Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In the summer of 2013, we first used Rustoleum Countertop Transformations to update our kitchen counters. After three years I can truly say I am very happy with this product and the counters have held up extremely well. I’ve seen no signs of wear or chipping and have had two friends use this product in their kitchens after seeing how well it worked for me. The counters are easy to clean and don’t stain. Numerous people have complimented on how good they look and can’t believe they’re “painted”. Rustoleum’s manual and video tutorials are quite good. Read them carefully. Watch the video. And follow the instructions. I've actually done the application twice on our kitchen island due to damage from a small fire (side note - they also seem reasonably flame retardant). I learned a few things along the way. Here are the top three things you should know to get a good finish that you won’t find in the manual. 1 - Mask off the walls really well! A lot of people ask me if this project is hard. It’s not hard. You don’t need special artistic skills, but it is messy. The decorative color chips go everywhere. If they don’t, you’re not using enough and it probably won’t look as nice. The first time we did this, we masked off the cabinets and floor to avoid paint drips but didn’t worry much about stray chips hitting the walls. I figured they’d brush off easily. That was not entirely true. While you can pick them off one by one, they tend to stick to walls. I ended up repainting much of the kitchen and made sure to prep more thoroughly when doing the second application to repair the fire damage. 2 - DO use a power sander. Rustoleum says not to, but it makes it so much easier. We used an electric sander for the initial laminate sanding and for grinding down the color chips. It makes the job so much quicker and yields a smoother finish, which in turn gives you a more stone-like, high-quality look. I’d recommend hand sanding the edges, but as long as you’re careful not to sand too hard, you’ll be just fine using an electric sander for the flat surfaces. 3 - Schedule for lighting. The first time we did this it was about 10pm by the time we were ready to apply the protective top coat. Since it’s clear, it’s difficult to see exactly how evenly it’s applied. We were scrambling to find all the lamps we could to see well enough to get an even finish. When we were fixing the island, we made sure to schedule our project so we could apply the top coat with the help of natural sunlight. It was much easier. I uploaded a few pictures so you can see the results. All of these are from more than three years after we initially applied it.