While I am thrilled with how my Shaker cabinet update looks, ease of cleaning, and durability so far, I had yet to solve the problems of ugly countertops and back splash. As you can see in the image on the right the white cabinets need some color contrast instead of the washed out looking counters.

Since this is a house I don’t plan to stay in, I am doing all the improvements at the most frugal cost possible and still look good. After researching I decided to try the Giani Granite paint rather than replace the counters. $70 and a lot of work instead of hundreds of dollars for new counters sounded like a deal.

The steps involved:

1. Clean with SOS or Brillo pads: The picture above shows the counters after I had cleaned them with SOS pads and rinsed them multiple times to make sure the soap residue was removed.

2. Tape off the walls and cabinets: The next prep step is to tape off the counters before painting. The wall edges were a no brainer, but taping the sink was trickier. After trying to tape off the edges by lining the tape up (with unsatisfactory results) I decided to firmly tape the edges with tape extending over the formica and then use a skill knife to carefully cut the tape away from the sink. I was very pleased with the precision this process allowed. FYI — when Giani suggests 2 rows of tape above the back splash they know what they’re talking about. I accidentally dabbed paint above my one row of tape. Fortunately I hadn’t finished the back splash yet so I wasn’t heart-broken about the paint that went above the tape. 

3. Apply the primer: I found the black primer a little intimidating simply because it’s so black. I have an important suggestion before doing this step. PREPARE WHERE YOU WILL CLEAN UP THE BLACK PAINT. After applying the primer the kitchen sink was out of the question so I decided the tub in my bathroom was the safest option. The soap I needed was under the sink (behind my very white cabinets) and I had to push the shower curtain aside (with its snow-white liner) while I had black paint on me. I was able to get set up without getting black paint on anything, but I was stressed. Every little splash as I was washing things scared me too. The primer is very, very black. Better still — take the Giani advice and line your paint tray with foil. I wish I would have.

As far as the primed surface — the primer dries to a matte black finish.

4. The first coat of Giani minerals: Since I purchased the chocolate-brown kit my first coat was a gold. I cut the round sponge that came with the kit in half after looking at all sides of the ball and picking the side the had the most open cells instead of a side that had exposed tubes of the cells so it would provide good speckling. I attached a small piece to a pencil to get into the corners and tight areas. I ended up cutting another that provided a fairly straight edge to get the top of the back splash and along the wall. After I got the technique down I found the process fun. Except for behind the sink and faucet. That area was a bugger to do.

5. The second coat: My second was a cream color. I was much happier with the look of the counter when it was darker and figured I would want to darken it up some, but I had to wait for the final coat which is a chocolate-brown to see what I wanted to do.

6. Final coat of paint: the last coat is a layer of chocolate-brown. This is where the problems started. I shook the can, I stirred the can, but when I poured out the paint it was far more watery than the other two coats. I shook it more, stirred it more and it was still watery. I probably made a bad decision and went ahead and applied the watery paint.

It was a completely different experience from the other coats. It blotched, it ran, it ran out. There was plenty of paint, but I think the sponge absorbed a lot more due to the watery consistency and I was barely able to finish all the counters even with putting less on the last 2/3’s of the surface.

Where the previous layers had been a nice speckle, this layer looked blotchy and didn’t want to cover. I was concerned.

Giani customer support

As soon as I washed up my tools and took a good look at my counters I got online and found the number for Giani. I called and told them about the watery paint and blotchy appearance and asked what I could do. They were very concerned about my problems and offered whatever paints I wanted to correct the problem and make me happy with the counters. They offered to FedEx more of the chocolate and gold paint as well as another sponge. Where customer service seems to be dying a terrible death in the US, these folks know the true meaning of the concept.

Unfortunately it was Friday so the earliest I ccould get the paints would be Monday which means I have to live with a torn up kitchen for a few days. I just don’t see what other choice I have since the counters are so important.

Continue to part 2.