DIY Kitchen Countertop ideas

Gathering ideas for your kitchen countertops? We can help you find the right countertops for you with the best ideas, tips, and hacks that Hometalk has to offer. Check out our top, new, and best kitchen countertop projects, as well as our DIY video tutorials, and discussion boards. We can't wait to see what you create!

DIY Granite Countertop Makeover

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Countertop Ideas for Kitchens

Choose a suitable material: You can choose from many different materials. Granite, tile, and wood are a few of the options suitable for varying uses and types of kitchen.
Combine the countertop and walls: Consider the rest of your kitchen décor when choosing a countertop. The best color is one that works well with the cabinets and walls.
Take the grout color into account: You might be surprised at the difference that the grout color makes. Do you want it to stand out or to blend in perfectly with the tiles?
Pick a color that you love: Choose from a huge variety of colors for countertops. There is no need to stick to plain colors, as patterned or veined models look fantastic.
Think about mixing materials: You don’t need to use only one material or color. Try a contrasting look in different parts of the room if it is a big kitchen.

More Kitchen & Dining Ideas

Top Projects for Kitchen & Dining Room Countertops

You'll find our top DIY kitchen countertop projects here. Check them out.

DIY Granite Countertop Makeover

We were looking for a cost-effective way to make our old outdated countertops look new without spending a whole lot of money.Using the Giani Granite Countertop Kit, we did just that!

TaKenya Hampton

Real Looking Faux Marble Countertop Update

I gave my shabby counters a beautiful realistic faux marble update.

Jennifer | simpleprairielife

DIY Marble Countertops

I have been eyeing this DIY marble counter top kit for quite some time now. I finally had some time to get around to doing this and so, so happy that I did!Things to remember -This is not going to be perfect. There are several minor imperfections throughout my counters. Some spots the epoxy isn't even, there are a couple small hairs I misses before the epoxy hardened, but overall it is a million times better than what it was and I could not be happier!This project does take several days to complete. There is a lot of drying time involved. It can be a pain in the butt to not have the use of your counters for upwards of a week. my kitchen had the appliances pulled out from their spots for a couple days. You just have to make do for the time being.

Ashleigh Sommer

Upgrade Your Kitchen Counters On a Budget - Faux Stone

When we bought our house right after we were married, I knew this wasn't my "forever home". Our builder grade starter home has served us well for many years now, but I have grown tired of the boring, outdated looks in each and every room! So, if you have followed along with any of my transformations, you know I am tackling my home one room at a time!The latest project room has ended up being the kitchen. While eventually I would absolutely LOVE to just gut the entire thing and shift up the main living area floor plan - I don't have the money for that right now. So, I have set out to do a small refresh. The list of projects includes replacing the sink, fixing up the counter tops, adding a back splash, painting the cabinets and replacing the cabinet hardware. We did a sink swap in one day with an easy to install drop in farmhouse sink that was a fraction of the cost of most farmhouse sinks. Next up, I took on the kitchen counters! They were not my favorite - they were this weirdly colored Formica, shown below.

Michelle | breakingdownthebox

DIY Concrete Countertop Overlay!

Here it is! The post on our Cement Countertop Overlay project. It's been about five months, so I can tell you the good, the great and the really annoying stuff about it!

Creatively Living

Broken DVD Countertop, a Labor of Love

Well, hubby and I have modern industrial and somewhat retro tastes. We've been in the process of remodeling our kitchen and while working on a hydraulic shelf that will come down from the ceiling, hubby took a break and started watching some videos. He saw a gorgeous floor done with pennies and showed it to me. Although I loved it, it wasn't feasible for our mobile home. I remembered seeing a video of a table someone made with CDS and after a Google search, found it and showed it to hubby. HE LOVED IT! We decided to go with it for a portion of our countertop and it turned out better than what we ever expected. Below is the picture of our strange little kitchen after we took out some cabinets. The long counter in the bottom of the picture is what we decided to cover with the discs.

Cat Shaw

Butcher Block Look-A-Like Countertops for UNDER $100!

Using lumber, create a great wood kitchen or bathroom countertop for a FRACTION of the cost of other countertop materials!

Tootie Trouy

Marble Countertop Hack: How to Tile Over Laminate Countertop

I've always had big dreams of walking into this massive kitchen, the size of my living room, with these gorgeous carrara marble countertops. Marble countertops are about as classic and luxurious as it gets in my eyes. Unfortunately, I haven't won the lottery yet so I had to improvise and work withing my budget and my space. Here is how I transformed the old dated and dingy laminate countertops in my kitchen to marble countertops.

ToolBox Divas

Concrete Counters/feather Finish Over Formica! "My Version!"

Edit/update!!! So my mother in law contacted me the other day, to tell me how well her counters are holding up! Since I’m sure many of you are curious (I was also curious... and frankly scared to hear!! LOL) I asked her to take some photos of them, six months after we finished! Scroll down to the end for the updated photos!! They look amazing!!! I’m so happy to report this wonderful news!!!! Since using the feather finish on my dining table, I have wanted to try counter tops. Ours are granite, so I had to find someone with Formica or something that would look better, covered up! My in-laws purchased a new home and guess what? Formica counter-tops! Perfect! So....here we go! This transformation was done in less than 24 hours and it's AMAZING! I admit, after reading tutorials and watching instructional video after video, I was nervous... but this was probably the easiest project I have done to date, with the most gratifying, drastic result!

Jessica Hoffman

DIY Granite Countertop Makeover

We were looking for a cost-effective way to make our old outdated countertops look new without spending a whole lot of money.Using the Giani Granite Countertop Kit, we did just that!

TaKenya Hampton

Real Looking Faux Marble Countertop Update

I gave my shabby counters a beautiful realistic faux marble update.

Jennifer | simpleprairielife

DIY Marble Countertops

Ashleigh Sommer

Upgrade Your Kitchen Counters On a Budget - Faux Stone

Michelle | breakingdownthebox

DIY Concrete Countertop Overlay!

Here it is! The post on our Cement Countertop Overlay project. It's been about five months, so I can tell you the good, the great and the really annoying stuff about it!

Creatively Living

Broken DVD Countertop, a Labor of Love

Cat Shaw

Butcher Block Look-A-Like Countertops for UNDER $100!

Using lumber, create a great wood kitchen or bathroom countertop for a FRACTION of the cost of other countertop materials!

Tootie Trouy

Marble Countertop Hack: How to Tile Over Laminate Countertop

ToolBox Divas

Concrete Counters/feather Finish Over Formica! "My Version!"

Jessica Hoffman

Kitchen & Dining Room Countertops Videos

Here is a collection of DIY video tutorials on kitchen countertops.

Copper Countertops Under 20$ What????

A little about me: I am a DIYer who goes out of my way to use items I already have when I make projects over. For instance, this project cost ME about $16 total to do. However to buy all of the products for this (listed below) it might cost between 50-60$. (Still a bargain) Three of the 4 squares in this picture are real copper countertops, gorgeous, shiny, and expensive. However one of these squares is MY copper countertop. Which is also gorgeous, shiny, but cost less than $20 and as it turns out, is made of concrete.

Madison McGahan

How to Make a Kitchen Island With a Concrete CounterTop, START-FINISH

In this video series we start by making the kitchen Island with left over flooring that we had left from when we built or house in May of 2015. The other BIG INSPIRATION for the kitchen Island was the weathered corbels that we found at a local antique shop. Once we had those items the rest of the project fell right into place.

Lumnah Acres

Install A Kitchen Countertop (Without Removing The Old One)

This is a relatively simple way to update a kitchen by adding a new timber benchtop, without the trouble of removing the old one.

Robin Lewis

Painting Laminate Countertops To Look Like Wood

Painting Laminate Countertops To Look Like Wood: The Easy & Affordable Way!Update old & boring countertops to look & feel like real wood using Retique It Wood’ N Finish Countertop KitThis project is sponsored by Retique ItAhh the kitchen…It’s the space where we spend most of our time, eating, talking, & currently renovating.

Lia with Southern Yankee DIY

Hometalkers' Favorite DIY Kitchen & Dining Room Countertop Projects

Our round-up of the best DIY kitchen countertop projects. Get started.

Changing up an Orange Formica Countertop With Concrete

We bought an older home we planned to use as a rental property. Charming as some of the features in the house are it was also tired and old. We decided to make a few cosmetic updates before renting. We started in the kitchen with painting the cabinets and then moved onto the countertops. I wanted to try a concrete skim coat I had seen on Pinterest. So, as usual, I jumped in.

Libbie B

Easy DIY Concrete Counters: The Missing Link.

When choosing counter tops for our new kitchen, I'll be honest: CHEAP was the #1 priority. So Ardex was the clear winner. But there was one problem with all those concrete skim-coating tutorials out there: they assumed you had an EXISTING counter. What do you do when there's nothing to spread the Ardex on? I'll show you how we built our counter tops from scratch, and spent less than $150 on the whole project.

Sarah's Big Idea

How to Turn Your Tile Counter Top in to Faux Sandstone Without Removal

Oh how I hated this counter top! The previous owner had tiled it in white (and did a "not so great" job of tiling) and used GREEN grout! Why green you ask? I have NO clue! But none the less, it had to go! As did those icky green tiles in the back splash. But I didn't want to replace the tile so I opted for a DIY make over instead!

Victoria Larsen Stencils

Make Your Own Beautiful Wood Countertops for Under $200!

Want new counters, but can't spend thousands of dollars on natural stone? I'm going to show you how to make your own wood countertops for pennies on the dollar. They are gorgeous, warm and surprisingly durable!

OnBlissStreet

How To Paint Your Counters

I recently used some primer and craft paint to transform my plain, old counters to resemble faux stone! I am so happy with my new look and it was so much cheaper than buying new! Visit my blog post for more pictures and in depth tutorial on how you can do this too!

Days of Chalk and Chocolate

Kitchen Counter Makeover

If you have a countertop in your bath, kitchen, or laundry room that needs to be replaced but you can't afford it. This easy, affordable treatment is done with Rustoleum Hammered Finish Enamel Paint and polyurethane and it can get you through until you can replace them with new countertops. This particular countertop is tile with grout that is impossible to keep clean and not very sanitary for the kitchen. *Make sure you know what type of paint is okay to use in your kitchen, according to your state's code. Some states only allow certain types of paint to be used. If you have to use a latex paint, it can still work but you will really need to seal it well with several coats of a good, strong, clear sealer so that it won't peel away over time. You may also need to do more frequent touch-ups with this type of paint.

The Redesign Habit

Make Your Own Beautiful Wood Countertops for Under $200!

OnBlissStreet

How To Paint Your Counters

Days of Chalk and Chocolate

Kitchen Counter Makeover

The Redesign Habit

Popular Kitchen & Dining Room Countertop Discussions

You've found the popular discussions on how to create kitchen countertops yourself.

How can I make my laminate countertops a waterfall edge from a square

/> Thomas Ellis

This may be confusing but my wife wants to paint our laminate counter tops to look like granite since I won't buy her real ones. But right now our laminate countertops edges are made of tile. (So laminate on top and ugly blue tile edges). I plan on removing the tile and putting laminate where the tile once was but she wants the waterfall edge to it look even more like granite. It's square right now and I'm just wondering if I should sand it and then put laminate on the edges and if so.... Then how do you put laminate on waterfall edges? I know this is really confusing. Sorry if you don't know what a waterfall edge is. It's round at the top and square at the bottom

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Rough edges on granite counter tops.

/> Sue Hopkins

The edges of our granite counter tops are very rough. Is there any way to smooth them out as they are ruining my jerseys by wearing holes through them. Thank you.

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New Kitchen & Dining Room Countertops Projects

Looking for the new kitchen countertop projects that are trending right now? Enjoy.

5 Tips For Covering Countertops With Contact Paper Style Adhesive Line

My top tips for applying an adhesive countertop cover to makeover your outdated counters on a tight budget.My Studio kitchenette project is underway, and the first project I needed to knock out was updating the pink countertops. Truth be told, I love the pink counters. I painted them myself and was really proud of how durable they were. But now that we are remodeling the rest of the Studio and my husband’s collection’s room (basically a man cave, but he doesn’t like that term), the pink counters just looked out of place.

Lela Burris

DIY Concrete Countertops

Ahh the inevitable kitchen countertop project… We always knew the laminate would need to be updated but as with everything, our taste was bigger than our budget. Quartz, marble, and granite would have cost us thousands of dollars so we briefly considered a newer laminate. Ultimately we couldn’t get past the idea of wanting real stone if we were going to invest in this update. After lots of research, we landed on DIY concrete countertops. This gave us all the benefits of a stone but with the more reasonable price tag of a manufactured material! This project came in around $1500 for 40 square feet and they look incredible!What makes this renovation so DIY friendly is the system from Z Counterform ( that allows you to pour in place. We wouldn’t have been able to lift heavy concrete slabs into place. The Square Edge Z forms allowed us to mold them custom to our kitchen. Even better… they offer a WHITE concrete product!