So when we moved into our house, the bathroom was one of the
rooms that had been redone the most recently. It looked new in that dark
eighties kind of wood. It had a great linoleum with pastel blue accents. There
was the large oversized mirror and a wood grained laminate countertop. You can
see more before pictures on the “Our House” tab.
This past year we knew that we were going to re-do the
bathroom, but in the meantime I got impatient and wanted to update it. I wanted
to try out painting cabinets, as we are thinking of painting our kitchen
countertops this summer. I wanted to see
how they would hold up to general wear and tear, plus I was hanging out in the
paint aisle at Home Depot (everyone does that right?) and saw that there was
laminate paint. I thought that how cool was that? I could update my lovely, and
I do mean lovely, fake wood counter to something more neutral. Plus the paint
for the countertop was only $20, and we already had the white paint and brushes.

First we removed all the old hardware. I also used TSP to
wipe down/clean the countertop and the cabinets. That actually took a while. It’s
not that they were really dirty; everything was just shaped funny and hard to
get at. I pulled the drawers out and painted those in the garage. Here is the handsome husband helping me with removing the old doors. Also, checking things out is our cat Schroder, who wants to make sure that the bathroom will still be his domain when its all done.
I used a small roller to roll the primer onto the countertop. I also used the same small roller to roll the laminate paint on. I did two really thin coats on the countertop, and two thick coats on the cabinets (hey, I did not want to be there all month!). I let each coat dry for 24 hours, which is a lot harder to do than you think when your house only has one! bathroom.
Since we were just going to pull everything out of the
bathroom in a few months, I just tapped off the sink and the trim. It actually
worked great. I know shocker right? I was surprised too. I just picked a grey blue color for the countertop as it mostly went with the tile already in the bathroom.
I went to Lowes and bought the cheapest door pulls that I
could find. All told they only set me back about $15 dollars. When we renovated
the bathroom, I kept the new knobs. I need to think up a fun project to do with
them.
I still had most of the quart left after painting the
countertop, so a little goes along way. The project only set us back about $50
if you count the cost of the rollers (hey those are expensive!). It was a fun
way to immediate change and update the bathroom without any serious remodeling.
Plus, it only took about a week.
Here are pictures of the bathroom after the painting was
done. It actually looked way better. It also looked quite a bit larger.
Now, here is the honest truth though, I hated
the painted countertops! That laminate paint did not work! Anytime the cat
jumped on top of the counters, he scratched it. Fingernail polish remover just
wiped it away. Husband placing items on the top of the counter-scratched it.
Maybe I did something wrong and it needed more layers, but that counter did not
hold up under pressure. It was totally fine though, because we only had it for
6 months.
Just in case you lost hope over that laminate paint, here is
a sneak peak at our new bathroom! New countertop, new vanity, new everything.
We literally ripped that bathroom down to the studs and put it back together in
three days. However that information will just have to go into another post.
For right now, I need to get started working on my thesis. My master’s degree
is calling me and letting me know that it needs to be finished soon!