A seasoned DIYer puts those faux

By Jon Gorey - Globe Correspondent

We’d all love to use top-notch materials in our homes, but doing things right generally requires a lot of money (if you’re paying a pro) or expertise (if you’re doing the work yourself). But one way homeowners can cut the cost and complexity of a DIY project — or buy themselves some time until they can afford a professional remodel — is by using faux finishes.

From glossy paint that mimics the look of stone counters to one-piece wall panels made to look like shiplap to adhesive-backed vinyl floor tiles to crown molding and ceiling medallions made of plastic, there's no shortage of shortcuts for DIY homeowners in search of a quick style boost. "In almost every application, it's either budget or ease of installation — and sometimes both — that make ‘fake-look’ products worth trying,’’ said Sarah Fogle, the DIY blogger behind uglyducklinghouse.com.

For both of those reasons, we used a faux product in our DIY kitchen remodel several years ago: wall panels meant to look like white wainscot, though they’re really just coated particle board. They may not be the real deal, but the fact is they’re still a stark improvement over the equally fake but far more revolting dark wood paneling that lined our 1970s-era ski lodge-like kitchen when we first purchased the house.

If a product doesn't have to support a lot of weight and will eventually be caulked and painted, it's a lot easier to mask its faux pedigree, Fogle said. "For example, fake brick veneer can look terrible and weirdly orange when first installed, but it can look amazing when painted and the seams are covered up.’’

Fogle offered white marble as another example. "It's gorgeous, but also expensive and heavy,’’ she said, making it difficult to install by yourself, even if you can afford it. "Marble contact paper or doing a resin/acrylic paint pour can be lighter, cheaper, and easier on you to decorate with,’’ Fogle added. "One of my friends chose the fake look over the real deal because she has three kids under 10, and she wanted furniture that she wouldn't freak out about staining or etching.’’

Speaking of kids and white marble, I decided to try out a few faux products myself — including a marble-look countertop paint kit from Giani. We’re quite happy with our butcher block counters, so I wasn't about to spend a weekend painting them just for kicks. But, inspired by a coffee cart I spied at a cafe, I decided to build a lemonade stand for our daughter with a "marble’’ top.

I used one of the old 1970s cabinets that have been in our garage since our kitchen remodel, removing the door to use as the faux countertop. The paint kit came with just about everything you need, from mini paint rollers to multiple brushes and a space-age-looking sponge (used for dabbing on optional flecks of white highlights).

I cleaned and lightly sanded the cabinet door and applied two coats of the primer, which requires a painful four-hour wait time between coats. The instructions say to use this downtime to research photos of real marble counters and map out where you’d like to paint your veins — the stone's signature gray streaks. This part required a bit of finesse on my part, something Jenn Largesse, founder of Build-Basic.com, said to watch out for. "A product manufactured to look like the real thing will most certainly be a better match than a kit that requires your artistic perfection to attain the look,’’ Largesse said.

Nevertheless, I opened up paint can No. 2, ready to apply a meandering network of gray veins. I held the included artist's brush limply in my palm as instructed and lightly dragged and swerved it along to create a thin gray river on the pristine white surface. The next step was largely trial and error, spritzing the gray streak with the included water bottle and then cluelessly smudging it this way and that with a bristle brush.

The instructions urge you to watch the demonstration video online, and it did help — as did the knowledge that you can douse your disaster with water and wipe it all off before the gray paint dries (a reset button I pushed twice). The final touch was a double coat of clear, glossy finish.

I’ll be honest: When the stand was finished, the top really did look like marble — from a distance. I don't think anyone would be fooled at close range, though — particularly because the texture of the wood edges was slightly visible. With a perfectly smooth laminate countertop as a base, however, the effect could be even more convincing.

Not that you’re always trying to fool people with these products. Sometimes the goal is simply to take the spotlight off your mustard-yellow Formica counters, so they aren't stealing the show as the focal point of your home. Other times, Fogle said, faux products really can be deceiving, or at least deceiving enough.

"I’ve tried out that hollow plastic fake crown molding stuff that you can cut with a utility knife versus doing the math of actual crown. It was a much faster install and led to less fighting,’’ Fogle said. "And yeah, it's definitely not the same as the real deal, but people are rarely looking up at the ceiling and checking out seams.’’

Other experiments of mine weren't so successful, though. I purchased a can of Giani's Liquid Stainless Steel, which promised to be a novel solution if, say, one of your appliances is too good to toss but doesn't match the others in your kitchen. In its can, the shimmering paint looked like molten metal, or a powerful potion you’d find at Hogwarts. Applied to an old white microwave, however, the effect was less impressive: Even after five coats, it resembled the metallic painted cardboard box of a kid's homemade robot costume.

I also bought Giani's wood-look paint kit, designed to give Fiberglas or aluminum doors a more stately look, and thought I’d try it out on the cabinet's newly exposed particle board backing that became the front of the lemonade stand. I was pretty dubious about this product; it's one thing to mimic the look of painted wood, as plastic trim or fiber-cement siding does, but quite another to replicate exposed wood grain.

But daubing on the oak-hued grain highlights with an awkward Fiberglass glove actually produced a closer fake than I’d expected. Still, it was neither completely convincing nor great-looking, so I turned to Plan B: paint the entire base cabinet white, using chalkboard paint on the front.

That, Fogle said, is the right attitude to have when working with faux products: Avoid expensive kits, and treat the exercise as an experiment that may or may not pan out. "If it's on something inexpensive to begin with, such as thrift store furniture … it is kind of fun to see if you can make it look like the real thing,’’ she said. "Then, when you get in the mood to declutter or the piece has outlived your taste for it, you’ll have an easier time letting it go because you didn't have a lot invested.’’

With the exception of some faux products that are even pricier than the real thing — such as composite decking or fiber-cement siding designed to look like wood clapboard shingles — don't count on faux finishes to deliver a boost to your home's value.

"It's important to look to the home's value for guidance,’’ Largesse said. "For example, in a pricey neighborhood, painting countertops to look like granite will surely devalue the property. Whereas in an area where laminate is the norm, a granite look might be welcomed by potential renters and buyers. When in doubt, stick to small installations and removable surfaces that can easily be swapped out if needed.’’

Arlington broker Adam Rosenbaum was more direct in his assessment. "Most buyers prefer the real thing,’’ he said, whether it's bricks or wainscot. "The fakes rarely measure up.’’

But until you can afford the genuine article — and with the average cost of a major kitchen remodel reaching nearly $80,000 in the Boston area, according to Remodeling Magazine's 2019 Cost vs. Value report, that could be a while — it doesn't hurt to pretend.

"It can take a while to figure out your personal decor style, and experiments like this let you play around until you find what's worth investing in,’’ Fogle said. A cheap paint kit can allow you to try on the look of white quartz or gray granite countertops before going all in on one or the other.

"Then, when you know you love it, you can splurge more confidently,’’ she added. "Or you may realize you only liked it because it was trendy, and you’ll be glad you didn't spend more.’’

Jon Gorey blogs about homes at HouseandHammer.com. Send comments to [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @jongorey. Subscribe to our free real estate newsletter at pages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp.