When we bought our house right after we were married, I knew this wasn’t my “forever home”. Our builder grade starter home has served us well for many years now, but I have grown tired of the boring, outdated looks in each and every room. So, if you have followed along with any of my transformations, you know I am tackling my home one room at a time!
The latest project room has ended up being the kitchen. While eventually I would absolutely LOVE to just gut the entire thing and shift up the main living area floor plan – I don’t have the money for that right now. So, I have set out to do a small refresh. The list of projects I wanted to tackle included replacing the sink, fixing up the counter tops, adding a back splash, painting the cabinets and replacing the cabinet hardware. We did a sink swap in one day with an easy to install drop in farmhouse sink that was a fraction of the cost of most farmhouse sinks. Next up, I took on the kitchen counters! They were not my favorite – they were this weirdly colored Formica, shown below.
I have pretty much always hated these counters – they were dark, yellow-ish and included weird colors like green and purple. Replacing them entirely was not really in our budget yet, so I started looking into refinishing kits. I ended up partnering with Daich Coatings to refinish the counter tops using their Mineral SpreadStone kit in Natural White.
The kit is ony $125 and comes with everything you need to finish about 40 square feet of counter tops – I mean everything. It includes a sheet of 60 grit sandpaper, a sheet of 120 grit sandpaper to help you prep and finish your counters as well as everything you might need to apply the coatings.
I decided to tackle this project one side at a time – we have a galley kitchen, so this was a pretty decent option for us. While the actual application is super simple, it does have a little bit of a curing time associated with the actual stone coat and the clear coat. We lived off of one side of the kitchen for a week and then changed it up to the other side while refinishing the counters.
After I prepped the counter tops, I was a little nervous to start applying the mineral spread stone material because I thought I would have a hard time spreading the small stones around evenly. Turns out, even that step was really easy to achieve with a little bit of roller manipulation!
All in all, this project could have taken me 2-3 days if I had really kicked my family out of my kitchen and tackled the entire thing in one weekend. Alternating sides, it took me about two weekends.
Now, let’s get to the good part.
How do I like them?
I LOVE THEM. They are surprisingly durable and look fantastic, even before I did my cabinets. But you guys – check it out with the cabinets painted. Now that is where the real glory comes in!
They are not 100% smooth, but the texture helps them look clean pretty much all of the time… and I can get behind that. I went with the natural white color because, in my head, I was envisioning the subway tile sort of helping that Formica back splash to blend into oblivion. I think it kind of worked, what about you?
How are they holding up?
It’s been about 4 months and they are holding up really well so far. My family is NOT gentle. I have a little girl who likes to be really hands on with things in the kitchen. Me and my husband spill stuff quite often and we don’t always get to that spill right away. With a little bit of bleach, any stains that we have had show up disappear right away.
What if you have granite or tile – or any other surface?
The great thing about Daich Coatings is that they have kits for almost any surface you can think of! Their customer service is extremely helpful and would be happy to help clarify any application questions you might have. Also, the instructions that come with the kit are really easy to follow and include prep directions for a variety of surfaces.
How can I get my own counter top refinishing kit?
Daich Coatings has a selection of retail stores throughout the United States and Canada, but you can also order their products online via Home Depot or their own website.
Also, because they are so confident you will love this budget friendly home improvement option, they have agreed to sponsor a giveaway via my Instagram!
Head over to my post and join me for the month of February to win a free Daich Coatings SpreadStone Counter Refinishing Kit – in your choice of color!
Once you have won or snagged your own kit, head on over to my full tutorial on Hometalk – it gives detailed, step by step instructions full of great progress pics!
In the image above, chalkboard paint and paste wax were used to make soapstone-like counters. You can see more on that transformation
Looking awesome in pic. Thanks for sharing this.
Hi there just wondering if u put a top coat on the two coats of paint? They seem to have a smoother then normal after paint?
Hi Tammy – for the Daich Coatings kit (countertops) they did have a seal coat included that I applied after the stone coat. All in all they are still holding up really well – I just have to be careful not to leave any spills for too long because the white tends to absorb the color for a while. However, after a few times of bleach cleaner, the stains usually fade.
Hi, I’m wondering about the sink in the kitchen. Where did you get it? Was it hard to install? I have the same cabinet and want to update the sink. Also, what is the color of paint I on the cabinets?
Hi there! I bought the sink at Home Depot and the hardest part was honestly lifting it into place! It is SO heavy. I had my husband’s help. I also had a little bit of a tricky time with the jigsaw to cut out the front of my countertops – the sink has a face, so the front portion of my counters had to go! However, it comes with incredible video instructions and makes it much easier to understand when you can actually see it in action. The color of paint is called “Coastal Dusk” by Valspar in their semi-gloss cabinet enamel! Good luck installing your sink! Let me know if you have any other questions – I have my newborn twins now, so I may be slow to respond but I will always try to!