Granite Countertops on the Cheap

Last week I posted about the cosmetic renovations we had to make to our house when we purchased it three years ago. We had very limited funds and lots of things that needed to be updated to just make the house livable. We had a faux light wood laminate countertop in the kitchen that was in pretty good condition, but it was ugly. We had put a fresh coat of paint on our cabinets, spruced up the hardware, and put in nice laminate tile flooring. Those things just made the countertops look dingy and dated. But we did not have it in our budget to replace the counters.

My mom found a Giani Granite Countertop Paint kit in Bombay Black on clearance and thought we could give it a shot. It was extremely easy to apply, only took an evening and an overnight drying of the top coat.

For the most part the countertops have held up very well over the past three years, with some scratches in the high-use areas. Then along the front of the countertops it started to really rub off. It has been that way for about 6 months.

See the worn places on the right hand counter toward the front?

Well, getting our new stove made me want to spruce up the countertops. I had kept the kit so just reapplied the base coat and granite paint in the areas where it was needed. Instead of using the provided top coat, I bought a Minwax brand of high gloss polyurethane. I wanted it to have the high gloss look of granite this time. And, I hoped the good polyurethane would hold better. I applied three coats.

It's so shiny you can see the reflection of my coffee cup!

And it looks amazing!! It is so shiny and you can't tell where I patched it up. It looks even better this time around.

If you are in a position where you would like to spruce up your countertops, but don't have a budget for it, I recommend the Giani Granite Countertop Paint sets. There are two other colored kits. If I would have been purchasing it I would have probably purchased the lighter brown, but the black and copper color really looks great in our kitchen. And it was only $50. Plus you can play around with the colors to get your desired shades. I used a little more copper to keep it from being too dark.

I am considering purchasing a kit for our bathroom countertops, too.

** I was not contacted by Giani to write this review nor did I receive anything in return for it. I just simply liked the product and wanted to pass along my thoughts about it.