We are in the process of sanding it down and starting over.

I honestly do recommend this paint. Just follow the directions on the box. Very important! LOL! This inexpensive project has cost us an extra $100 because we had to buy a new sander. Yikes! I am looking forward to having them all done. I'll post pictures when we are done!

 

[katybugsmom]

After seeing the pictures on this board, we decided to try it in our kitchen. We have harvest gold countertops so we are eager to be rid of that color. My husband painted the island part a "wheat color". The paint went on very nicely and it looked good - well at least I thought it did. He is a perfectionist and decided to go over it again because there were a few little scratches left from the paint brush. (Honestly, you would have had to be a flea to see them!)The directions clearly state to wait 3 days before putting anything on it. Please abide by this warning because when he went over it, the old paint was not set and started pulling all the bristles out of the paintbrush and roller. It was a disaster!!! We are in the process of sanding it down and starting over.

I honestly do recommend this paint. Just follow the directions on the box. Very important! LOL! This inexpensive project has cost us an extra $100 because we had to buy a new sander. Yikes! I am looking forward to having them all done. I'll post pictures when we are done!

I'm glad to hear it works! I plan on painting our countertops this summer! How bad is the smell? Do you need a lot of ventalation? We are plagued with allergies and try to use low-odor paint for this reason.

 

[rszdtrvl]

DH and I hate out countertops! We have a house built in 1964, and our countertops are white with pink and gray flecks. Very 60's.

I will need to mention the countertop paint to him!

We were thinking about doing blue tiles, but this would be even easier (and cheaper!).

Thank you for bumping this up!