We recently purchased a new to us home, and although there are many things we love about the home, the kitchen wasn’t quite our style. In addition to that, the kitchen color scheme didn’t flow well with the rest of the home. The previous owners had painted most of the interior white and light gray, very light and airy colors, while the kitchen remained very dark and mostly brown.

When we put in our offer, my husband and I had right away talked about changing the kitchen and upon moving in had a company over to discuss replacing the countertops. Having built a few custom homes we had an idea on what the price would be for our space and after being given a quote and determining other changes we wanted to make throughout our home, we decided it wasn’t an area we wanted to allocate that much money to at the moment.

I came across multiple video reviews on TikTok and Instagram of others in a similar position that were using a countertop marble kit to change their countertops for a small fraction of the cost of replacing. At this point I knew we would be replacing within the next few years anyway so figured we had nothing to lose, and potentially a whole lot to gain, by trying it.

After plenty of research and reading every review I could find, we decided to go for it! This is the kit I used. It was about $170 and I ordered it on Amazon. Due to the amount of space we were covering and that our previous counters were very dark, I ended up ordering another can of the first step “#1” (about $30) to ensure full coverage.

We watched the manufacturer’s video tutorial and followed the instructions provided to a T. We had zero DIY experience and found this to be simple with a low level of difficulty. The kit even comes with all of the brushes and tools needed to complete the project.

After one coat⬇️

I will admit after one coat it looked quite scary! We ended up needing four coats to fully cover the dark granite.

I think the hardest part was hand drawing on the gray marbling. I first sketched my desired design out on paper to get an idea of how it would flow from one counter spot to the next. The directions provided in the Giani video were very helpful for this as well. If you mess up you can quickly wipe away the marbling lines and start over which made the process much less stressful (though you have to be sure to wipe up your mistakes FAST)!

We waited the full suggested time before setting anything on top of the counters afterwards to allow it to fully cure, and have had zero issues with it so far. We do plan to do a full replacement and switch them out for quartz down the road but for now we are so happy with the change, and it only cost us about $200!

Stay tuned because our next project will be painting the cabinets!

We recently bought a new home and after personally designing our previous two closets and seeing how life changing efficient shelving can be, I decided my first home project here would be to reconfigure the closet. We didn’t take out or add any walls, new flooring or anything crazy, just simply painted the walls and installed new shelving. When I say it’s made a world of a difference for us, it really has!

If you have ever looked into a closet system you know how incredibly expensive they can get. Having a closet company come to your home and professionally design the space for you can be in the thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. We were not looking to spend much but wanted to better utilize our space and make it aesthetically more appealing too. Our closet has a wall in the middle spanning across about 80% of the width, separating the “his” and the “hers” side; you’ll see the “hers” side in these transformation photos.

When we first moved in the closet had wire shelving in place and the closet paint color was inconsistent as shown above. I decided to paint all of the walls white to have a consistent slate to start with before installing new shelving.

I also took a moment to change out the closet light switch plate. The rest of the covers throughout our home had already been changed to white but this one must have been forgotten and I wanted a consistent look throughout the house. Plus a white light switch cover looked much better with the white painted walls!

I purchased two of these shoe organizers as well as this closet tower kit. I like how the tower kit includes adjustable shelving; I use these shelves to keep my jewelry, purses and sunglasses organized.

We have been very happy with the transformation and the install was simple. A drill and tape measure (plus a step stool!) was all I needed. All of the hardware needed to secure the tower to the wall is included in the kit. I think the closet looks much nicer after the changes and it definitely keep clothing, shoes and accessories much more organized. The cost for the shelving and shoe organizers came to about $200 and the paint was another $20. I would love to eventually add a large white shelf above the top of the rods, spanning the entire width of the closet, for additional storage space.

What do you think? Could your closet use an update? Have you tried something similar that has worked well for you? I’d love to hear about it!