I am a MAJOR lover of home renovations! Homeowners are quite aware of the fact that it doesn't take much of a project to ring up a large bill to do any fix-ups.
Several years ago, I was sick and tired of continuously having to look at our kitchen Formica countertops. The kind that our house was born with was the white with gold specks kind. At that time, I was a great fan of the LYNETTE JENNINGS SHOW. No matter what renovations she did, I LOVED THEM!!!
One day, she gave a demonstration of covering the Formica or any other laminate countertop with the color of your choice paint followed by several coats of high gloss varnish. SHAZAM!!! That was EXACTLY the facelift that our kitchen needed.
So, I went down to the lumber yard and bought a quart of OIL-based black paint. (For some reason, water-based paint will not work for this application.) After a few days, our counters were ggg-gorgeous! unfortunately, they didn't stay that way for very long. Anytime, we placed our crockpot on them, the countertop wrinkled. Even when you placed pot holders on the counter before placing hot pans on it, the countertop wrinkled. Not good.
Well, last night, I found out that a major paint company has come out with a paint made especially for countertops!!! You just apply it with a small hand-held paint roller. Ta-da! That's about it. No extra muss or fuss... Ask your local hardware or lumber yard if they carry it. If they are not able to bring it in, the larger hardware stores in larger towns carry it. People have also discovered that this same paint can be used to paint over the smaller 3" x 3" or 4" x 4" tiles that have been used on countertops, on walls and in shower and bathtub applications. Sure beats having to pull all of those off so that you can put something else up. To top it all off, they look beautiful! Now, people who have bought homes with the un-lovely pink or green tiles, etc, can have a fast and beautiful fix right now at a must lower price!
Now, we are getting ready to lay BEAUTIFUL 12" x 12" ceramic tile that looks just like stone with a Tuscan flavor to it on our kitchen countertops. I had just thought that we could lay it out on top of our counterops the way that they are now. WRONG!!! Now, I have to go in and scrape all of the paint and varnish, wrinkles, etc off BEFORE we can lay the first tile. Otherwise, the tile will not stay in place. Ughhh! So, now I know what I will be doing this week. It looks like the preparation is going to be alot more work than the fun part!!! Oh, well. It'll be worth it!!!!!!!!!!
VLE-B
Lynn could you tell me the seal for this tile is or brand. I'm putting stone tile on my kitchen counter top also but haven't done it yet cause of the sealing it and didn't know what to use. I already have the tile so didn't want to waste my money doing something wrong. I seen this stone in a house when we went to my aunts reunion last year in texas. but she didn't know what they sealed it with. I ask homedepot and the guy just told me that I didn't want to put it on my counters( like he knew what I wanted. also I know that they use the same stuff in showers.
ReplyDeleteCarolyn
Oh, KOOL, Carolyn!!!
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, all stone and ceramic tile have to be sealed for all applications including wall, countertop and floor. It may even be more important for countertops than anything else because of the ever present threat of bacteria getting into the grout, etc.
I will ask Stan what the name of the sealer is that we will be using. Several years ago, we laid ceramic tile on our kitchen floor. We had plenty sealer left over so Stan is planning on using it on our countertops.
I don't know if the same sealer is used on stone or not. One thing that is important to remember is that with ceramic tiles, sealer is usually only needed one time right after the tiles are installed. However, stone such as granite and marble require sealers at least once a year. I don't know about things such as limestone, soapstone, etc.
When Stan gets home, I will ask him to find the sealer for me. I'll see if it says anything about stone tiles.
VLE-B
I wonder how paint remover would work on your countertops to take off the bubbled paint? It sure would be easier than dry-scraping it and it wouldn't matter if it tarnished the formica since you're covering it anyway. Just a thot!
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