Sunday, September 8, 2019

Kitchen Update

Hello fellow scrappers and crafters!
It's been a while since I've made a post, life is just so busy.  But I have had a lot of fellow DIYers asking about my kitchen.  Last year I decided to redo my kitchen.... not much money with two kids in college and two still at home in high school, so a full remodel was completely out of the question.
So I began with paint.  My old kitchen was red and very old fashion country/Americana.  I had just painted the living room and foyer two lovely shades of gray, so I went with gray and one dark blue accent wall. 
Well my very dated counter tops looked sorely out of place. 
The one counter top was Christmas green (my kids like to joke that Christmas threw up in our kitchen). The other two counter tops were plywood with vinyl floor sticky tiles on them. They have held up wonderfully for the last 14 years, but I wanted my 3 counters to sort of match. 




 



So I discovered Rustoleum makes a counter top paint. I tried it. Followed the instructions exactly.  Went on okay, but the color was just to blah and flat and dull. 








So then I did some more looking around online for ideas... came across someone that used this stone speckle paint on a bathroom counter top.  So I gave it a try, knowing I would need a good way to seal it.





I went to several Michael's stores to by this paint.  I painted all three counter tops with it.  Loved how it looked.  Then I added many many coats of clear coat. 






I loved the little bit of shine!  But did discovered around the sink, if it got splashed and water was left on it for more than a minute or so, it discolored.  Not good.  Kids never remember to dry sink area as soon as it gets splashed. 




So then I decided to try the Epoxy.  I was very nervous about it.  It seemed very over whelming.  
I did tape off all the edges cause I did not want it dripping everywhere. And I did not do the third counter over behind our table, as this is used as a buffet mostly, so it's not getting as much use as the other two counters. 


It is not perfect, but hopefully will hold up for 5-10 years until I can redo the entire kitchen.  When I took the tape off, some of my clear coat came off the edges. 







Now it has been almost a year with our counter tops.  They have survived all the major holidays, my son that likes to cook and the everyday abuse a kitchen with a large family takes.  There are a few small chips in the edge. I do use large pieces of granite (found for $1 a piece) with felt on the bottom for crock pots, instant pot or any appliance that gets hot. 

So, I do hope that it will last till the kids are mostly done college and then I can get a whole remodel. For now, I love my kitchen and it works and looks better than it did a year ago.



Thanks for reading!
Have a happy scrappy day!!