Painted granite counter tops??

[ktate82]

We are moving into a new house soon and are eventually planning a complete kitchen reno in about 5 years. Until then, we are going to paint the cabinets, walls, and just spruce it up a bit (its quite dated). I was researching and found a product called giani granite. It is a series of paints that you apply to any counter top that will have an end result of looking like granite for about $70 a kit (need prob 2). Now I'm realistic and know that it won't look like a $5000 countertop, but I do wonder if it would improve the look till we redo. Has anyone used it? Good, bad, ugly?

 

[chris31997]

If it is what I think you are talking about, than my SIL used on her walls and it turned out amazing.

Not sure about doing it on countertops.

 

[phorsenuf]

We are moving into a new house soon and are eventually planning a complete kitchen reno in about 5 years. Until then, we are going to paint the cabinets, walls, and just spruce it up a bit (its quite dated). I was researching and found a product called giani granite. It is a series of paints that you apply to any counter top that will have an end result of looking like granite for about $70 a kit (need prob 2). Now I'm realistic and know that it won't look like a $5000 countertop, but I do wonder if it would improve the look till we redo. Has anyone used it? Good, bad, ugly?

My DIL did it but used acrylic paints from the craft store and the sealed it. Came out pretty nice. Check pinterest as that's where she found it.

 

[DVC96]

My best friend here owns a Ben. Moore paint store and she did this to her countertops and it looks terrific! She said it was very easy to do and that she sells quite a lot of it. I think it's about $70 or so, but not sure.

 

[Kristina685]

I did this to my countertops and they turned out great! I used the giani kit but after messing up the sealant (apparently laying down epoxy is harder than it looks ) I had to run to the craft store and buy acrylic paint. The bottom color is black and I sponge painted on silver and sealed it with a polyurethane. It is not heat or scratch resistant just FYI. But it looks great! And it will do until I save up money for real granite countertops. Best of luck if you attempt this!

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Wow! I am going to try this on my counters!

 

[ktate82]

Thanks for all the positive replies! I feel a lot better about trying it out now. How is epoxy different from acrylic paint? Does it look different or give it a different texture to do it either way?

 

[jessica52877]

Here is a link to my photo album as we did the counter tops. We used the giani specially made for the counters. I had never sponge painted a day in my life and I love how they turned out. I did blue and wanted almost no black showing. We also added in acrylic paint as were running low on a color towards the end. I was stretching it doing it with one kit.

It has been almost two years (this summer) and they are still perfect. For a while I was extremely cautious about what I would set directly on them but with time that has faded. I make sure that there is not water left on them and nothing hot ever. Not one scratch which I am amazed about! A neighbors father paints cars and just kept telling me how bad the counters would scratch.

Best $100 I ever spent!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150694110910327.712230.575830326&type=1&l=2199093f12

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Here is a link to my photo album as we did the counter tops. We used the giani specially made for the counters. I had never sponge painted a day in my life and I love how they turned out. I did blue and wanted almost no black showing. We also added in acrylic paint as were running low on a color towards the end. I was stretching it doing it with one kit.

It has been almost two years (this summer) and they are still perfect. For a while I was extremely cautious about what I would set directly on them but with time that has faded. I make sure that there is not water left on them and nothing hot ever. Not one scratch which I am amazed about! A neighbors father paints cars and just kept telling me how bad the counters would scratch.

Best $100 I ever spent!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150694110910327.712230.575830326&type=1&l=2199093f12

It comes in BLUE????? OMGoodness! I want your countertops. Scratch that, I am going to shamelessly use your countertops as my model when I paint mine.

Thank you so much for posting this!

 

[jessica52877]

It comes in BLUE????? OMGoodness! I want your countertops. Scratch that, I am going to shamelessly use your countertops as my model when I paint mine.

Thank you so much for posting this!

You are welcome. I know when I was looking into it it was very hard to find any info so I was happy to see this thread. I've always wanted blue countertops but was afraid to take the plunge with real granite in case I grew tired of it. I don't think I ever will though. I just love it!

 

[ktate82]

Here is a link to my photo album as we did the counter tops. We used the giani specially made for the counters. I had never sponge painted a day in my life and I love how they turned out. I did blue and wanted almost no black showing. We also added in acrylic paint as were running low on a color towards the end. I was stretching it doing it with one kit.

It has been almost two years (this summer) and they are still perfect. For a while I was extremely cautious about what I would set directly on them but with time that has faded. I make sure that there is not water left on them and nothing hot ever. Not one scratch which I am amazed about! A neighbors father paints cars and just kept telling me how bad the counters would scratch.

Best $100 I ever spent!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150694110910327.712230.575830326&type=1&l=2199093f12

Wow! Those look great! They actually look like the pics on the website (that you always take with a grain of salt)!

 

[pandamom]

Does anyone know how this holds up to water? I'd love to do this to the counter in dds bathroom but they often splash water and don't always remember to wipe it up right away.

 

[bamamom]

Does anyone know how this holds up to water? I'd love to do this to the counter in dds bathroom but they often splash water and don't always remember to wipe it up right away.

My kids leave water and wet washcloths on them....they discolor (like a milky color) for about 10 mins after I pick it up or wipe it up.. then they have always turn back and can never tell where it was It's been 10 months since I did them and they are holding up to two teenagers!

We are moving into a new house soon and are eventually planning a complete kitchen reno in about 5 years. Until then, we are going to paint the cabinets, walls, and just spruce it up a bit (its quite dated). I was researching and found a product called giani granite. It is a series of paints that you apply to any counter top that will have an end result of looking like granite for about $70 a kit (need prob 2). Now I'm realistic and know that it won't look like a $5000 countertop, but I do wonder if it would improve the look till we redo. Has anyone used it? Good, bad, ugly?

I did 2 bathrooms and our laundry room. I used craft paint and polyacrylic sealant. Total cost for all 3 was about $25 I did each different colors and got better as I went The longest process is letting the sealant dry between coats. Make sure you seal it well!! I put 6 coats on mine.

 

[hops&dreams]

We're also doing a "get us through" spruce up to our kitchen. We have awful hunter green counters. We have lived with them for 4 years, and have saved up money to replace them with new laminate counters to get us through. This is kinda but I just wanted to let you know that we're replacing all of our counters with new laminate counters for $518 (including tax and delivery). We spent another $79 on a new sink. We figure it'll be a big enough change and it'll get us through until the house is paid off. Then we plan to save a few mortgage payments and gut the kitchen and REALLY do a remodel - new cabinets, solid surface counters, new arrangement for the appliances (heck, probably new fancy appliances!), etc...

But I just wanted to let you know, the new counters cost a WHOLE lot LESS than we expected. We're installing ourselves, but still...

 

[kelcoppens]

I LOVE this granite painting idea. But we will need to change the shape of the existing countertop a bit (we need to expand it out a few inches on two sides). So because of that, the painting idea wont work. Is there another alternative out there? Granite is way over budget for us but we love the look of course.

 

[Jenny3]

I LOVE this granite painting idea. But we will need to change the shape of the existing countertop a bit (we need to expand it out a few inches on two sides). So because of that, the painting idea wont work. Is there another alternative out there? Granite is way over budget for us but we love the look of course.

I saw a company in my local Clipper magazine that does a granite overlay on existing laminate countertops. No idea on the cost though.

A quick Google search found this: http://www.granitetransformations.com/blog/701/granite-overlay-installation-a-day-in-the-life/

 

[Karalea]

We've recently redone out kitchen using Rustoleum counter top and Rustoleum cabinet transformation kits from Lowes. The results were amazing.

I would highly recommend either product to anyone looking for a budget kitchen redo.

The only thing is that the entire process takes much longer than the instructions say.

 

[nhmommy]

I LOVE this granite painting idea. But we will need to change the shape of the existing countertop a bit (we need to expand it out a few inches on two sides). So because of that, the painting idea wont work. Is there another alternative out there? Granite is way over budget for us but we love the look of course.

We tiled our countertops and I love it! it was kinda by accident I had called and we were waiting for someone to come measure for laminate and they were taking too long I brought in some plywood and laid it out over the counters then we decided we could just tile it. Tiling is very easy and the whole thing including the tools,plywood and sealant was under $200 most of the home improvement stores have classes. It looks great and best of all it's heat proof.

Thanks for all the positive replies! I feel a lot better about trying it out now. How is epoxy different from acrylic paint? Does it look different or give it a different texture to do it either way?

Epoxy is a 2 part system usually very thick you can easily create bubbles in the surface need to be very careful and work quickly.

 

[jessica52877]

We've left water sitting on ours while doing dishes or cleaning up or something but never for a super long time. I have seen where DH will set down a water bottle that must be sweating and when he picks it up there is a ring of almost raised something or other, it goes back down by the next day. It hasn't happened often because I yell at him if he does it.

 

[kelcoppens]

We tiled our countertops and I love it! it was kinda by accident I had called and we were waiting for someone to come measure for laminate and they were taking too long I brought in some plywood and laid it out over the counters then we decided we could just tile it. Tiling is very easy and the whole thing including the tools,plywood and sealant was under $200 most of the home improvement stores have classes. It looks great and best .

Thanks for the idea however we have done that before and never will again. We had tile countertops in our first home and the grout in between the tiles would stain easily. Also one of the tiles cracked. and they are not easy to replace once that happens.

I am thinking about stainless steel countertops but my research is telling me it can be very expensive unless I go through a metal fabricator. So I will start looking into that I guess.