What are your countertops made of? I painted the hideous Formica countertop in my powder room successfully :-)

Tile is harder to paint, but can be done using special paint. I did that with the fireplace tiles. Glossy tiles have to be prepared/deglossed. Any painted countertop surface will have to be sealed and treated carefully--spills wiped up promptly, no quickly slicing a lemon without a cutting board :-)

Mrs. Limestone painted the ones at her vacation house at the shore. Check out her blog about it at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brooklyn Limestone blog Feb.7 post

Hi Movinginva,

You can do it! Don't be fearful be brave. It will look
great. I posted a few how to links below. First find out
everything you can on how to paint your countertops.
I assume they are formica or wilsonart.
Get all those questions answered.
The How tos? What kind of paint? Sealer? Food safe
products? Or use cutting boards. Find out about a good
primer... All those little details. Once you are armed with
knowledge be brave and paint them. They will look
beautiful. Check out the visuals below.
~boxer

Blissfully domestic blog has a great how to list on painting
laminate.

http://blissfullydomestic.com/2008/transform-your-laminate-countertops-with-paint

Painted laminate

Painted Plywood from HGTV

Painted Countertops bu Kistom Chappel

Lulu paiting backsplash tile

Here is a link that might be useful: Serioulsy Blog spot on painting counters

My good friend did this when she moved into her house for the same reason as you...she hated the color but wasn't ready to change. She had them painted white. It looked good, but...she ended up hating it. It just wasn't durable enough for her (she had 3 small chilren, and it started scratching and chipping after a while, I mean REALLY scratching and chipping.) I hate to be a gloomy gus, but wanted you to know another perspective. Maybe paint has gotten better now?

Check out Giani Granite Paint.

It looks really neat, and several bloggers were sent a kit to sample and blog.

I like that you can make it as detailed as you want. Some of the ones shown are a bit too speckled for my taste, but I bet you could do a cool soapstone look.

I'm seriously considering using this. We have Baltic Brown granite that came with the kitchen display I bought. It's nice, but I'm not in love. I think it's the large splotches. I'm afraid my neutral opinion might turn to hate. Bear in mind it's not installed yet, the slabs are sitting in my garage. I'd rather come to this conclusion BEFORE I've had them fabricated, installed and backsplash in place.

Sooo, I'm thinking about selling the granite on CL and doing the Giani over the least expensive Ikea butcher block and live with it for another year until I can save up enough money to buy real soapstone or granite that I LOVE. I've already survived a year of "temporary" counters, namely hollow core doors, I think I could survive another year with decent looking replicas. Plus, I could always re-use the butcher block in my someday craft room or on DH's workbench top.

Of course, I haven't worked up the courage to tell DH yet...

Here is a link that might be useful: Giani Granite Paint

I have looked into the Giani paint and it seems to get really good reviews. They have the blue that I am looking for, the only problem is that I really would rather a flat, blue since I am doing a granite bar, that is really dark with specs of blue, and blue pendant lights. I guess I can do a really slight marbled/granite look.

By the way @kathec, I would certainly try to sell the granite. If you're 'eh' about it now, you will probably hate it when it is installed. I would post it up and see how much interest you get, if there is enough interest, then break the news to DH. Maybe you can even talk to the people you got it from, someone else may be able to use the same slab (s) in one of their other remodel jobs - you never know.

Thanks movinginva. I was thinking broach the subject with him very soon. Right now we're not doing anything on the kitchen until DH's bonus check comes in next month.

DH and I brought a piece of granite in the house. It was a backsplash piece, about 6' long and 18" high. I've got it laying on some cabinets in the family room. I told him I wanted to "live" with it for a while, see how it looks in our lighting, etc. I'm sure he suspects that I don't really love it. He probably won't be surprised that I'm thinking of selling it.

I can't talk to the people I got it from. It was a display kitchen. The kitchen franchise had gone out of business. The business owner took what was not bolted down, but left 5 intact display kitchens. The landlord sold off all the kitchens to try to make up some of the lost rent and have the place cleared to be re-rented.

Here's what it looked like before we dismantled it.

@kathec, I love, love those cabinets. I want them! I am sure that someone will snap up the granite. The great thing is that they can fabricate the pieces if they need to change the sizes etc.

Wow, I love your kitchen & wish you were selling the counter on my local CL :-)
I can never find any good stuff on my local CL only stuff worse than what I already have...
You aren't near MI are you? LOL Terri

Sorry Terri, I'm in North Texas.

My sister painted hers nearly 5 years ago. They held up pretty good for someone with 4 kids running around, and she's not that careful of a cook. There are now a number of nicks on the edges where the old color comes through, but I think for a temporary fix it's not a bad idea.

My mother painted hers years ago. Some type of faux finish. They held up pretty well for several years, but didn't age well. My cousin helped me update her home for sale (as I live out of state). They did some kind of spray on finish. I haven't seen it in person, but it looks amazing in pictures. Almost like quartz. Even turned the bright yellow sink black. It only cost $500 for her huge kitchen and can with a lifetime guarantee. Everyone who has seen the house has told me they were surprised I spent the $$ for new countertops! I will try to find out what its called.

I painted my laminate countertops about three years ago. I used a shellac-based primer, which adheres to anything, then used craft paint to create the 'marble' effect I wanted. I sealed it with 5 coats of Varathane Diamond water-based polyurethane. It has been wonderful. I will be doing a light sand and a recoat this spring to freshen it up and switch from a gloss finish to a satin one. I felt it was a great, affordable solution to my ugly laminate counters. I spent less than $50 on the whole thing.

Thank you all for your responses, I guess I will paint away. Once my bar top goes in, I will begin painting. I will let you know how it goes.

I saw this at Rustoleum while looking into their Cabinet Transformations line ..
Never used it.
Don't know anything about it.
Just thought I would throw it out there.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=208

OOPS.
I guess this is the newer one here...

Here is a link that might be useful: http://countertops.rustoleumtransformations.com/

Bumping this to see if anyone (movinginva?) has experience to share. My husband isn't crazy about my butcherblock countertop idea (thinks our fugly purple laminate is fine), so the Rustoleum paint may be worth a try. Will it hold up long enough to be worth the effort?