If you’ll remember from our apartment tour, this is the kitchen…
Looks like an apartment kitchen, doesn’t it? It’s teeny but fine for what we need right now – which is just somewhere to store and cook food while the Underdog undergoes some major surgery.
Right away {even before we moved into the apartment} I noticed something about the kitchen that caught my eye. The countertops appear to have been painted. Not by us.
That’s the breakfast bar countertop above. {Yes, I ordered the new Design*Sponge at Home book last week. No, I haven’t even cracked it yet. It’s just been sitting on the bar ever since it arrived. I’m waiting for a rainy day…}
The main background color is creamy with flecks of tan and gray on top to give it a little more dimension. For an apartment countertop, it’s not bad. Not bad at all. It’s light, clean, stain-free and wipes down easily.
On the other side of the breakfast bar is the sink with a little bit of counter space on either side of it. This is where I prepare meals/snacks and where dirty dishes sit before they’re washed. {I’m hand washing everything because, ironically, the dishwasher does NOT wash dishes. It just squirts some water around and makes a bunch of noise, leaving our plates and silverware looking like they did right after we finished eating with them.}
I’ll be honest. I don’t necessarily try to be nice to the countertops. Sometimes, I put hotter-than-recommended pots and pans on them, cut directly on them and clumsily drop pointy/heavy dishware on them. But the counters have held up very well so far. No dents, scratches, blemishes or anything. Of course, I have no idea how long the countertops have been painted. We very well could be the first to use the painted surface. Still, it seems quite durable.
Even the edges are holding up. I told Handy Hubby that I thought the countertops had been painted and he didn’t agree at first. But we got to looking around and there is telling evidence that they have been painted. Some of the countertop paint is on top of the caulk around the 4″ backsplash against the wall. There’s no other explanation for it. Must have been due to a shoddy tape job. HH believes me now.
The surface is what I would call a satin finish. It has some shine to it but it’s definitely not glossy. It’s textured too. I’ve tried my darndest to figure out what the original countertop may have looked like because I’m weird/curious like that. But the original surface is covered really well and I can’t find a single painting ‘miss’ that would give me a clue as to what it was. Because it’s an apartment, I’m guessing faux butcher block. Oh, how happy I am it’s painted if that really was the original look.
I must say I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the durability and appearance of our painted countertops. Although it’s not something I would ever want permanently, I think it’d be a great temporary holdover project for someone saving money for natural stone {or the like} who can’t bear to live with, say, faux butcher block anymore. Needless to say, it’d be a DIY project for a rental too {as long as the landlord gives you the go ahead}. And maybe even a good investment for someone trying to sell a home that has cringe-worthy, dark, hunter green countertops. Taking a peek at some prices, it looks like you could achieve a transformation like this for less than $300 with one of the countertop transformation kits available at home improvement stores.
Have you seen painted countertops before? Ever tried ’em yourself?
images: all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking
budget decor, DIY