What the Faux?!

What the faux?! Kitchen tiles gotta go!

True story!  I "fauxed" my kitchen countertop tiles to look like granite!  This blog will take you step by step through my kitchen transformation - from the day we bought the house, until now.  All done by my husband and I.

First things first:  "I HATED my kitchen!"  I literally was repulsed by this room every time I walked into it.  We purchased our home as a Bank Owned property "as is" and it was nothing short of a dump.  It had been run down, pool was 3/4 empty, full of tadpoles, algae.  The appliances had been removed from the house.  Light fixtures gone.  The back sliding doors had been mutilated by, what seemed like, millions of dogs that ran the place.  Dog hair was plastered all on the kitchen cabinets, top to bottom.  Literally - it was stuck to it - ew. Greasy handles, dirty doggy sleep spots and years of uncleaned grout littered the tile countertops.  Puuuuuuke.  Ugh, I cringed whenever anyone put anything edible on my counters (like my husband when he'd make his PB&J's).

Its only taken us two and half years, but I can finally say I let out a sigh of relief every time I walk into my kitchen now.  FINALLY!

So, here goes nothin!

BEFORE:

Before - LOVELY wallpaper, dirty cabinets and LOVELY space invader tile work - which Im sure may have been popular at some point in time, but, not my taste.

More lovely tile design work (NOT)

First things first - REMOVE THE WALL PAPER (which I will do a sep blog on soon!):

Scraping, scraping away!

Then came the floor.  The kitchen counters and the kitchen floor were the exact same tile design.  Hideous.  The tiles themselves - they did an OK job bullnosing on their own, and laying the tile somewhat evenly, it's just they chose the oddest style.  AND, it didn't matter WHAT I did - I could not get these floors to look clean.  I cleaned, and scrubbed, and triple washed the flooring and the kitchen counters and they were so stained with who-knows what, that nothing worked.

To keep costs down, we just opted to go with vinyl flooring and cover the existing tile, instead of ripping it all out and redoing it - since once day, we will completely gut our kitchen from top to bottom. The result was great!

Kitchen flooring before: Love the tile, hate the colors. 

Kitchen Flooring After: Vinyl plank flooring - the new age linoleum.
We just covered up the tile.

Here comes the faux - da na na na!

Since I cannot afford granite, and cannot afford any time soon to do a major overhaul in my kitchen, I started looking into faux painting my tile counter.  I saw all these blogs where people had faux painted their laminate countertops, but I could not find anyone that fauxed their kitchen tile countertops.  Until one day.  I came across a picture on the internet of a tile countertop faux painted to look like granite.  I WISH I would have bookmarked it.  It was that photo that made me realize, yes.  I will do it.

Hey, if they can do it, why can't I?  The problem:  HOW did they do it?  I decided that, it couldn't be much different than painting laminate/formica countertops, so I searched the internet again until I found a blog that came with a video on technique.

I give major props to Creative Kristi - thanks for posting what you did!!  Without you, I don't think I'd ever had the guts!.  Here is her link to her countertop transformation:

http://www.creativekristi.com/painting-laminate-countertops-part-two/

The only thing I really did different was I did use sea sponges.  And because of that, the design of mine came out a little "chunkier" than Kristi's.  Play with the design.  Test it out on everything before you do it.  And remember - layers!  The main thing with getting what you like, is layer upon layer.  Made a mistake?   It's OK.  You can add layer on layer until you get what you like.

FAUX 'NUFF!

Step one:  Clean, Tape off, Sand & Prime: 

As you can see, I hadn't taped off my cabinets yets here, but we did after a bit.  I read somewhere to use 220 grit sandpaper, and honestly, I'm not sure what I had laying around, but, I used it to lightly sand my countertops, cleaned up the dust, and then applied this Primer & Sealer I had from when we painted red walls in our house, using a regular ol' paint roller (small).  CAUTION:  Make sure you don't leave paint lines and its smooth.  There a couple spots that I missed and now, they are there forever (thankfully in the corner!)


Step Two: Base coat - Cover the entire area with your base color (whichever you use, Im using Brown) using the same method/sponge technique from start to finish.  Be sure to get as much white covered as you can, but, not too much (unless you dont want white showing at all from the primer).  Since I was covering tile & grout, I made sure to cover it pretty good.

 I let my all my kids get in on the action.  They just love helping me out :)

 I cannot lie.  After the base coat was on, I thought - EW.  This looks like outdoor brick.  LOL.

Step Three: 2nd Layer: Darkest (and scariest) color.  - Apply the darkest color of your favorite granite color on this layer.  Don't fret - it will be covered by a gagillion other layers so it wont be so dark, and of course, if you dont like how dark it is once you apply your color - you can always cover it up with either your originally base color, of lighten it on the next coat :)

Truth:  I was mortified after we finished with the black/buttermilk mixture.  I thought "faux" sho I had just screwed up everything and it was the end of the world.  I wanted to re-prime and paint my counters a solid color.  But, my lovely hubby talked me into continuing on - and I also remember reading on another bloggers page that "you will think you made a mistake - but keep going!"  So, therefore, I shall repeat:

YOU WILL THINK YOU MADE A MISTAKE - BUT KEEP GOING!

(dont worry, you can always re-do if you hate -its that easy!)

 Step Four:  Layer 3 - Lighten it up, baby! - With my technique so far, this layer/color HAD to be put on using the "honeycomb" side of the biggest sea sponge.  (Pics of sponges & colors at the bottom of this blog).  This made that color bold, stand out, and really made the difference

  

You can tell how much this color lightens up the counter. (That's my daugher Marijane getting in on some fauxing action.)  Again, I was still terrified that I had made a mistake.  Must. Keep. Going.

Step Five:  Layer 4 - Masking.  Next up:  Espresso!  This step is to darken up all the light color from the previous layer. Because its so much light, I had to mute it down.  And espresso worked perfect for me.  You just dab it on....all over. What I did was pretty much dabbed it anywhere I had dabbed the previous lighter color to cover it up, but, I didn't press as hard, that way it could be seen.

  

Here you can see the darker espresso spots.  Gives it some dimension, I say. 

Once you have all the main layers down (layers 1-3 above), then its time to add in those lovely details.  I chose gold accents, and fresh black small accents - that I put on with a toothbrush.  Literally they were tiny spots of black. LOVE!

Pic of the gold accent in it - Love this!

Now that I had the technique down, it was time to finish the rest of the kitchen!

Step Six:  Apply the semi-gloss.  Once you have all your colors down, its time to seal!  All I can say is coat upon coat upon coat. I think I put about 8-10 coats, just because I was nervous that it would chip or scratch.  I used MinWax Water Based  Polycrylic protective finish, clear semi gloss sealer (Bought at Home Depot for $17.99/qt (I bought 2 qts and used 1.5) and applied with a foam roller.  I didn't use the thick jelly coat stuff that some other people have used, but that's not because it doesn't work - I just didn't want that look.   :D

YOUR COUNTERS WILL TAKE ON A WHOLLLLLEEEE DIFFERENT LOOK ONCE YOU APPLY THE GLOSS! NO JOKE!

THE TILES ON THE LEFT HAVE GLOSS.  THE TILES ON THE RIGHT DO NOT.  YOU CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE.

Be sure to follow the instructions.  You apply the first coat.  Let it dry for about 2-3 hours, LIGHTLY sand, wipe up and then apply the next few coats - letting each coat dry about 2 hours in between.  I literally was applying and reapplying for about 7 whole days.  I would do it at night when everyone was in bed and I knew no little hands would touch it.  And I also had to do in stages so we had a place to prepare our meals and such.

When you are sealing, Im sure you will find spots where you will be like "man! i missed some color here" or "i used too much color there."  Its OK!  Just lightly sand (lightly!), wipe clean, apply the color with your sponge, and re-coat with gloss.  I did this A LOT, as I noticed little differences here and there - and also remember - these differences make it look more authentic!


Now, let me remind you what it looked like before:

BEFORE

AFTER:

Simply an amazing and cheap transformation. I'm extremely happy with the outcome :)

SUPPLIES:

1.  Simple solution cleaner and rag
2.  Primer & Sealer & a paint roller to apply it with
3.  220 grit sand paper \
4.  Sea sponges - all sizes and shapes (or you can use papertowels like Creative Kristi does!)
5.  Acrylic Paints in the colors that are most like the granite color you are trying to match.  I used the following colors:  Craft Smart: CS147 - Brown, CS149 - Espresso and Black (I dont have the number).  The following colors are DecoArt Americana: DA164 - Light Buttermilk, DA191 - Camel.  Accent color was from Deco Art Dazzing Metallics: DA 263 - Splended Gold
6.  Paper towels, gloves & toothbrushes
7.  MinWax Polycrylic Water Based Semi-gloss ----->>>


I dont think I've forgotten anything, except something to put your paint on while your dabbing it, but, I used paper plates, and rinsed what I could and re-used until I couldn't do no more.

All in all, the paint itself cost me less than $20 total at Michaels (that was going back 2x for refills) including the sea sponges.  It was the Clear gloss that cost the most! - But soo worth it!

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

1.  You will think you made a big mistake - either half way through, or once its all done.  Rest assured, once that gloss goes on, a big sigh of relief comes over you.
2.  If you leave a cup with a water ring, it WILL cloud up your counter top - HOWEVER - it goes away in less than an hour - maybe not even that long.  I didn't time it.  I just remember seeing it, and then later when I wiped done again, it was gone.
3.  Its ok if you just absolutely  hate it and want to try over. Re-sand, re-prime.  You are good to go.