That 90s Black Granite Countertop Didn’t Need to Come Out After All
Dark granite can make an older butler’s pantry feel difficult to update without replacing one of its most expensive surfaces. Reddit user AdDue7452 worked around the existing stone instead, using the black countertop as part of a makeover that cost about $600.
Brown wood cabinets, yellow walls, and traditional hardware were changed with Sherwin-Williams Black Magic paint, gold hardware, floral wallpaper, crown molding, and lighting inside the upper cabinets. The original cabinet layout, wine rack, glass doors, sink, and granite remained.
Brown Cabinets and Yellow Walls Surrounded the Black Granite
Wood cabinetry covered the lower storage and both sides of the upper wine rack, with glass-front doors displaying glasses and dishes. Yellow walls surrounded the cabinets and continued behind the sink, while the black granite countertop brought a separate dark finish across the base cabinets.
Rather than remove the cabinetry or stone, the makeover used both as the framework for the new bar. The wine rack, hanging glass storage, sink position, and cabinet arrangement remained in place.
Black Paint Connected the Cabinets With the Existing Stone
Sherwin-Williams Black Magic SW 6991 in a semi-gloss finish replaced the brown cabinet color. The owner used liquid sandpaper, applied dark-tinted Kilz primer, and painted the cabinets without a sprayer.
Painting the upper wine rack, cabinet frames, doors, and base cabinets black connects them with the granite instead of treating the countertop as a finish that needs to disappear. Gold pulls and a gold faucet add contrast across the dark surfaces.
Floral wallpaper replaces the yellow wall color on the side, while black vertical paneling fills the area behind the sink and hanging glasses.
Existing Glass Doors Became Part of the Dark Cabinetry
Glass-front upper doors stayed in place, including their decorative leaded pattern. Black paint now frames the glass, while gold hardware repeats the finish used at the sink and lower cabinets.
LED strips added inside the upper cabinets illuminate the glassware, and crown molding closes the space along the top of the cabinet structure. Neither addition required changing the original storage configuration.
Black granite still stretches across the full counter, including the raised backsplash strip along the wall. Its white and gray veining now sits between black cabinets above and below rather than brown wood and yellow paint.
Black Cabinets Gave the Existing Granite New Context
Side-by-side views reveal the pieces that survived the makeover. Cabinet doors, drawers, glass fronts, wine lattice, hanging glass rack, sink, and granite countertop occupy the same positions in both versions.
Paint changes the brown cabinetry to black, gold hardware replaces the older pulls, floral wallpaper covers the yellow side walls, and black paneling fills the wall behind the sink. Crown molding also gives the upper cabinet bank a finished top edge.
Keeping the granite gave the makeover a fixed surface to work around instead of another material to remove. The black paint pulls its dark base color onto the cabinetry, while gold metal and patterned wallpaper supply the contrast that the original brown-and-yellow palette lacked.
Would you have kept the black granite or replaced it during the makeover?
All credits go to Reddit user AdDue7452.