Kitchen Counter: Rust-Oleum Redo

The sneak peek at the kitchen counter redo doesn't even begin to tell the whole story. The paint-based product we used is the Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations (on this website); there's also one for cabinets. The kit comes with three-fourths of the total materials you need; additional purchases include paint brushes, small paint trays, mini rollers, dropcloth, gloves, and painter's tape. Some of these extra purchases we already had, so it makes sense that they not include it in the cost of the kit. (Anything to keep costs down is a good thing!)

An instructional DVD was included, and the same videos can be found online. We viewed the DVD three times: Once straight-through to see the overall process and to get a sense of the timing; again straight-through to note the finer details; and again, short chapter by chapter, before each stage. We found the DVD to be helpful and clear.

The process took 7 to 8 hours of actual work, and we did it over the course of three days. There's basically 4 main stages.

First, the prep work: clearing off the counter, cleaning, and some sanding of the metal strips on the edges. Using the sanding tool, there's a full round of sanding/de-glossing, vacuuming, and wet wiping. We did this in the evening and it took about an hour. Here's what she looked like after the sanding:

Saturday morning I did some more caulking so we had to wait until lunchtime to get started. So, after taping and sheeting, we dove into the next main phase and applied the base coat and chips, which took 2 or 3 hours.

This second phase was the one that had us most concerned about doing it right. Even though we could do touch-ups afterward, we felt compelled to be careful the first time around. You roll on a thick even coat of a medium-brown paint, doing the backsplash and edges first, then all the flat parts.

And you have to keep it wet, no dilly-dallying! There's a wetting agent that you spray on to keep everything wet. We were quick but could have been quicker, and we probably should've used more of the spray than we did.