Simple strategies to Change Earlier Laminate Counter tops 5 Simple Strategies

Caught with dingy, seen-better-days laminate counter tops? We actually really feel you. If a kitchen remodel has to dwell in your targets for now, each on account of budgetary causes or because you lease, there are nonetheless strategies you could affordably substitute your counter tops.

For help, we turned to dwelling lifestyle skilled Julian Thomas. Perhaps you already know him as Marfa Stewart on TikTok, or have seen his DIY duties pop up in your Instagram feed.

He spilled 5 strategies to switch earlier laminate with out spending a paycheck or two. Be taught on for his good ideas.

Wrap Them in Contact Paper

As a former proprietor of laminate counter tops, Thomas can talk from experience as regards to making use of self-adhering contact paper. He calls it most likely the best DIY picks he has ever made.

“Whereas certain, making use of an unlimited sticker to an enormous ground house can seem daunting, the laborious work and persistence is worth it,” he says.

Contact paper is a breeze to remove and could also be current in practically any color and pattern, so you could coordinate with cabinets or change it out when the inspiration strikes (or when your lease it up).

Sooner than scouring the large subject retailers for selections, though, Thomas recommends trying Etsy for designs, as they generally tend to provide additional on-trend selections. His current favorite is that this terrazzo pattern.

“If you’re at it, now would even be a superb time to vary out cabinet or drawer knobs and pulls for an actual kitchen enhance,” Thomas says.

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Paint Them

“The ultimate phrase technique to disguise ugly laminate counter tops”—that’s how Thomas describes the fairly priced alternative of painting.

He recommends looking Pinterest or TikTok for tutorials, then visiting your native dwelling enchancment retailer for a paint package deal dedicated to DIY-ing a painted countertop. It’s possible you’ll even create a faux-marble finish with paint.

Painting laminate counter tops comes with an unlimited warning though: not solely is paint eternal (not like peel-and-stick contact paper), nevertheless the course of may be very technical. You’ll moreover need to use a food-safe sealant to guard every you and the counter tops from undesirable provides.

“It’s essential to watch instructions to ensure the meals safety of your counter tops, and to keep up them shielded from the inevitable mess accustomed to kitchens,” Thomas says.

Excessive Them With Butcher Blocks

Whereas contact paper and paint every require devices and some prior DIY know-how, there are options for updating your laminate counter tops even in case you’re a lot much less assured with a mission.

Try topping them with butcher blocks, as an illustration. Merely provide butcher blocks that are broad adequate to cowl an unlimited portion of your counter tops.

“Butcher blocks will be present in all types of sizes and kinds, and are often not solely fashionable nevertheless sensible,” Thomas says. “Together with butcher blocks, I’d moreover take into consideration together with a spread cowl which can current continuity of the butcher block.”

Clear Them

Relying in your circumstances—perhaps you’re renting—the alternatives listed above might be not accessible to you. In that case, it is potential you will as properly embrace the counter tops you already have.

“When opting to stick with laminate counter tops, I prefer to suggest preserving them clear and well-organized,” Thomas says. “Typically your best option for a DIY enhance is the one which requires the least amount of effort.”

First, ensure that all storage choices coordinate with each other to supply continuity. This, Thomas says, is a design trick which will merely enhance even primarily essentially the most mundane areas.

Countertop space is efficacious precise property inside the kitchen, and preserving them filled with cooking requirements makes primarily essentially the most smart sense, significantly when house for storing is proscribed.

“I’m an unlimited advocate for maximizing the storage potential of various kitchen surfaces aside from counter tops,” Thomas says.

Add a Feather Finish for Faux Concrete Counter tops

Thomas saves this suggestion—together with a feather finish for a concrete-like look—for remaining for a trigger. It’s primarily essentially the most dedication, and by no means for the DIY shy, he admits.

“Exact concrete counter tops are very fashionable, however moreover robust to DIY, though it is potential,” Thomas says.

Instead, utilizing a feather finish creates the graceful look of concrete, no renovation compulsory.