painted countertops

It has been a while since I have shared an update on our kitchen transformation- we have been in the midst of working on turning our kitchen into something that is a little more "our style". While we are happy with the layout and are blessed with lots of space, the kitchen has needed some updating. More than anything we want to incorporate our style (colorful, cottage, quirky with a twist of boho) into the kitchen. However, we are on a massive budget! 

Above is the before photo of our kitchen- quite dark and dated..hello 1980's!

Over the summer we pulled out a wall of cabinets to create open shelving and we love it. After looking at our budget, we decided that replacing all of our appliances with new ones just didn't matter that much to us. The only appliance that needs to be replaced is our stove, the dishwasher and fridge are GREAT- no they are not top of the line stainless steel but they work just fine. 

The dishwasher is dated so I decided to use my love of drawing pattern to transform a dishwasher from the 80's into a fun piece of art! You can see the process HERE

Then we went back and forth on what to do with the countertops- if there is anything in this kitchen that I just couldn't handle, it was the dark green laminate counters. I have wanted to rip them out every day since we moved in. So we priced marble, corian, butcher block, laminate and pretty much anything and everything out there. And then life got busy and we got really stubborn about spending a lot of money right now for vanity- short story we have some other things that we would rather spend money on than countertops.

Somehow in all of my research, I stumbled on a heavy duty paint just made for countertops from Rust-Oleum. While this option might not be for everyone, it was perfect for us! Some day we will make more costly updates but not anytime soon. In the meantime we still want things to feel fresh, bright and more our style us so painting our countertops fit our current needs (and budget).

There are 16 colors that you can choose from- I really wanted to lighten things up so I picked Light Ash which is a really light grey with a tiny hint of blue. The entire process was really easy, I was able to complete it over a weekend. I finished the project at the beginning of January and I've held off posting because I wanted to see how everything would hold up over time. Here we are in April and so far the counters are doing great. I LOVE how this small project made such a big impact!

I completed the countertop project by painting the base of the counter with a colorful pattern. As I have shared over and over again, paint is a really fast, creative and temporary way to make a change. We have future plans for this lower part of the counter but again, it won't be happening anytime soon. In the meantime, some BOLD and colorful accents are a great way to way to freshen (and liven) things up.

We even gave Lucy a space to paint because IT'S ONLY PAINT and I love using her art as home decor! 

After three months of living with these little changes, we love it! It may not be the most "on trend kitchen" but I love that we were able to freshen things up and make this space more our style without having to jump into a big and expensive renovation.