Get Marble Countertops On A Budget With A Smart Painting Hack

Any type of home reno is kind of a lot to deal with. There's so much to consider even when replacing countertops. There's a best kitchen countertop finish, according to The Property Brothers, but you'll find proponents and detractors for everything from granite to marble and then some. Replacing your countertops disrupts your daily routines, but most importantly, it costs a metric truckload of money, especially if you look at a higher end material like marble. So then: how can you get that marble look without the marble cost? You just need paint, a paint roller, a dry brush, a spray bottle, and epoxy to make a budget marble countertop.

This painting hack is simple: you're just whiting out your old counters. You want white base paint to do it, so throw out any worry you might have about whether or not countertops should be lighter or darker than cabinets. Just apply white paint to completely cover the counters, and then make lines with gray paint mimicking the lines found in marble. Spray that gray paint with water, stipple it out with a brush, and you've got yourself a pretty realistic-looking marble pattern. Seal the whole thing with epoxy so you're not just dealing with raw dried paint, which will flake with time, and your DIY faux-marble countertops are all but done.

Of course, one key to truly stand-out DIY projects is in the details. For example, always use a dry (or damp, at most) paintbrush to stipple out the gray paint. Stippling provides texture and keeps the lines from blending out too seamlessly, which would stop looking like the natural lines of marble if too well-blended. You also want to use gray rather than black, since marble countertops have more gray in the lines than you'd expect. You can go back over and touch up a few places with a darker gray or black to add some depth of color. Also, use a reference image while working. The best way to get as close to the look of marble as possible is to have some real marble that you can refer to while painting.

When applying the epoxy covering, you want to do so with a large paint roller. This will allow you to get a relatively even and flat surface, which is important both so the epoxy sets evenly and so you aren't left with a counter that has random peaks and valleys like a Google Maps spread. Take care when cleaning the counters, too. The best way to naturally clean your kitchen with baking soda will help you avoid harsher chemicals that might do damage to your epoxy surface, which could cause it to break down more quickly. That way, your counters will remain in pristine condition for years to come.