Stone Effects spray paint on countertops

If you think all of my projects turn out fine and that I always know what I'm doing, you are surely mistaken (although I appreciate the vote of confidence)! One of my latest screw ups was in my bathroom. I spent a lot of my Christmas break working in there and I'm so sad that it didn't turn out.

Today I'll talk about my countertop oops and tomorrow I'll post about my awful experience with Rust-Oleum Tub & Tile.

So my bathroom was very blue when we first bought the house.

Right away we painted the walls, cabinet, and updated the flooring. I also painted my countertop using this method.

It was certainly better, but I didn't love how the color turned out. Too yellowish.

See what I mean? I think I would have really liked it had I stuck to whites and tans instead of adding in that rust brown and yellowish cream. Live and learn.

I decided to try spray painting on Rust-Oleum's Make It Stone Spray Paint in Pebble followed by the same Envirotex Lite Epoxy used before.

I cleaned the countertop well, taped the sink and surrounding tile off, and lightly sanded. I applied one coat of Zinsser BIN primer. I maybe should have done two coats just to even everything out better.

This is what the primer looked like when it dried.

First coat of spray paint. Be sure to tape off everything really well.

After many more coats. Add a coat and then wait 15 minutes before adding another. Let it dry overnight before adding a sealer/epoxy.

After adding the epoxy.

From certain views/angles it actually looked pretty good!

Do you see all the bumps though? The surface was really rough.

So basically you prime, add several coats of spray paint (I used two cans of spray paint), let that dry overnight, and then add a sealer.

I really liked the color and the pattern, but I didn't like how bumpy and grainy it looked with the epoxy. Maybe a matte finish would have looked better? The glossy finish really made the bumps stand out especially in the light. Or maybe I should have lightly sanded after the final coat of spray paint and before the epoxy. That might have gotten rid of some of the bumpiness, but then again I was afraid that would mess up the pattern/color.

I was planning on giving it another coat of Envirotex Lite to hopefully smooth it out, but I tried a project on the sink and tile the next day which was a flop. I decided to throw in the towel and buy a quartz countertop. This past weekend we tore out the countertop, tile, and of course the sink. I told my husband that he can't say I didn't try to save money on this bathroom!

If you are interested in diy stone countertops, check out the following tutorials:

The Belafonte
The Bewitchin' Kitchen
Craft Wannabe
My Love of Home

My husband actually liked the countertop and some of my girlfriends liked it as well. So just because I wasn't fond of the final results, doesn't mean it's a bad idea for you!

Check out the following posts which show my next steps in this bathroom:

Bathroom demo
Cutting a quartz countertop to size
Putting up a tile backsplash
Decorative trim on bathroom mirror