$200 DIY Epoxy Countertops

After: black epoxy

Before: old laminate

My first major project in the new house was to do something about the old laminate countertops. They looked cheap, and the sides were even starting to peel off in some places. When I first researched different countertop materials, I was looking for something that was everything-proof and low maintenance. We have granite countertops in the apartment we rent, and they have a ton of water and heat stains near the sink and stovetop.

Eventually I concluded that the best material was... porcelain. It's apparently not very popular in America and very hard to work with, so it's not a DIY project and even finding a professional who can do it would be hard. At this point I finally started paying attention to the cost of replacing countertops and basically threw all the options I had out the window. Back to square one.

This is when I fell down the rabbit hole of youtube DIY videos, on the search for ways to update my kitchen on the scale of a few hundred dollars. These solutions mostly involved covering the old countertop instead of completely replacing it. The first thing that caught my eye was a couple who used a granite paint kit on their counters. You buy a kit of paints with instructions on how to mimic a granite pattern with a sponge brush. After priming the countertop, you paint right over it and finish it with a clear protective (polyurethane?) coat. This was appealing at first, but thankfully the same couple did a 1 year follow-up video showing that the paint had come off in multiple places. They also stated that the surface definitely felt painted and not smooth.

Not only that, but I wasn't fully confident in my ability to hand-paint a faux stone countertop. I found a blog post where someone covered their countertops in marble contact paper and then covered it with a similar protective coat. I was surprised at how nice the contact paper looked and got very enthusiastic about it for a while. Then I found pictures of how the chemicals in the protective coat can cause the contact paper to shrink, revealing seams. And depending on how big the roll is, seams may be inevitable anyway. That's when I saw someone recommend protecting the contact paper with a clear coat of epoxy resin.

I researched epoxy countertops, and apparently they have lots of great qualities. Completely food safe, waterproof, heat resistant, scratch resistant, and no maintenance required. If you do scratch it somehow, you can DIY repair it with some sandpaper and more epoxy. And it can go right over your old countertop.

At this point I was pretty sure I was going to go the contact paper and epoxy route. Then I started getting a ton of targeted ads for Stone Coat Countertops. They have a youtube channel full of great tutorials, and each video starts with an intro screen with a guy shouting, "YOU GOT THIS!". Honestly, that kind of won me over. Using epoxy, pigment, spray paint, and other tools, these guys make awesome designs that look like real stone. From there I found RK3 Designs, another great youtube channel with tutorials to achieve certain looks using epoxy.

The artistic part of all this still made me nervous, but watching tons of youtube videos did help. I've seen the random Facebook videos of people making cool epoxy art, so I was definitely intrigued. I also tried pour painting once before, and that was super fun. I decided the countertops already look bad, so why not try something new on them. If it came out bad, I could cover it with another layer of epoxy, or worst case completely replace the countertop.

In the end I followed this tutorial from RK3 Designs, called "Gray Concrete". I've heard that epoxy can yellow over time, so I figured black was safer than white. Also, I wasn't sure a white countertop would look good with the white dishwasher and stove.

Supplies and cost (some estimated):

- Stone Coat Countertop epoxy, 1/2 gal: $50

- White and black pigments: $5.75 x 2 = $11.50

- Quart of bonding and sealing primer: $15

- Quart of black paint: $18

- Spray paint in Stone Grey, Charcoal Grey, and White: $12 x 3 = $36

- Epoxy mixing drill attachment: $12

- Torch and propane: $40

- Miscellaneous supplies: sandpaper, paint sticks, plastic containers, painters tape, plastic sheeting, paint roller, paint brush, acetone (for cleanup), isopropyl alcohol. This cost can be significant if you don't already have a lot of these supplies, but once you buy them, they'll last you a while. So I'm not including this in the cost.

TOTAL: $183

Most of these supplies are reusable, or I only used a small amount of them. If I were to properly calculate the cost of the consumed supplies, I think this would come out to $100.

Okay, let's go through the process.

Clean your counters well with soap and water (or a degreaser), and dry completely. Leftover grease will interfere with the paint.

Scuff the surface with 60 grit sandpaper. This could be done by hand, but we used an orbital sander. Laminate is smooth and non-porous, so it helps to scuff the surface so the paint can make a mechanical bond. Even scuffing it was hard though.

Prep your area, and don't be lazy! Cover edges with painters tape, and protect your cabinets and floor with plastic sheeting. One minute of prep saves ten minutes of cleanup. Honestly I was a little sloppy, and I should have spent more time prepping.

Prime with a bonding primer. Bonding primers are essential for surfaces such as laminate that paint would otherwise have trouble staying attached to. Let fully cure (we waited overnight).

Paint a base coat of black.

Mess up time: I was foolish at first and tried to do the base layer with black spray paint. Even with the windows open and my respirator on, this fumed up the whole place and was NOT convenient. I also oversprayed in several areas and left bits of black paint on the white walls in a few places. I used up a whole can of spray paint and didn't even finish the island counter, at which point we went out and bought regular black paint. Don't be like me.

At this point I started following the RK3 tutorial linked above. Use the two shades of grey spray paint to "fog" the surface and make it interesting. In the photo below you can see I made a dam of painters tape around the edges after the spray paint step. This dam is important if you're going to do a "dirty pour", which involves using a lot of epoxy and gives you designs similar to pour painting. However, I later realized that the tutorial I chose was not that kind of design, so I removed the dam.

Next, mix the epoxy. This needs to be mixed really well, so I bought a mixing attachment for our drill, which worked great. Here I am adding black pigment, but not too much so that the epoxy wouldn't be completely opaque. This helps create a depth effect.

I mixed the white epoxy separately, then poured it into the black and gave it a very gentle stir with a paint stick, creating a swirl/marble effect.

And now we pour. It's less epoxy than you think -- the amount in the picture below covered that whole section of counter. Also, you can't see in the picture, but the white streaks come out nicely due to the way we mixed it previously.

From there, use a gloved hand to spread the epoxy all over the counter, including the edges and backsplash. The white lines will get mussed up, but it's not a problem.

Time to get a little artistic. Gently spray some white spray paint in areas where you want some contrast. Depending on how you spray it you can also get little white specks everywhere.

Spritz some 91% isopropyl alcohol onto the spray painted areas. This creates some nice cell effects due to the different liquids fighting each other. Let it sit for a few seconds to let the effect develop.

Brush out the white spray paint with some random brush strokes to blend it in more. Afterwards you can spray certain parts again with alcohol to get more cell effects. Don't worry about the texture of the brush strokes, the epoxy will slowly self-level itself to give a smooth surface.

Tada~ when you are satisfied with the look, run over everything with a blow torch. The heat from the torch pops any air bubbles in the epoxy.

Then, stop and wait! Stone Coat epoxy cures slower than typical epoxy, so you have enough time to finish your design. In a few hours, come back with a paint stick and wipe any drippings coming from the edges. The epoxy will be dry to touch in 24 hours, okay for light use (but still damage-able) in 72 hours, and fully cured in 7 days. We kept the countertops clear for the whole 7 days because I was terrified of messing it up. You should peel off the painter's tape after 24 hours, when the epoxy is dry enough not to drip off but not so hard that it won't let go of the tape. I messed up and didn't take the tape off until after 72 hours, and now we have some pieces of tape that have permanently become part of the counter :p

Overall I'm super happy with how this came out. It's smooth, shiny, and fancy. I love how the pattern came out on the island. I'm less happy with the rest of the counters, but accepting it in full Bob Ross spirit.

Some things that didn't come out perfectly:

Since we weren't living in the house yet, it was kind of cold, and I think this slowed down the curing time and possibly made the epoxy more viscous. Therefore, even though we went over everything with the torch multiple times to pop bubbles, by the time it was cured there were a couple scattered bubbles that had shown up after we were done. There was also a little divot in one part of the counter where the epoxy was either not warm enough, or I didn't pour enough for it to self-level that part.

At one point when the epoxy was still fluid, I tried to fix a stubborn air bubble by really aggressively torching it. The flame actually pushed the epoxy around, and it never fully self-leveled after that. It also messed up the pattern.

I could fix the bubbles and divots by sanding them and applying a clear coat of epoxy to smooth it out. But I'm not too fussed about it, and I want to move in already. Most of the imperfections are in places that are not very visible anyway.

So yeah, it wasn't a 100% professional job. But did it come out good? It did! I'm happy and glad that I took the risk. Our plumber even commented on how nice it looked, and said he's seen a lot of mess-ups from people who tried to do similar things 😬.