Hi y’all, it’s Whitney of Whitney J Décor, and today I’m sharing my favorite project yet, because it involves my favorite thing to do: makeover rooms! Being an Interior Designer, I put a lot of pressure on my home to be beautiful, so DIY projects are set to higher standards. I’m happy to say that this bar top project is both high-quality and great looking!
We bought our home in March and haven’t had much time to do any updating, except remodeling our kitchen. Our home is really dated, so it’ll take more time than usual to get our home to where I want it. Now that the kitchen is done, we’re moving on to our living room/bar area. Our bar is massive and has this brown stone tile (that I hate) for the bar top that I would have loved to replace when we replaced our kitchen countertops.
So, because I’m stuck with the stone tile counters on the bar, I decided to paint them a dark color. But, I knew I wouldn’t want to stop there, because our bar top is literally the hub of our home. We serve food there, mix drinks there, drop our purses and wallets there, and basically leave stuff there that we know we need to find the next day (or the next week, don’t judge us, LOL). All this high-traffic means that JUST paint wouldn’t cut it. I knew I needed a high-quality surface that’ll sustain the wear and tear.
EnviroTex Lite was the perfect product to use to coat over the paint and give our bar top a durable, high-gloss, glassy look that we love. I was so intimidated to start on this project, but after I got started, it was so fun and wasn’t hard at all.
If you have a bar top (or a table) that needs a new look, you’ll love this project! Just follow these instructions.
High-Gloss Charcoal Gray Bar Top Makeover with EnviroTex Lite
Supplies Needed:
- EnviroTex Lite
- Plastic drop cloths
- Gloves
- Protective eyewear
- Graduated mixing buckets
- Stir sticks
- Disposable paint brush
- Small handheld butane torch or barbeque lighter
- Flat piece of cardboard
- Supplies for painting your top (optional) (primer, latex paint, and paint brushes/rollers)
Directions:
Paint the bar top
I painted our bar top first, because I really wanted to get rid of the look of the ugly stone and I wanted a dark color on the top, since I’ll be painting the brick white soon.
First, I started by cleaning the stone tile with some hot soapy water. Then. I primed the stone tile first (two coats), then used one coat of a dark charcoal paint. I let it completely dry before coating the bar top with the EnviroTex Lite.
To coat your bar top (or table top)
- Protect your floor and surrounding areas with plastic drop cloths. Initially, I used a combination of plastic drop cloths AND cloth drop cloths. The EnviroTex Lite went straight through the cloths and stuck to my BRAND NEW floors! It took a lot of strength to pull it off the floors. Don’t be like me… use the plastic drop cloths only.
- Put on gloves and protective eyewear.
- Clean your surface. If you didn’t have to paint your surface, now is the time to clean your bar top or table with some hot soapy water.
- Measure one part of the resin and one part of hardener of the EnviroTex Lite. Using your graduated buckets, measure equal parts of one part of the resin and one part of hardener (by volume, not weight). Don’t try to just pour out the entire contents of part A & part B and expect each of them to be the same volume. You need to measure! Our bar top is huge, so I ended up using two 32 oz kits of EnviroTex Lite.
- Pour the two mixtures together and mix for a full two minutes. Using large stir sticks (I use the wood paint sticks that you get from the paint store), mix the components together and stir for an entire two minutes, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the container.
- Transfer mixture into another container and stir for another minute. Transfer your mixture into a second container, and using a new stir stick, stir the contents for another minute.
- Pour the mixture right away. Don’t wait! After mixing, pour your mixture directly over your surface immediately. Make sure to pour your mixture in an even pattern over the surface. Spread your mixture around as needed with a flat piece of cardboard.
- Using your disposable brush, brush the bottom edges of the surface you’re coating. You’ll need to do this often, until the mixture hardens enough not to “sag”.
- Remove bubbles. For some reason, this part was really fun for me. Using a small butane torch or barbeque lighter, slide the flame around the bar top where you see bubbles, until they’re removed. I got rid of most bubbles then, but went back for a second round about 10 minutes later.
- Let cure. Let your bar top (or table) cure for 36-72 hours. Protect the surface by elevating plastic drop cloths over the bar top. We went out of town for a few days, so our bar top cured for a whole 4 days. It’s completely hard and beautiful! And, we only did it in one coat
So, what do you think? Are you ready to start your own large EnviroTex Lite project?
Whitney is a New Orleans based decorator blogging about all things home. She loves to sew and create fabulous pillows and other furnishings. When Whitney’s not working on design projects, she’s reading sci-fi novels, working in her garden, or making updates in her new home.
I love how this turned out.. i appreciate the fact you gave step by step instructions.. which would be very helpful.. enjoy your new counter top
I’m so glad you found this tutorial useful, Jamala. Thank you!! I am loving my bar makeover!