How to paint countertops

Dear 1970's,

You gave us such great things like The Walkman, the Cell Phone, Reese Witherspoon, Post-it Notes, the Hacky Sack.... why, oh why, did you create the Canary Yellow countertops?

Yes, our home was "updated" somewhere around 1972 to have beautiful Canary Yellow counter tops. I'm sure they were lovely back in the day, but oh.my.gee. make make barf! It was time to go! I would love to have stained concrete or granite or Corian or insert any other high end counter top finish but it just wasn't in the budget for our kitchen update. I knew there had to be another alternative, I just didn't know what. Then one day I'm perusing the spray paint isle at Lowe's when I see that Rustoleum makes a counter top paint just for fugly outdated laminate counters. Sold.



It was only $20.00 so we figured we might as well give it a shot. I mean, what is the worse that could happen, right? We could have ugly yellow counters or worse case, we could have ugly counters that actually matched the space. So, after watching a You Tube video or 200, we go for it.

The directions are simple.

Ventilate your area. Yeah, don't skip this part. This paint is oil based and has some wicked fumes. It Also said to turn off any pilot lights, but we didn't. Don't tell. I just didn't think it was that deep.

Sand down the surface lightly to remove any stuff that isn't supposed to be there, like the tons of wall paint because I'm the worst painter in the world, or the oily, greasy film around the stove. Clean them with a damp lint free cloth.
Tape off the areas you don't want to paint.




Then roll it on with a foam roller. Flat parts first, then vertical surfaces. I let my brush get too dry and it pulled the foam off onto the surface. Crap! I was kicking myself that I screwed it up. So, we let it dry a bit and I sanded the rough spots off and put a new coat on top. It totally fixed the problem.




You are supposed to let them cure for several days I think. I'm far too impatient for that and waited 24 hours I think. They have been painted for almost 9 months now, and there are only 2 small places that have chipped. They were totally my fault though. I was cutting something one and the tip of the knife slipped and scratched it. I may try to touch them up eventually but it's such a small place, you don't even notice.



Lowe's also sells a product that is a paint/epoxy mix that mimics the look of granite but it's about $250.00. For that price or pretty dang close, I could buy new laminate counters. This $20.00 investment rocked my world. I wouldn't have lived with yellow counters for so many years if I had known it would have been this easy to fix!