Countertops: before blues and after pretty faux granite

When CafeMom tess-n-co and her husband bought their house, "the countertops were the color of the ocean — all different shades of blue. It's not really our style, so we had to make a choice on what to do."

They ended up finding a countertop makeover option for an amazingly low $35 — and at a glance, it looks like pricey granite!

Here's how tess-n-co and hubby took on their countertop makeover:

"We priced out new counters with Lowe's and Home Depot. Both came to roughly $700. We also needed new flooring on the whole first floor, so I searched the Internet for another option. There are companies that will paint your countertops for you. I think they charge somewhere around $300.

So here are the steps we took to get our beautiful painted countertops!

1) Pick Colors. We went to Lowe's and picked out samples of the counters we wanted. Then we went to Michael's and picked up acrylic paints that matched all the color specs in the sample.

2) Sand and Prime. We sanded and primed the countertops. We may have done two coats of primer. You can still see the blue underneath.

Primer the countertops

Apply a base coat

4) Blot on Color. We used a SEA SPONGE (very important) and added the first blotted color. It was an orangey color. Then we lightly blotted down the second dark brown color, then the third color, then the fourth color.

Blot on a variety of colors

5) Add Top Coat: Once we had the color applied the way we liked it, we gave the counters four or five coats of polyurethane and voila... beautiful counters!

The finished countertops

Painted countertops close up

The best part is...the entire project cost about $35.

We do have to give them a coat of polyurethane every six months or so, but they look pretty good. We get compliments on them constantly."

This is awesome, Tess. And you can't beat a home improvement project that comes in that low cost.