Huge improvement!! I'm no longer a renter, but I wish I'd known how to do this when I was.

Amazing. Since we're cutting back on how much we're renovating, this is a distinct possibility...did you have much trouble around the sink?

How did you convince your landlord ??

i don't think i could wait that long for it to dry... and clearing the animals out would be a problem. we have an indoor cat and I don't trust any family members to take him in. :(

It's funny because my landlord painted our kitchen countertop (presumably to hide hideous laminate) and it looks horribly compared to yours. I think they painted it with cheap white paint, so anything that touches it stains it instantly. And they certainly didn't do any of the sanding or double-coating so that it would look so nice.

I ended up buying a bunch of those exact same Ikea chopping blocks to hide the whole thing!

So to anyone else out there interested in painting countertops, follow these instructions and don't end up with a kitchen like mine.

I did this as well, but yours came out much better. My mistake was going for high-gloss paint, which is not very forgiving and still shows brush strokes where the light hits it. So, warning to all: no high gloss.

And step 2 is VERY VERY VERY IMPORTANT. I put the kitty in the bedroom but didn't notice when she weaseled her way out...and immediately leapt onto the freshly primed counters. Getting primer off a cat? Not easy. Or pleasant.

This looks amazing.

Can anyone tell me who makes the glass canisters seen in the after photos?

Thank you for sharing this. People always say it "isn't possible" to do this, but anything is possible!

Interested in an update after a few months to see how it holds up!

Great, this goes into my inspiration file for how to do up my kitchen :)

http://www.notyourgoddess.blogspot.com/

Huge improvement - thank you for documenting the process and sharing it with us!

I'm betting that anyone who does this will be purchasing another countertop in 6 months due to the paint becoming irrevocably damaged. The author mentions using a cutting board but there are other things like chemical interactions, water damage, and normal wear & tear that will affect the finish.

I did this same thing to my countertops 6 years ago and they still look fantastic. I used black melamine paint and the most difficult part of it was painting around the sink and faucet.

Thanks to everyone for viewing my project. To answer a few of your questions:
-shenanigans is right in that painted countertops are never as durable as laminate which is why its very important to follow the proper steps, and probably apply the coat of poly at the end. also, if you are someone who's brutal with their counter, its probably not the thing to do. So far I have dropped a canisters on it from the cabinet, and luckily no chips. You obviously can't cut directly on the counter, like some people do on their laminate. Its definitely a 'function follows form' project and not for everyone.
-convincing the landlord, i told him i was a designer and that i would only be making the kitchen look better and adding value to his apartment :).
-the sink was easy to tape around. you just need to be careful to get the tape right on the lip of the stainless steel. when the paint dries, you take a razor and cut at the crease to ensure no paint gets pulled off and ruin it.
-graefix, the canisters can be purchased at my online shop: http://merchant4.com/shop/?&category=1&product_id=36 thanks for allowing me to plug myself shamelessly :)

I'm sorry to say You did not create a counter top suitable for use with food.

The grey is not less ugly then brown, and the brown paint finish is hazardous to put food on. and anyone who cooks this is a bad way to finish a counter top.

The truth it's really Not much of a improvement. Cleaning the kitchen and taking clutter off the counter made your kitchen llok better! NOT the paint.

anyone who prepares food directly on their countertops, isn't that kind of gross anyway?...unless you have marble or something. thats why you have the large cutting board.

Laminate counter tops are already treated with plenty of chemicals, well actually they ARE chemicals. so...paint away!

without wanting to sound pretentiously pompous, everything is chemicals. But whether it's artificial or natural doesn't mean bad or good. Some natural materials are very bad for you and some artificial ones aren't that bad either.
But if I was to use a paint for a countertop, I'd try to get something that is FDA approved. Though I've never had to tackle this type of project and I have no idea of what is available.

My landlord would murder me. It looks great though!

i honestly don't think the gray counters looked bad at all! in fact, i had a hard time figuring out which was the before and which was the after.

the back seam where the countertops meet the wall/backsplash looks strange to me...like there's goopy paint piles there. or maybe caulking that got painted over? hmm otherwise i understand that you needed a quick inexpensive fix to a problem that you couldn't do anything more serious about since you don't own the place. i rent as well, and when i moved in my landlords specifically told me not to paint ANYTHING. too bad!

kindly,
vintagedressblog.blogspot.com

Squee!!! I always thought this was impossible! I'm getting ready to paint my kitchen, and the countertops are ghastly. I'll have to get permission for this (they let us paint walls no problem, tho). I hope they let me. The faux woodgrain countertop we have is your standard yucky renter quality. A nice paint job on the walls and countertop will spruce the place up tremendously!

I love this project. It has giving me a good idea for my kitchen

good job Cheri.

This is a huge improvement, and I have a hard time seeing how anyone could mix up the before and after pictures. And as for opinions that this design looked better before? No way. The only thing I may suggest would be those felt stickers for the bottom of the cutting board, if you haven't done so already.

If my landlord were to allow this, I'd be on it in a heartbeat. But then again, I'm one of 'those people' who puts my food on cutting boards and in dishes and not directly on the counter. ;) Great job!

I just painted my countertops, too. I used 3 coats of Varathane Diamond at the end, which is intended for use on restaurant tables. It was the most food-safe thing I could find...not that I'm eating off the surface anyway.

http://tinyurl.com/d3stjw

Why are we assuming that laminate is ugly?

You can buy a 6' section of laminate countertop in a huge range of colors for less than $60 and install it in a couple hours. You'd need a jigsaw to make the sink cutout and a few handtools to remove and reinstall the sink but it's easy.

I read that more as "if your laminate is ugly, here's something you can do to change it"

People don't say it "isn't possible," they say it's not a good idea. And for good reason.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

just saying: Rust-Oleum has a great site that has tips & techniques, before & after photos of this process with their product.

I'm trying to get up the nerve to do this. My laminate countertops are b*** ugly, but in great shape--9 years old. I HATE them, but I have acres of countertop (yes, it's great), & even replacing them with a more neutral laminate is out of my budget. Since my house is open-plan the blue countertops dominate the whole place.