Faux Granite Kitchen Island

Sweet Friends!

How are you? 

 

SO,

 hubs has been doing a LOT of traveling

 for business this past summer

and

that has left me with a LOT of time on my hands.

I have been scouring the web, blogs and Pinterest for ways to

spruce up my kitchen.  There is so much info out there

and being a artist/painter

I have been inspired to do what I can in an effort

to bring my kitchen into the new century.

 

We have talked about installing

granite and updating our cabinets for a while now. 

Finances and a daughter in college seem to be

getting in the way.  And with hubsters gone

 and exhausted when he's home,

 well,

 this type of a project

 is too big for us to handle right now. 

I am now resigned inspired to do what

I

 can to spruce up and update our 20 year old kitchen.

 

What does this girl do?

She pulls out her paints and sponge goes

to town!!!

 

I decided to just do the island for now. 

We did decide a huge MUST right now will be

to replace our sink and faucet.  When that is done then

I will probably do the rest of the counters.

For the granite look I was going after, I used the following

colors; Black, Metallic Bronz, Vintage Gold and Ivory.

Then 2 coats of Polycrylic Gloss by Minwax was applied.

I first cleaned the counters then scoured with scrub free. 

Making sure any left over residue was off. 

Since my base is already ivory I did

not prime or base coat the counter.

(If you are going to do this as a permanent fix for your

counters I would strongly do a primer base.)

Since I am only doing this, in hopes that it will

suffice for a couple of years I skipped priming.

The KEY to any paint project is a good sealant.

NOTE:

You do not need to be a painter to do this. 

If you have an idea of the type

of granite you want along with your color palet...

there really is no right or wrong way.

Work with the colors until you are happy!

Starting with black I sponged this color randomly all over.

Then applied the metallica bronz, gold and then finished

up with ivory until the entire island was just how you see it.

I did go back and forth with some of the colors until it

looked how I had envisioned it.

The colors are have a more muted gold than my picture is showing,

The pictures are actually picking up more gray than it really is.

I then waited to 2 days so that hubby could see it. 

I decided if he hadn't liked it,

it would still be fairly easy to remove the paint.

But he was happy!

I applied the 2 coats of polycrlic letting 24 hours

go by before I added each coat.

I do have some brush strokes showing and

I may use a sponge and apply another thicker coat

so that my critical eye wont be bothered by the strokes.

There are sprays cans of this sealer

which I may use instead of brushing it on.

I did take a few pictures for you to see my un-painted counters,

We are still debating whether to paint the cabinets

a creamy off white or gel stain to a darker stain.

UGH...my pictures actually show these cabinets looking a bit

darker than what they truly are.

Due to their age, they are fading and the stain

really is starting to yellow or orange.

I feel we need more contrast...but

convicing hubs to paint any or part of the

cabinets has been my biggest project. 

 

Stay tuned...

I am currently working in my small

red dark

Powder Room...

here is a sneak peak of what I have

done so far.

 

(hubs did relent and let me paint the Powder Room Cabinets, yay)

I will be working on the counters hopefully in the next day

or so.  Then I still have a few projects in here to do.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

 

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