Simple & Easy Faux Granite Countertops

7.01.2015

Updated 3.19.21

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This is one of the projects we did for our ladies bathroom at church. Here is a before picture... Whoa!😳

Would you say... SUPER PINK 80's bathroom??? We have a lot of work to do here!!

This countertop is original to the building of the church. It was still in pretty good shape, but instead of spending over $250 dollars on faux granite laminate for a little 6 foot counter, I thought we should at least try a technique I saw.

So, I tested it out on a scrap piece of laminate that I had around. (You can see it behind the paint bottles) I needed to have something to show the Bathroom Remodel Committee. They know I try some crazy things, but if I could show them how it might look, I might get their approval. (And I did! They loved it and couldn't believe it was just paint!)

Besides, if they hated it, then we could rip it out anyway and put in a new counter. Basically, we had nothing to lose.

First, I had to tape off the edges and the sinks and prime the counter. I used Zinnsser Bullseye 1-2-3 Plus Primer. I love that stuff!

I applied 2 coats.

These are the paints I used. Simple acrylic paints, some sea sponges, and I put on a top coat of Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finishes.

I used a mixture of black, dark gray, medium gray, silver metallic, creamy white, and a bright white.

A friend of mine, Penny, was free one afternoon to work on the counter. We didn't want to overthink it, we just went for it.

Of course, I forgot to take pictures throughout the process. And.... we definitely made mistakes, but this process is very forgiving. If we went heavy with one color, we went over it with another. The more layers the better. It gives depth to the "granite".

Basically, we put some paint on a foam plate and used a sea sponge and dipped and dabbed in an up and down motion on the counter. You can't mess this up. We completed it in about an hour. The lighting in there was awful!

Here's a close up.

Close up of painted faux granite countertop

And even closer....

Super close photo of painted faux granite counter

Turns out everyone on the committee loved it and we saved ourselves quite a bit of $$! I got the sponges 40% off at Hobby Lobby and picked up the paints for a couple of dollars. The big ticket item was the can of Polycrylic for $17! Whoa! Break the bank! 😉

For about $25 we had a new counter!

I put on 4 coats of High GlossPolycrylic. It is holding up beautifully!!

UPDATE!! March 2021. This countertop is still in beautiful condition. It has not peeled, scratched or anything!