I've got grout for you baby!

I love a busy, yet relaxing weekend. My brain has been full of new ideas to work on lately and I LOVE it! Can you guess what one of the projects from this past weekend was??? Wow...you're a genius!

Yes, it was a little grouting. A "little" since we have a fairly small area that is what we call the kitchen counter. Lately, I'd been feeling like our counters were looking a bit grungy and so I decided re-grouting was a job for me.

Grouting...could it really be that hard? Not...one...bit! Anyone can do it. I guess I did take a little shortcut. Why don't I give you the details?

First off, this is our lovely counter top before:

Would you like a little crack with that?

Lovely, isn't it? I especially love all the little bits and pieces that made their way into the cracks. Nice. We adored it so much I just had to get rid of that funk.

After this en"counter." ha. The hubby accompanied me over to the hardware store to select our supplies.

Here's the list:

-grout flout. hehe. It rhymes.
- grout cleaning brush: This helped clean out all the funk in the crack.
-grout saw: This got rid of any excess grout we weren't happy about having.
- grout: I don't have a picture of this one, but I can tell you it came in a plastic container. We went the easy way and purchased a pre-mixed grout. It saved me the time and effort of trying to get it to the perfect consistency. I highly recommend this.

Now, there is an option when it comes to grout. Apparently, if your grout line is 1/4 inch or larger, you can use sanded grout. It doesn't work for smaller lines because the sand won't fit into it and that's a problem. Also, they have quite a variety of colors.

These are a few of the color options.

We have itty bitty lines of grout, so we went the non-sanded route.

Once I had the supplies in hand, I got to work. I made sure the grout was cleaned out as much as possible and then moistened it with a sponge. I took a big glob of the grout out on the counter with the flout and then "pushed" it into the lines with the flout at a 45 degree angle. The experts say you don't want to go straight up and down (although it does work in some cases). Then, I scraped off the extra grout using a straight side of the flout. To finish it off, lightly wipe over the counter with a grout sponge in a circular pattern to clean off the tiles.

Now, the after pictures.

oooohhhh....

aaaahhhhh....

How fabulous!

There you have it ladies and gents. How to grout in 1 hour or less.

Any grouting projects in your home? Do you know any tricks of the trade?

Next up in the kitchen...painting those yucky cabinets. I've got the paint, supplies, and inspiration. If I could only have more time.