While she admits people are often skeptical at first, the Willoughby Hills resident says painted Formica, sealed with polyurethane, is a durable and inexpensive way to redecorate.
Harbert is gearing up her seven-year-old interior design business, Michaela Sarah Fletcher Design, after taking time off for the birth of her second child—a set of twins, Matthew and Sarah.
She said her work rejuvenating counter tops is a great vehicle because it is effective and so much more inexpensive that the alternative—replacing the Formica altogether.
The counters in Harbert’s home were painted about four years ago and have not required any additional upkeep, she said.
“Because I faux finish, I can make them look like marble or granite or any particular finish they have in mind,” she said.
Kay Bukovec said she did not even bother to find out how much it would cost to replace her counters.
“It would have just involved so much work,” the Euclid resident said. Harbert finished painting a large, U-shaped kitchen counter in three days and later returned to paint a bathroom vanity. Bukovec was using her counters after a week of drying.
Her 30-year-old gold kitchen counter is now a light grey and beige marble and the black kitchen vanity in now light tan.
Harbert said she learned about the process by accident.
“I had been using these products on other pieces of furniture and if I splashed or dripped it wouldn’t come off,” she said.
Research into the products confirmed her inclination about the durability. She puts on primer—the key to any paint job—and then a single coat of color, whether it is marbled or solid, followed by three to four coats of polyurethane sealant for a kitchen and two coats for a bathroom.
The cost is about $14 per square foot.
Her first painted counter was for a Pepper Pike client who was having trouble selling a home with faded, decades-old red Formica counters.
“The counter tops were very, very high gloss red Formica and they looked so dated,” she said.
“I faux painted them to match the linoleum on the floor and they looked fabulous,” she added. Harbert said neutral décor is regularly mentioned as a key to selling a home and her services are often enlisted to that end. Harbert applies her faux finishes, which gives apparent texture where there is none, to walls and woodwork, tile and furniture.
“Anything that doesn’t move,” she said
She has painted murals of St. Andrews golf course and a seascape on the walls of a swimming pool.
To contact Michaela Harbert: www.countertoptransfauxmations.com
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