Affordable Stainless Steel Countertops; DIY

Submitted by The Home Project

Is it possible to get brand new, durable and modern looking counters for your kitchen without spending the kind of money that granite, quartz and butcherblock demand? If you’re willing to do some work
yourself, then it is and the answer is sheet metal: namely stainless steel, however you could probably do copper or zink instead if you prefer that look.

My husband and I were busy remodeling our kitchen and needed to consider the various options to replace the old Formica counters. We love a good project, so it didn’t hurt that we could do some of the
work ourselves. The possible materials we were considering included granite tile (larger tiles that would also match our floor) and butcherblock.

However soon enough, we came to think of stainless steel and figured it would be pretty awesome to have that for counters.  Home Depot quoted us $150/square foot which would have ended up costing about $3000 for our tiny 20 square feet counter. While not a fortune, it was certainly more than we wanted to spend on counters.

However after a little shopping around we contacted our local sheet metal shop and we received much better news.   If we did the installation and measurements ourselves then the sheet metal shop
would charge us $400 (about $20/square foot) for the material and fitting.

We loved this idea and got to work. OK, so how did we do this?   Well, first of all we had to make a plywood model of our counter. We removed the sink and cut the plywood to fit our counter. We also cut a
hole out for the sink and then brought it to the shop.

At the shop they bent and cut a 20 gauge piece of stainless steel and made it fit the plywood perfectly. Next we got all the pieces home and started assembling.

First we put some liquid nails right on our old laminate counters and then fit the plywood on top. To make sure it was properly secure, we also put in a few screws for good measure. Next, we put some more liquid nails on top of the plywood and carefully fitted the stainless steel piece on top.

And that’s basically it. Easy enough, right! We put some weights and clamps on the counter, and let everything set overnight, and the next day we got to working on installing our new stainless steel sink.

All in all, this was a pretty easy project that didn’t take that long and the result is fabulous! Stainless steel counters are super easy to keep clean and you don’t have to be as careful as with other materials: nothing stains, water spots don’t leave lasting marks, and you can put hot pans right on it. Perfect in other words!

For anybody out there who wants new counters and is willing to do some work yourself, I would say go for it! To go this route ended up being so much cheaper than many other materials around, and stainless steel is just perfect for counters anyway!  If you want to see some more about the project check it out here.

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