there can be only one…
Click this link to see our Counter Top Slideshow and Gallery on Flickr. It has more photos than the blog entries here, and shows the good, bad and ugly.
If you have a question about our experience with Skimstone, please reply to this post and we’ll answer as soon as we can. Thanks!
Applying the topcoat seemed easy, in theory. The topcoat is a milky white substance that comes in a bottle. You simply squirt it on the surface of the counter and then smooth it over evenly.
The Modern Masters instructions say to use an application cloth/pad like you would to finish a wood floor (I would assume to avoid things like lint, etc)… but we weren’t able to find anything like that at Lowes, Home Depot or Menards. What we did find was a foam paint applicator – it seemed like a good solution as it wasn’t too spongy and didn’t result in leaving lint behind.
We waited the eight hours between the final color coat and applying the top coat as instructed. We waited 1 hours between each coat of topcoat to apply the next.
The topcoat gave the counters a lovely and unexpected conditioned leather look. In the finished kitchen photos (to be posted in a later blog, we will try to capture this).
After being thrilled with the first coat of color, we went about applying the second coat. We let the first coat dry about two hours.
Again with the 8oz mocha – as I wanted a dark dark brown finish.
Second and Third Coats Ratio: 1 part untinted Component 1 Acrylic Solution to 1 part Component 3 Powder Mix. (1 quart per 1.4 pound jar.) Again, figure higher on the square footage a bit, and don’t forget to figure in the edges and the back splashes.
I got worried at this point that the painter’s tape wasn’t going to come off the wall, and I was right. We were over the 14-day clean remove on the packaging by about 7 days… not to mention the fact that we were putting concrete over the edge.
So, here’s where we got a very sharp utility knife and cut along the tape lines and removed all the tape in place. We also decided, at this point, to remove the floor coverings (which had dollops of concrete dried on them) and replace them with new drop cloths. This was a good idea as we have hardwood floors and the concrete could scratch easily.
I’m not much of a do-it-yourself er. I’ll admit that it’s partly because I’m lazy and partly because of a time crunch – but I’ll admit – I have big dreams of doing very cool stuff.
On a recent trip to Half Price Books, I was perusing the magazines area (the house and home area, to be exact) and came across two previous issues of ReadyMade magazine. I flipped through quickly, and subsequently snatched them up and brought them home.