Painted Faux Granite CounterTop

We have laminate counters throughout our home that are out of date and ugly! When we moved in 4 years ago, we decided to re-do our kitchen counters right away and instead of going with granite, we decided to use travertine tile. It looks awesome and has held up perfectly, but we never got around to doing our bathroom counter tops. We just didn't want to spend the money to do them, because we are hoping to be moving soon. I got so sick of them, that one day I decided there should be an easy, cheap way to re-do them. I thought about painting them, and then came across some videos of doing them as faux granite. I was so excited because it would be a cheaper way to do them, but also looked pretty good!  So we got started, and it ended up being super easy. Here is the step by step:

~ First you will want to sand the counter top to get any dirt or anything off
~ Tape off the wall and around the sink
~ Next you will take a sea foam sponge and start to sponge the first color on
~ Wait for it to dry, and then sponge on your second color (Repeat each step for each color until you get the desired look you are going for)
~ Once finished, you will then roll on your poly (After first coat, lightly sand to get any of the bumps from the paint drying)
~ I would recommend doing two coats of poly on a bathroom counter top, and maybe three on a kitchen
~ Let dry a couple of days before using the counter top to make sure everything has settled
~ The colors I used and in the order of sponging: Tan, Black, Tan again, and then a little Black again to fill in. I took Metallic Gold and did a little bit of it through out the counter top. If you mess up and do too much of one color, just lightly sponge another color over it until you get the look you want. 

*Please note: This is how we did our counter tops, and I am not an expert. Our counter tops are still in the same shape from the day we did them, but they do get little traffic.*

 

 

 

All supplies I used were purchased at Wal-Mart. The paint I used was Acrylic Craft Paint. I debated between using that or real paint, and from my experience, I feel the craft paint seemed stronger on the counter top. They have a small package of Martha Stewart sea foam sponges that I used. But if you are doing a kitchen counter top, I recommend going to Home Depot to buy a couple of large sea foam sponges. It will be a lot faster! 

My hubby does home remodels and I have gone in and done the counter tops and all of them have turned out awesome. Here are a couple of different ones that I have done:

And I couldn't forget this cute little helper of mine! She came with me to take the AFTER pictures. I wouldn't recommend having children around when doing the poly. It has really strong fumes.