When we took a look at Jessie's Bright White Kitchen Reno last week, we were in awe of the concrete countertops she and her husband installed. Lucky for us, Jessie shared the process so now we can make our own!
I should definitely point out right here at the top that this is not a DIY for the faint of heart. There's a lot of planning, some heavy tool usage, hard core concrete mixing, and plenty of heavy lifting. Still, if you're game, you'll get a gorgeous look and for a fairly low price.
After a great deal of research, Jessie and her husband decided to use Quickrete countertop mix concrete. (Did you even know such a thing existed? I certainly didn't!) This is not an item that's normally carried at a hardware store, so Jessie special ordered the mix from Home Depot. Along with the concrete mix, the couple purchased melamine boards to use as their forms. The melamine are smooth white boards, perfect for use as the forms for the countertops. With all the supplies purchased, Jessie's husband got to work creating the forms into which they would pour the concrete.
With the forms together, it was time to mix up the concrete and start pouring! Jessie and her husband rented a concrete mixer from the hardware store to cut the work a little bit. Then, after getting past a little difficulty with the consistency of the concrete, they were able to pour into their forms. Once the concrete was poured, they leveled it out in the forms and then let them cure for a few days.
After the concrete had cured, the couple removed the forms and started the process of smoothing out. First they filled in all the bubble holes with a little concrete filler on their fingers. After the holes were filled and dried, they sanded the concrete slabs to a smooth finish. Once sanded, they were able to heave the big slabs into place in the kitchen and set them in place. Once installed, Jessie and husband applied three coats of high glass concrete sealer and then a food safe wax.
This was a very abbreviated version of all of the work that went into creating these concrete countertops. You can check out the multiple detailed posts on Jessie's blog, Imperfectly Polished, to learn more about creating your own counters:
• DIY Concrete Counters: Prep and Planning
• DIY Concrete Counters: Pouring and Curing
• DIY Concrete Counters: Sand, Seal, Wax, and Enjoy
Images: Imperfectly Polished
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Comments (19)
I wish I had the guts to try this.
Looks great but I would never try to do it myself. I can only foresee a huge mess and a lot of temper tantrums.
We did the same thing in our kitchen a few months ago...it was a serious undertaking but I do love the results. Very natural looking (which fits our farm life) and you can't beat the price (which was also key for us). We had to pour ours in place since it was winter and our garage could not maintain a temperature high enough for curing...which had the advantage of not having to move slabs around and forming perfectly to our uneven plaster walls. But sanding them in place is a SERIOUSLY messy job, and you also can't guarantee a perfectly level surface since you're not flipping them out of a form. Your countertops look beautiful...especially to me because I know how much work it took! Hooray for concrete!
DIY concrete countertops? No, thank you....some things are much better left to professionals. The pebbled surface looks like a harbor for foodborne germs.
Props to them, but I think I'd just hire a professional and go back to sewing pillows and painting things from craigslist.
Great idea, i dont think i would be able to manage it! great work to those who can
Any idea this type of cement/concrete be sold in Malaysia? I really wanna do it myself.
A friend took a class on concrete countertop fabrication, wanting concrete for her own kitchen, but to build up our confidence we did an outdoor bbq area first and that helped us considerably in refining our skills and figuring out how to work together as a team to get it done quickly and evenly. Her kitchen turned out beautifully as did the one above!
I love concrete countertops. Thanks for the honesty that it isn't exactly the easiest DIY project, but can be done. Now the idea has been planted...
I poured a concrete hearth a couple of weeks ago using the same method. You want to be sure to vibrate your forms. You can use a sander (with no sandpaper in it), and run it along the side of the forms. The bubbles will come to the surface. I didn't do this enough.
You can use regular sandpaper, but if you're going to knock over corners, you'll be replacing the paper every minute or so. I'm looking into automotive sanding materials next (I'm still working on the finish).
There's plenty of YouTube tutorials on this as well.
Also, I just used 4000 PSI QuickCrete, acrylic fortifier (tells you how much of it to use on the bottle), and a cup of Portland Cement per 80lb bag. I colored it a little darker grey by using the liquid colorant. All of it was in-stock at my local Home Depot.
Sorry about the multiple posts. I also meant to mention that I just used mineral spirits for my release agent. Last post, I promise.
Is the backsplash also concrete? It is difficult to tell from the photo.
Yes, the backsplash is also concrete and we added a white, ceramic subway tile above.
I wonder if you can do the same thing and put crushed glass in...?
Love love love this! My husband and I may consider doing this since we're not a fan of our counters in the kitchen, and we like a little DIY in our lives!
Kevin, I believe that yes, you can put glass - they actually do that kind of thing ALL the time on the DIY network to add interest. I've seen them do beer bottles and wine bottles, and the rings from the necks are very cool looking!
A few notes from the concrete canoe days:
1) Adding more acrylic admixture (Acrylic Fortifier, Acryl 60, Xypex, etc.) will increase the flexural strength of your countertop, decreasing the likelihood of cracking while you handle it (for the same reason, I would let it cure at least 2 weeks before installing if I had the option at all; maintain humidity throughout). The limit to your ability to increase strength with acrylic is the water in the emulsion (note that you should subtract the water in the acrylic from the water you add to your mix; the product data should tell you the solids content, assume the rest is water); the stickiness of the mix - I have made mixes that couldn't be removed from oiled plate glass, so do a test piece first (on the other hand, if you want to embed glass, this is helpful); and the acceptance of acid stains, if you plan to use these, do a test first; we didn't have any trouble with integral colors.
2) While there are practical limits (i.e., you don't want your countertop to be "soft" and dent, so our 60 pcf canoe mixes would be excessive), there are good lightweight aggregates out there to reduce your weight from 140 pcf to somewhere in the 80-100 pcf range. Besides traditional expanded shales, which you should be able to get from a ready mix supplier, I am particularly fond of prepuff styrofoam (the raw material used to make styrofoam cups). Beanbag filler will also work, although its coarse enough that I would probably mix the working surface without and just add it to the backup mix.
3) To reduce the elbow grease required to clean up hardened concrete off your tools, fill a 5 gallon bucket with 1 gallon of white vinegar and 2 or 3 gallons of water and let them soak overnight, then brush them off with a wire brush. Put a light coat of oil (WD40, vegetable oil, motor oil, doesn't mater) on the steel tools to keep them from rusting; aluminum and mag won't need the oil. Wear gloves if you don't want to smell like a giant pickle for the rest of the day, but your cleanup operation won't be hazardous or toxic to people or pets.
One more - for sanding large, flat areas - get a sanding belt of the desired grit, cut it to make a long strip, and staple it to a straight 2x4. The long strip will help you avoid gouging, and the sanding belt has a cloth backing, which will hold up much longer than paper.
Tulsa_Retro or Bread Engineer can you pls give proportions, or percentages, to your concrete countertop mix. The only formulas I can find call for materials that have to be either special ordered from a big box or shipped from a specialty supplier like Cheng's. I'm in Hawaii and shipping is outrageous. Mahalo!