Prepping Meant for A Corian Counter Installation

We were feeling a little less than pumped about how unfinished our “new,” tile-ready walls were looking…

… mostly because we found ourselves staring at that mismatched unpainted paneling (shudder) and those ugly unpainted/stained/gross parts of the ceiling that were exposed when we took out the upper cabinets.

So what’d we do? Why we got a-paintin’ of course!

The paneling took two coats of primer and two coats of paint (simply to be safe). And the ceiling took… well, more coats of primer and paint than I care to share (I lost count, in fact – perhaps five or six?). Since some of it was totally unpainted and other areas were stained, we simply hoped to be extra sure it looked seamless with the rest of the ceiling when we were done. Thankfully, after plenty o’ coats of Kilz CleanStart primer (it is no-VOC) and the ceiling paint that the previous owners left us in the basement… it all matched in the end. Can I get a whew?

The effect was much improved kinda-sorta improved. I mean it is still a quite raw space. But once we get the new counters installed (we hope to share photos of that shebang tomorrow!), get molding back around the window, add some backsplash tile, redo the lighting, paint those cabinets, and lay our cork floors, things should look a lot more polished. So we are glad to be inching ever so slowly towards the finish line.

The last thing we had to do before the whole counter installation was add those darn support brackets that we mentioned back in this pre-Thanksgiving post. In short we learned from the counter template guy that any overhang over 10″ needed some support (our peninsula will have a 12″ overhang on two sides). We could’ve paid $300 to have the Corian reinforced, but the guy also mentioned a cheaper Hands-on option. It is like he knew us.

So we picked up six 10″ steel brackets in the hardware aisle at Lowe’s and Sherry did her go-to thing (enter spray paint, stage right). At $6 a piece it came to $36, which is not free, but sure beats 300 big ones.

Once they were dry I brought them in, along with some scrap pieces of wood that I cut into 12″ sections. The template guy said we should not simply screw the (heavy) brackets into the cabinets alone, but instead should put some wood inside the cabinet to assist them hold pleasant and strong by drilling into that thicker wood surface hidden behind the cabinet.

So after measuring and marking my cabinets to make sure the brackets would be evenly spaced, I loosely hammered my scrap wood in place on the other side of the cabinet (if this is not making sense now, it will by the end of the post… hopefully).

To screw them in, I used another scrap piece of wood to act as my temporary counter so I was sure to place them at the right height (to be sure they would carry the load of the overhang without being too high or too low). Then I secured the bracket with three screws.

Here is how it was looking after I secured the first three brackets in place. Of course, once the counters arrive we will also screw them into the Corian from below (Corian has wood reinforcement stuff to screw into underneath it whenever it is manufactured for an overhang).

And although once the counters are installed and the cabinets are all painted white the brackets will barely be visible, we are still thinking that we will add some shaker-style panels to dress up the back (and side?) of the peninsula. That way those will add some detailing and also allow us to fully hide the brackets behind some panel trim (by routing out the back of it and laying it over the brackets to conceal them). Hopefully it’ll be a lively challenge. I will keep you posted on that when we get to that step.

So here is the kitchen in its counter-ready state. Oh, perhaps you will notice that we also primed a stripe of the refrigerator surround right where it meets the counter:

We did not want to prime and paint the cabinets before our impending counter installation (when our granite counters got installed in our first house, the white cabinets required plenty of touch ups due to tons of scraping and shoving to get the heavy, tight fitting counters in place). So we’d rather simply cover the counters and paint stuff afterward. But we thought that little stripe of primer applied beforehand would make it easier to paint right up to the edge of the counters without leaving a sliver of wood peeking through (now if there is a compact gap between the paint and the counters, it’ll be white and not brown, so it should blend right in).

It is looking somewhat like a kitchen, right? Oh but of course ignore the wood chairs (they are not counter height or the right color so they are simply place-holders for now).

In keeping-it-real news, the kitchen is in fact looking more like this:

Of course, as parents when we saw those exposed brackets our “Toddler Impalement Device!” alarms went off, but thanks to some leftover cabinet shelves, we fashioned a dummy counter to make the edges more visible to Clara (and her sometimes clumsy parents). Having the chairs there certainly helps too.

Perhaps we should simply cancel our Corian order and learn to enjoy these?

Yeah, or not. So excited that our next update for you folks should be INSTALLED COUNTERS. Hopefully tomorrow morning. Woot!

Oh how joyfully we will use the sink (my have we missed it!). Merry Countermas to us! We in fact have a working fridge, stove, and dishwasher so we are still able to cook at home (thank goodness) but washing the not-dishwasher-safe-stuff in the bathroom sink/tub is annoying. Is there anything you folks are anxiously awaiting? Have you done any ceiling priming & painting lately? Did you lose count of the coats. Oh man, it feels good to be done, does not it?

Psst- We have listed our old granite counters on craigslist for anyone who is interested. You can find more info on them here.