Has anyone painted laminate countertops?

[WorseBeforeBetter]

Mine could use a little updating, and let's just say what I watch every week on This Old House isn't in the budget.

Any opinions on the following products?

Industrial Grade Counter-Coat

Giani Countertop Paint

Rust-Oleum Countertop Paint with Behr Decorative Flakes?

Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations

I'm also thinking wood or concrete, but that'll be more time and money.

Thanks!

[Warpy]

1. Laminate is fairly cheap to replace

Get it priced before you embark on one of these projects. The results look like they were achieved by professional faux stone painters and yours are likely to be far less perfect. In addition, the painted surface will be more vulnerable to scrapes and dings than the original surface.

Just measure the linear feet in each section and number of cutouts for sinks and cooktops.

Wood is vulnerable to water stains so unless you stain it black from the get-go, you likely will regret it down the road. Polished concrete is nothing if not durable and is the poor man's stone, so it might be the way to go if you can get the cost down to what new laminate would cost you.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

2. I recently strolled through a couple of big box stores...

and was surprised at how much better laminate looks these days. I'll probably go that route, but was sucked in today by Pinterest, thinking, oh hell yes, I can do that!

[NMDemDist2]

3. i agree with Warpy, it's so cheap just replace it. n/t

[WorseBeforeBetter]

4. Thanks. That is..

probably what I'll end up doing.

[Alfredapowell]

5. paint

No I'm not doing that

[mrmpa]

6. don't paint....

You'd have to sand the laminate before applying the paint. If you do sand, you might want to apply a varnish then polyurethane on top of that. If you paint the laminate without the sanding the applied paint will probably chip & peel.

My brother a Union Painter gives me all this information.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

7. Yeah, I ruled out painting.

I'm going to delay the project until later this year and just *splurge* on new countertops. I got sucked into Pinterest one day and thought "hey, I can do this!" Not a fan of sanding and this project would take A LOT of sanding...bleh.

[NMDemDist2]

8. i just tiled over mine in the master bath

and the kitchen's were tiled over as well

Before



after



Kitchen

[WorseBeforeBetter]

10. Nice transformations!

That's the original bath vanity painted white? Did you strip the wallpaper or just paint over it?

[NMDemDist2]

12. Yes on the vanity ----

i used oil based paint since it was in the bath

for the walls, i learned a trick on the vinyl wallpaper (it's in a mobile home), mix 5# of premixed wall 'mud' into a gallon of very good adhesive primer, put it on with a 3" roller if you can find one, 2 1/2" works too. it creates a nice 'orange peel' texture on the wall then just go over it with your wall color and it's great.

we're done that throughout the house. in the main living area we pulled the expansion joint covers and filled them in but in the bedrooms and baths, we just painted right over them and they look fine to me

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. If you like the look of concrete

there are some concrete overlay products to use on laminate. One is called Ardex.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

11. I do... thanks for the tip.

I've got to give a lot more thought to this because I'm all over the place!