Refreshing Kitchen Counters

We needed to do something with the counters, especially after merging a couple. I had seen some cool videos about covering countertops with epoxy and love the rock face edge that can be done. I put in an order from Stone Coat Counter tops. Got their white Epoxy Undercoat, White Exotic Marble Kit, and Ultimate Top Coat.

I watched a ton of their videos and these were the most helpful for this project:

The FAQ page has a lot of great answers as well.

First I took an angle grinder with a sanding disk and went at the edges. I smoothed that with 40 grit on a random orbital sander. Then I added Bondo High Bond Filler to the edges. After that I used a chisel and sanding to knock down any sharp spots. These pictures show one of the pieces of counter I had in the basement so you can see how the look progresses.

Here are other various pics from the process.

Since the walls were a mess where I tore off the old backsplash I decided to put up a layer of 1/8 hardboard to help prevent any debris from falling in the epoxy. Then I caulked the counter wall edges so the epoxy wouldn’t be able to escape.

I removed the sink and test fit the new one to make sure it fit.

I had kept the cardboard from the new range, so used it to create a wall in the kitchen and keep the cat out. Couldn’t have Ninja jumping on the painted counters or worse, on the freshly poured epoxy!

After cleaning the counters with TSP I applied a coat of Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer and two coats of the epoxy undercoat, along with some light sanding. The white really made it pop and got me excited.

I applied a bit of spray paint to the rock face edges using a chip brush and plastic bag, like they showed in one of their videos.

Then we taped up plastic and masked the edges. Now came the fun part, mixing and pouring the epoxy. We rewatched the exotic marble video again before getting started, but used way too much of the silver metallic power, which overpowered our recipe. It was nothing like we wanted and, though it had some cool areas, it was terrible.

Glad we tried it out on the side counter first. We kept our mixes very light for the large counter and it turned out great!

The paint I had put on the edges looked out of place though, so we painted over those areas. We also painted over the disaster counter so none of it would show through. Then we did another epoxy pour. We wanted it to have a few darker grays than how the big counter turned out and we still ended up going a bit too far, but it turned out so much better than the first attempt.

We used some of the excess and drips to rub on the newly painted areas of the large counter and in a few fixed spots. A day later we did a clear flood coat on that counter. I had to order another gallon of the art epoxy for the clear coat on the smaller counter plus doing the island. After letting the clear coats dry we applied the ultimate top coat, which added a bit of texture, got rid of the high gloss, and hid most of the imperfections. We love this look much better than the extremely reflective gloss.

Here’s a look at some of the rock face edges.

After letting the epoxy cure for a few days I installed a new sink, faucet, and garbage disposal. We were more than ready to have running water and the dishwasher available again after using the bathroom sink for a week.

The island still needs to be done so I’ll remove the butcher block top and install some scrap wood as a temporary counter. This way I can work on it in the basement and we can keep a work surface in the kitchen while we baby the counters.

We also installed the final of the lights, over the kitchen sink, which really brightens it up.