Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations Kit

Background/Experience: Two twenty-something ladies with no prior home construction experience minus the basics such as painting a room, ripping up carpet, light furniture refinishing/painting, laying stick-on tile floors, etc. I'm a first-time homeowner. This Project is Best If: If your countertops are in decent shape but you just don't like the color/pattern/finish, this project would work great for you. If you don't like your countertops' shape, it probably isn't for you. This project works best in a middle-of-the-road home where granite isn't expected. It also was a manageable project because I didn't have a huge amount of counter space (12 linear feet, about 26ish square feet when including backsplash and front edge). I'd equate the finish to a new laminated countertop with a “stone” look such as an HD laminate. I think this project was a great way to avoid the hassle of a new countertop install and also it was about $300 cheaper and less wasteful in not getting rid of a perfectly good countertop. (I estimated new laminate to be about $600ish installed and this cost me $300ish total – note, I WAY overbought, see below). My countertops were less than 10 years old when I did this and had only light shininess – I bought a new house and just wanted to update the color and pattern. What You Need/Should Have that is NOT in the Kit: 1. A partner 2. ShopVac or regular vacuum with brush attachment 3. Dropcloths 4. Painter's Tape 5. Flashlight or High Powered Work Light 6. Foam Roller (small) – get two 7. Nap Roller (small) – get two 8. 2 brushes – Be prepared, you may need to throw them out following the clear coat at the end, this stuff is incredibly sticky) 9. Two separate paint trays – I used disposable 10. putty knife/sharper knife/edge 11. Tweezers – to remove any arrant fuzzies/tiny hairs that might enter the top coat after putting it down, when you go to score the tape and remove it 12. Damp sponge Tips – What Worked Well for Us: BEFORE 1. Read all the reviews and watch every single video you can find online. I had been looking at this product for over a year before I did it. 2. Choose your color carefully. People have said the Onyx looks terrible – like black asphalt because it is all one color. Whatever you buy is going to dry darker and shinier than when the color chips are on and then sanded. I would go with “Desert Sand” (tan) or “Charcoal” (gray). We did Charcoal and it looks great – it's the color chips that make a difference. 3. Overbuy by a LOT – Every review says you don't get enough base coat in the kit. I have 12 linear feet, aka, about 26ish sq feet. There are TWO kits available: Small – for 10 linear feet or 25 square feet Large – for 20 linear feet or 50 square feet Here's the weird thing – when I got the boxes in the mail for the small kit, they were labeled “12 linear feet or 30 square feet” I am not sure if this is the new or old quantity or if they have kept the package the same and just been more conservative with the amount that it does, etc. Because it was listed on Amazon as being 10 linear feet or 25 square feet and I have about 12 linear/26 square, I knew I could NOT push it with one small kit due to everyone's complaints about base coat amount. So I had the choice – buy one large kit or two smalls. One large would have been cheaper by about $80 BUT I bought two smalls to get two times the amount of materials (so my helper could help me work). This is a very smart idea and I'd recommend two smalls or heck, if you are between sizes, a small and a large or even two larges. BUY DOUBLE what you need just in case – you can always return an unopened kit, I would imagine. Okay, so I get the kit and it's marked 12 linear/30 square despite it being 10 linear/25 sq online. I found that to be dead on accurate for me, going from tan original to charcoal. I had JUST enough base coat without even cracking open the materials in Kit #2, provided I used the can and scraped it for touchups. (Not sure if they increased the amount or what due to complaints, my kit actually did a little MORE than it was supposed to) I am keeping the other kit for any touch up needs in the future. I did use the materials from it (sander, scraper, diamond block). It was nice to have peace of mind to know we had plenty if something went wrong. 4. Watch the entire video the whole way through first. Then have it going and pause it before doing the next section each time. DURING 5. This says “in a weekend.” I think that's overestimating the time this takes. I'd say total, it took me at MOST 8 hours from opening box to touching up paint in my kitchen, spread over three days (Friday – prep, sand, base coat, chips, finish at 12 midnight; Saturday – started at 12noon with vacuuming, wiping, wiping again, drying, touch ups, waiting, touch ups again with no waiting, clear coat, inspecting, touch ups – finished at about 7pm, then let dry and remove tape at 11pm and touch ups again, finishing at midnight, Sunday – letting dry and fixing up kitchen wall paint and cleaning) . You can't use your counters for a week. You COULD do this project after work two consecutive days if you had 3-4 hours in there. 6. At the end of each step, we carefully went over each inch of the countertop with a high powered work light, two of us, and were anal about each and every spot, inspecting it, etc. 7. Move your stove out or fridge if it abuts the countertop. 8. Do a round of “touch ups” before every step – you need to see if any other spot needs more sanding. Okay, we vacuumed, does any other spot need more base coat and chips? Anywhere just need some more chips? Okay, we just put topcoat on, does any spot need more? Even though we already did topcoat, do we NOW see a spot that needs more base and chips and a touch of topcoat after removing the tape? Etc. 9. We prepped our chip bags by opening and wetting agent before putting on base and kept a close eye on the clock. 10. Expect to have to touch up your wall paint a decent amount when you are done if you are up against it with your countertop. 11. Don't wait too long to remove your tape and you MUST score it carefully. 12. The chip spreader wasn't great for us, we had trouble with the angle. We ended up hand throwing a lot of chips and in a few places, PRESSING them into the finish on a patch or trouble spot. 13. It's a two man job. If you can, work during the daylight. We couldn't do this because it was early winter and dark early – so we used a high powered work light. 14. Remembering that it is a money back guarantee if you don't like it and that I already didn't like the current counter tops helped me keep an open mind – what's the worst that could happen, we start over with new counters! I almost backed out, I was really scared by the reviews, but am so glad I did it! 15. Follow directions to the letter. This is really easy and could be a fun project for an adult and kids together – just need attention to detail. If you have one really picky person, let them join in and help to make the result perfect. 16. There will be roll marks in the top coat – it's inevitable and not very noticeable. 17. On the base coat step, it will be very frustrating to try to brush on the backsplash as every swipe fills in a bare spot, but takes some of the paint off an adjacent area -it's like it isn't sticking or something. Just keep going and do your best – it all worked out in the end. Tips – What We Should Have Done 1. We should have been MUCH more careful with the wetting agent. I oversprayed and chips stuck to my wall in a few spots. I used elbow grease to get these off but some remain. Only spray it on the counter. 2. If you have cheaper cabinets like me (some parts, such as sides normally hidden by appliances, that are MDF), be VERY careful adhering tape. BARELY touch it or consider skipping that side. I did my tape lightly and it STILL tore off a piece of the cabinet finish on the sides. 3. We vacuumed a lot BUT I would advise really, really watching the pet and human hair. We changed our clothes before going in to work on the kitchen and didn't let the dog in for days or near us with our work clothes on. Tie up your own hair and lint brush yourself before going in too. 4. Take your curtains down if they are anywhere near the counters. I didn't and got paint on them. 5. Wear tight-fitting clothing (no loose shirts to drag on the front) and have a stepladder available for getting some hard to reach places without leaning on the front of the counter. 6. Practice with the chip spreader before you start to spread so you can see where it is spraying. 7. When sanding and scraping, watch your counters' high points and constantly, constantly check to see if you have scraped too much. 8. The clear coat will ruin the tray it is in, the paintbrushes, the rollers – it is basically glue. So be prepared to throw these items out and replace them. 9. Keep a little base coat back for touchups. Then, when you have applied the top coat, keep a little back for touchups, watch the clock like a hawk, and RIGHT at the four hour mark, score the tape and remove (earliest you can remove the tape, latest you can possibly use top coat which is 4 hours after mixing) and touch up then. 10. If you just bought a house, do this BEFORE moving in, before pet hair or human hair or dust enters the house. If not, get ready with your tweezers to remove any speck of hair or lint later on. 11. If you have multiple sections of countertop (I don't, mine run continuously), you can do it in pieces and probably get more experienced as you go along. 12. You could probably jury-rig up your own kit by buying materials on your own for WAY, way less. But you do pay for the convenience and the guarantee . If I was a more confident DIY'er, I'd probably make my own kit out of original materials. Tips – What Didn't Seem to Matter 1. I didn't remove my sink. I am going to keep my sink a long time. This seems to be okay because we taped it pretty well and even plastic-bagged the entire thing for the first chip spreading round. 2. Patch drying time – you are supposed to wait 4 hours and on the first round of patching (between chip cleanup and topcoating), we did. We then found MORE places to patch and still MORE places to patch after topcoating. We didn't wait 4 hours on Patch Round #2 or #3 – we put down base, chips, and clear coat within 2 minutes. 3. I didn't find it to be that messy. I taped up my cabs pretty good and put plastic sheeting and old rugs down, then Shop Vacc'd everything up – it's messy but not horrifically like I expected. 4. For fear of sanding too low, I didn't do my finish as smooth as the sample – I kind of kept it a teensy bit rougher as it would be with an HD laminate. Go to a store and see a new laminate that has the “stone” texture, not just stone print, with teeny raised pieces – I sort of copied that. The sample is on a different material than an actual countertop/laminate and so it is not really accurate. 5. I didn't silicone caulk my sink yet – I think that might be a great touch and help cover any errors near the edge there, but it hasn't been necessary for me. 6. I didn't putty my seamed edge. My edge seam was already really, really flush in a corner of my kitchen where they meet, and I felt puttying it would draw it out more and make it more visible. Again, my original countertops were relatively new and very professionally done. 7. I didn't wear a face mask or gloves. The top coat did burn slightly on my hand, but it was very mild. Update: I will come back and update on the durability of the product as I am just two days past when it was finished. I hope to get 3-4 years out of it before upgrading my countertop.

I recently used the "Java Stone" kit to update the stained white laminate counter tops in my kitchen. As other reviewers have stated, this won't fool anyone into thinking you've got stone or granite, but it's certainly nicer than the plain laminate we had before. "Upgraded laminate" you might say. The Java Stone is a much nicer color in real life than the color swatch on the box. It has almost a purple-brown hue to it in some lights, but I think it would compliment just about any decor. We have white cabinets with brushed nickel handles/pulls and stainless steel appliances. It looks good. Several reviewers have mentioned that there is not enough adhesive and too many chips for 50 square feet. I did NOT have that problem. I had slightly less than 50 sq ft of counter top to cover, and we had enough adhesive and I actually almost ran out of chips. I could be the exception to the rule, just maybe don't open the 2nd box if you buy it until you absolutely need it. Plus I don't think they make the small kit in Java Stone. As other folks have suggested, make sure to watch the video and read all the instructions... and get a 2nd person to help you. I think it could be done by one, but... work smarter, not harder. Also, several people said they used a random orbital sander with 60 grit paper to rough up counters and/or sand down chips. We did the same thing and it saves a LOT of time I think. Just to be safe, I did go back over my naked counters a bit with the diamond sander block to make some deep scratches. The regular sanding block that comes with the kit is junk, it will rub away to nothing in minutes. The only problem I had was patching up light or underchipped areas. The kit suggest that, after the adhesive and chips are dry, if you see an area that needs better coverage to just roll on more adhesive and throw chips and let it dry. We did this in a few spots and it looks AWFUL. Here's why: When you do this on top of a "light" area, you're making it taller than the surrounding counter, so when you sand it down to make everything level, you basically sand through your chips and have a spot of mostly adhesive that doesn't match the area around it. You could avoid this by not sanding it level, but then the counter might have a bump... So now we have several spots that look crappy. But that's ok, they are conveniently located where I always keep a cutting board or appliance. In hindsight, I think it would have been best to sand the lightly covered/underchipped area down to the bare counter before patching. I did not try this, so I'm not sure if it would work. Take care to do a VERY thorough examination of the surface before you put the glossy topcoat on. I thought I did a good job, even using a flashlight to go over every inch, but there are still spots were a few specks of the original white counter showed through. Oh well, I'm sure I'm the only one that notices. Overall, I'd say this is a great product, and I've definitely been recommending it to my friends. Amazon had the cheapest price that I could find: $207 (I think) vs. $250 at Home Depot and Lowes. Good stuff!

Transformed our counters perfectly

Super good product amazing job and dvd