White As Snow, Black As Ebony

Ann reporting.

Our black and white kitchen looked so beautiful except for the horrible old laminate countertops to say nothing of the big gaping space next to the refrigerator that I had covered with a board.  At least the board was useful and allowed me to use the space.

Old Laminate Counter Tops, Before

BUT we had all sorts of problems with obtaining new countertops.  Everyone we talked with wanted to install granite.  Granite was not in our vision.  We wanted black quartz!  Nothing doing though.  We even called the manufacturer of one type that we would have loved, however, after talking with a representative - we found that no one in this part of the world stocked the product.  What to do?  After a lot of thought, we came up with the most awesome and affordable solution.  We decided to go with a stained and finished butcher block.  After all, we did know where to obtain butcher block and how to install it, right?  The Ikea butcher block we used for the island had turned out perfectly.

 New Ikea Butcher Block Counter Tops

How did we get from the stacked boards in this picture to the beautiful black countertops we wanted?  It took a lot of elbow grease, sweat equity, and hard labor but the results were certainly worth it. 

Freshly Installed Finished Counter Top

First we cut everything to fit including the cutout for the new sink.  Then we sanded and sanded and sanded!  We followed that up with a coat of sanding sealer and the fun really began.  I used three coats of Minwax Black Satin Stain and Poly.  I did one coat each day. I rubbed the tops with 00 steel wool between coats.  

Right Side Finished Counter, With Tile Backsplash

Despite all my care and caution and using very good brushes, there were still brush stroke showing in the finish.  I, personally, think this was due to the length of the counters - certainly not the fault of the painter.  So once again, we're back to sanding to remove the brush strokes.  Once, the super sanding was complete, we had the beautiful color we wanted but not a good finish. 

Left Side Finished Counter, With Tile Backsplash

  
Minwax Rub On Poly came to the rescue.  We did a test board to make sure this would work out the way we wanted.  It did!  So, we installed the countertops before applying three coats of Minwax Rub On Poly.  Again, rubbing with 00 steel wool between coats is mandatory.  They look wonderful thus fulfilling our vision for the kitchen.

Our next kitchen blog post should be the last one we write about the kitchen.  We can give you the big reveal and show the whole finished space.

Keep Reading!
Ann