Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Guest Post: I Know the Plans I Have for You

Hello!  I am so excited to introduce you to a blogger that I recently found.  She has some seriously amazing stuff and I'm so lucky to have "met" her.  Ladies and gentlemen (my husband and dad?), Jill of I Know the Plans I Have for You.

Hey guys! My name is Jill and the name of my blog is I Know the Plans I Have for You. I was so excited when Kelli asked me to guest post at The Turquoise Piano!

Just a little about myself...
I am a wife and a stay at home mom of 3. I have 2 girls, 1 and 5, and an 8 year old son. I have stayed home with my kids for 7 years and was super lucky to find a passion in refinishing furniture, painting, sewing, crafting, and blogging. All of these things have given me something of my own, in a sense, and keep my busy and proud.

After painting my cabinets, I started thinking about painting my counter tops. Of course the buzz is all about the faux granite kits. I wasn't apposed to going that route, but what I really wanted to do is paint them with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I searched the internet to see if anyone had tried this, but I wasn't able to find anything. I wanted to know what the best way to apply it was, what the best top coat was, and of course....how it held up!!

I'm sure I'm not the first crazy to do this, but since I was unable to find anything on it, I thought I would tell you how I did mine....and what I learned along the way. So this tutorial is sorta gonna be in 2 parts. The way I did it, and the way I would have done it had I known....

This is what my counters looked like before
A nice powder blue
It's not that I minded them so much, but I knew that they could be improved. 
Here are the supplies I used:

blue painters tape
a paint brush
a foam roller
a sponge applicator
ASCP in Graphite
Minwax Wipe-On Poly
a sanding block
steel wool grade #0000
nail clippers


I first decided I was going to see what it looked like on the small section of the counter top. So after I taped, using a paint brush, I brushed on the 1st coat

BEFORE
The 1st coat was much more gray than
I had expected, but I loved it
Know that the paint will seem very streaky as it
dries, but will be smooth when dry
Now I was in it! I went for the rest of the counter! I didn't have a plan if I hated it, so good thing I didn't!! 


The sippy cup just adds to its beauty ;-)




I was afraid to turn the water on to do the dishes before it was all sealed
I continued to paint the counters using a paint brush. It looked great as it was going on and as it dried it felt smooth. So I put on a second coat of paint. Still felt smooth! Then, without sanding, I applied the top coat. I used a sock to wipe it on and waited about 3 hours for it to dry. Next, I gently went over it with the steel wool before applying the 2nd coat.
Here is also where the nail clippers came in. As I was sanding, my nails kept scratching the paint....so keep them SHORT! 

Now this is when I wished I had advice before I started!

I could see all the brush stokes! When I paint furniture I always sand before applying the top coat, so I wasn't used to this!!
The steel wool wasn't smoothing it out and I began to panic! So I sent the hubby to the store to get a sanding block, a foam roller, and a sponge applicator.

Using the sanding block, I lightly sanded until there was a smooth finish.
The sanding block worked like a charm! All was smooth and I continued....
I ROLLED on another coat of paint, and touched up where my nails had hit. I sanded the paint when it dried with the steel wool before applying the top coat.
I used the sponge applicator instead of a sock to apply the poly. After 4 hours, I sanded with the steel wool and applied another coat. I applied 4 coats total. I wanted to make sure that there was a good amount of poly to protect the top from any wear and tear or nails hitting it!
Much better!!

I woke up this morning and my kitchen looked like this:

Ok...I cleaned first, haha













 So to recap what I would do:
roll on the paint, not brush it on
sand the paint before applying whatever top coat you choose
cut your nails before starting lol
use 3 coats of paint
use at least 4 coats of poly....more if you'd like.

I'll let you know how its holding up, and if you have already done this to your counter like this, I would love to hear from you to know how yours is holding up!!

Thank you so much for letting me share this project and I would love to have ya'll stop by and browse through I Know the Plans I Have for You!!


Wow!  Way to be a trailblazer, Jill!  I hadn't thought of using chalk paint on counter tops but I LOVE yours.  Everyone head over to I Know the Plans I Have for You and show Jill some love.  :)

Kelli



7 comments:

  1. I have always heard about using it on the cabinets, but i have never seen anyone put it on their countertops. Did you also do the cabinets in chalk paint? Hopefully it holds up well for you i do like the way it looks now.

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  2. That is nuts! I hope it holds up because it looks AMAZING!

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  3. Great post. Will be interested on how it is holding up. I have been really interested in that faux granite paint too.

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  4. Looks really good especially with the white!

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  5. Thanks kelli for inviting me today! Your readers are so sweet and to give everyone a little update, holding up great so far!

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  6. Can you please tell me where you got this paint? We just painted ours w rustoleum (20$) paint and it's awful!! Bubbled and streaked!! Have to go back at it today and I thought yours looked Sooo nice.
    Home Depot have it? And is the chalk paint different than regular paint??

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    1. Amy, sorry, this was a guest post so I don't know the kind she used or where she got it. You can find her over at http://iknowtheplansihave4you.blogspot.com/ and ask her. :)

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