The Painted Counters - Chapter 3

This is where I left you hanging on the edge of your counter seat:

Although I contemplated leaving it like this - I just didn't know if I had it in me to do it again and possible ruin it again - I kind of wanted to prove to myself that I could do it and do it right. So I sanded it to get off any excess bits of gunk and smooth it out.

Ironically, Jason seemed to accept the painters tape as just part of the counter and not mess with it. That is, right up until the time that I actually needed it again. For maybe 7 months, while I put the whole counter project on hold, he didn't even notice the tape! But when I started working on the counters again, that's when he decided to rip off all the tape every. single. day. I'd retape every night I worked on it, and the next day, he'd take it all off. Oy. And of course, the more you ask him not to, the more he wants to.

But I plugged on ahead. Priming...

Priming...

And more and more priming. Oh, and before each new coat of primer, I sanded with 320 grit paper and then wiped it clean with a damp cloth. Sanding between coats means better adhesion for the next coat of paint, which helps the paint job last a long time without chipping, etc. Check out Janelle Beals for more info that. Tip: sand in circular motions! It makes the scratches less visible.

Can you tell how it's not a solid, even white? I kind of needed it to be since I wasn't going over it with solid white paint. I was just going to be dabbing on some gray.

I'm not sure if it was bleed-through or if dark hunter green is just a hard color to cover up with white primer. I'm guessing the latter, because I don't think laminate does bleed through like stained wood does. Eventually I called it good enough and started dabbing. With these colors.

Side note: pictures are either fuzzy, off-colored, or in black & white because all of these were taken around midnight in my dimly lit kitchen, and b&w was the only way to get gray to show up well.

First dabs...

More dabbing...

Getting there...

And it's done!! Here it is in afternoon light, from a million different angles :).

The last step was to coat it a few times with Minwax Polycrylic. With super fine-grit sanding and wiping before the first coat and in between each coat. I discovered that Polycrylic doesn't go on smoothly with foam rollers - it leaves teeny tiny bubbles all over. But that's how I left it. I was just glad to be DONE. One day I'll sand again and do one more coat with a brush, for a hopefully smoother finish. Whenever I get the umph to do it, I'll ammend this with another little post. And some day long after that, I'll paint the cabinets a light gray. The honey color they are now isn't my thing and it doesn't look great with the new white counter. Someday. Someday.

While I'm not going to pretend it looks *just like granite!* like it's supposed to, I do like it better than the green. And I love that I actually did it! finished it! And it doesn't look half bad, if I do say so myself!

Before:

During:

After:

For how it all went down: Chapter 1, Chapter 1.2, and Chapter 2.