Giani Granite Paint Kit Giveaway!

by Lisa Martin
February 26, 2011
General

This giveaway is now over. The winner is jennifer b. Congrats!

I hate my kitchen. I will admit that I have a ginormous sized kitchen. However, the layout sucks. My cupboards suck (you have to turn the plates sideways to get them in because they are so small). I also have no counter space. What you can’t see in this picture is the stains, the cracks, or how old this counter is. Seriously, it’s bad. That is why I agreed to try out the Giani Granite Paint Kit.

The first advice I have for you when you get your kit is to make sure you have the right color. I didn’t and was half into the project before I realized it. (The odd thing is that the color we got looks better in our kitchen than if I would have gotten the color I picked. I’m thinking fate intervened on this one.) Secondly, read the directions. Third, watch the video. The more times the better.

For me, this was a nerve wracking project. I was terrified that we were going to screw this up. And we did. 🙂 However, I’m going to tell you how to do this project, what we messed up, and how Giani rescued our project.

First, you need to clean your counters, put up your painters tape (I recommend at least 2 levels of tape. We did one and ended up having to fix our walls now, because my husband wasn’t as careful as I was), and then put the primer down. This has to dry 8 hours, so I did it on a Friday night. I’ll be honest, the primer coat does look good. We did talk about just leaving it as that, but then opted to finish the project.

The next part is to add the paint to make the counters look like granite. Now, if you start getting a look like you see to the left, you are NOT doing it correctly. What Bill and I figured out is: 1. we used way too much paint and 2. if you are using the bombay black kit, do not mix the paint colors on the same plate. The black overtook the white and left us with a black scaly counter. I was not happy and freaking out. Bill, on the other hand, like it. LOL.

At this point, I searched their website to what we were going to do. I had no idea how to fix this. This is where Giani impressed me. Not only do they have a customer service number to call during business hours, they have an after hours call center. The person who helped me out was the Vice President of Sales. Not only did he tell me how to fix our problem, he also called back several hours later to find out how things were going. For me, this went over and beyond the call of duty. There are very few companies out there that provide this kind of customer service and Giani is one who does (and I applaud them for it).

To get what we wanted, we took sandpaper and sanded the entire counter. This got rid of high spots. Next, we added the white paint again. Instead of mixing the colors, we let the white dry. (Now, our other option was to prime and start over. However, the Giani representative and I had discussed that by leaving what I had there aready, we may gain some more depth and color). After the white dried, we added the black paint. However, we used it sparingly. Now, if you are doing any other color but the black, follow the directions that came with your kit. However, with the Bombay Black, the black was such a strong color that it overtook everything. By following these steps, we ended up with a product we liked a whole lot better:

After you let that dry, you add the topcoat. The pictures below are our finished product:

Bill walks past our counters every day and comments how much he likes them. This is a guy who doesn’t comment on anything. I would definitely recommend trying out the Giani Granite Paint Kit if you hate your counters.

Since we love our final product, I have arranged for one of you to get your own Giani Granite Paint Kit! Here’s what you need to do:

MANDATORY ENTRY:

Head over to the Giani site and tell me what color you’d do on your counter or sink.

ADDITIONAL ENTRIES:

1. Twitter about this contest. You can do this daily — just leave me a comment letting me know.

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