The long awaited epoxy wood grain tutorial is finally available! We will walk you through the process of creating a wood grain finish to your epoxy countertop in this video as well as with our written instructions.
Step-by-Step Instructions
For your wood grain epoxy look, you will want enough epoxy to cover your square footage with a base color, and then accenting colors for your veins. For our example piece, we used a black base with turquoise and gold to create the wood grain effect.
For this project you will need
- Countertop Epoxy Kit
- One Base Color
- 2-3 Metallic Powders
- Plastic Trowel (with notches cut into it)
- Foam Roller
- 91% Isopropyl Alcohol
- Propane Torch
Let's get started on creating a one of a kind wood grain countertop!
Step One - Mix Epoxy
Pour one part of hardener and one part of resin into a clean mixing container, then stir by hand for 5 minutes. Do not use a drill to mix as this can incorporate air bubbles into the epoxy. At the end of those 5 minutes, scoop out the epoxy into a secondary container and add in your prime coat color as well. Then mix for an additional 4 minutes to combine the color making sure to scrape the bottom and sides periodically to ensure there is no unmixed product. If you have an area of unmixed resin it will leave a sticky spot on your countertop that can only be fixed with an additional coat of epoxy over top of it.
Step Two - Apply the Flood Coat
After your epoxy is mixed, pour out all of the product immediately onto your prepped countertop. Then spread it across the surface with a foam roller. As you roll the product, make sure you stop just before rolling off of the edges so you don't dump large amounts of product off of the edge. You will want to see product slipping of the sides to seal the vertical surfaces of your countertop, just don't push all the product off the side! Once you smooth the surface, take your foam roller to the vertical edges to smooth any drips to the surface.
Once the flood coat has been applied, take your propane torch and run it back and forth over the surface to remove air bubbles.
Step Three - Creating a Wood Grain Effect
Place one packet of your accenting metallic powder and 1 quart of isopropyl alcohol in a spray bottle. Then spray your accenting colors liberally over the base coat of epoxy. Once you have sprayed each color across the surface, run your propane torch over the countertop to remove any bubbles that appeared on the surface.
Now, take your plastic trowel and drag it across the surface lightly to expose the base color and create lines in the colors sprayed across the top. You can vary the thickness of lines and create "knots" by gently placing your trowel into the top and moving the product so that the top colors are pushed to the sides.
To add sharp wood grain throughout the piece, mix metallic powder with some of the epoxy that dripped off of the countertop and apply it using a trowel or paint stick in a line.
Now run a torch over the surface one final time and allow the countertop to cure for 24 hours. For best results, apply a clear coat over the top 12 hours afterwards.
When you are using this technique, we recommend that you run the wood grain parallel to the longest linear surface in your kitchen for the best results.
What is a countertop design you would like to learn to replicate? Email your suggestions to info@countertopepoxy.com and we will help you with your project!