WHAT ARE MY BUDGET COUNTERTOP OPTIONS?

When we did our kitchen renovation, budget was a huge factor…as it would be for most people! We couldn’t splurge on everything so we chose wisely. Laminate flooring and Ikea kitchen cabinets combined with a quartz countertop and higher-end lighting. It all worked out just within budget in the end, but I do remember the countertop being a huge decision.

We researched lots of different countertop ideas to try and find a cheaper alternative, but in the end we had to go with quartz. We wanted something long lasting, high quality (remember Trevor bakes and cooks A LOT!) and most importantly, it was the only product that would cover the island in one piece. For reference, our island is 1.2m wide and 3m long. I’ll tell you later where we bought the quartz, as it saved us a ton of money!

Laminate

The most popular budget countertop is, of course, laminate. There are some fantastic quality laminates available and I love the huge choice! Our budget countertop in the utility room above is my favourite – it’s a concrete effect laminate from Ikea. In the kitchen, the main issue for us, was the depth of the laminate was restricted to 60cm.

Painting Old Countertops

One of the easiest budget friendly ideas is to paint over old countertop and give them a new lease of life? Make sure you use a high quality durable paint. I know The Paint Hub have a countertop kit with everything you need, including their recommended Beyond Paint. They also sell flecks, which you can scatter over your newly painted countertop before you seal it. Check out this video of the Fix It channel which shows the above countertop painted using Beyond Paint.

Epoxy Coating

Did you know there are companies that will come into your home and pour an epoxy resin over your old countertop? It can completely transform your countertop and even your backsplash if you wanted, like above. Metallic Epoxy Coatings is one such company in Ireland.

DIY Concrete Countertops

There are couple of ways to DIY concrete countertops. The first, like in the photo above, is to create a solid concrete countertop from scratch. Chris Loves Julia has a tutorial here. You can also ‘paint’ on layers of concrete onto your existing countertop. A Beautiful Mess has a tutorial for that right here. And finally, I’ve come across a paste to apply that dries likes concrete. I haven’t seen the finished product, but it looks like a good alternative.

Scaffold Boards Countertop

Simply The Nest has a tutorial here to show how she made this budget countertop using scaffolding boards. A great solution if you’re looking a rustic style!

Hollow Quartz Looking Countertop

I was really excited when I found this Maxtop Countertop. It’s a countertop that looks like solid quartz, but if you cut it through the middle, the inside is a different material. It’s much cheaper than a quartz countertop and I was absolutely about to buy it, when I realised our island was too wide. The widest this product comes in is 90cm. I saw this product in a few different kitchen installation shops, so worth a quick google or asking around if you’re interested.

Our Own Quartz Countertops

Under no circumstances would I say that quartz is a budget countertop, but I will say that you can get great deals by getting quotes from all over the country. We live in Cork, yet ended up getting our countertops from Tile Merchant, a company in Dublin. They came down to measure and again, of course, to fit, yet it still came in as almost half the price of the quote I got from our nearest quartz specialist! I’ll say that again…we saved THOUSANDS!!

I did have to travel to Dublin to pick it out, but it was so much fun to walk around the warehouse (see above) and look at all the stone. There were some amazing pieces!!! Most countertops are sold by the whole piece you see here. But I learned that, it was cheaper to choose a counter that was sold per square metre. There were only certain countertops that were sold this way and we were lucky that I loved one of them immediately. It was an easy decision…that almost never happens!