apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Love it! You can get a lot fancier with something a painter told me about.

It's called Skimstone and you can get it at any Miller Paint store and I'm sure other places too.

You can even use it on outdated countertops to create a cement-looking counter for a lot less. It's based on real cement and originally designed for cement floors.

Check out their photo gallery for serious inspiration!

http://www.skimstone.com/

I haven't got up the nerve to try it - if anybody has please post pictures and tell us how it went, I'd love to know how easy or hard the stuff is to work with.

Ok, I have to wait until tomorrow to view the photo gallery (I'm on dial-up) - thanks, boomer - but I'd definately consider doing this! For a couple of years I've though about painting the concrete on my patio, but the techniques I've read about so far seemed very involved and difficult for a novice DYI'er. And this is much prettier!

this is gorgeous. rough and refined all at once!

pretty.

Ooooooooooh... if we owned our patio... so fast...

lucky stores have a great bandana/paisley inspired stencil on their floors. i've always admired it. now i know how to do it!

Overall I like it. If I were to do it I'd either try to do an all-over pattern in a similar faded tone to what's pictured and then maybe go over the same pattern with fine glass beads (similar to the kind used for reflective areas on highways and road signs).

The pattern would then show when certain angled light (or Moonlight) hit the concrete. As I moved, the pattern would present itself, moving along with me. When standing still the pattern would display as if it were actually a trick of the light.

at my work they have concrete walls. adjacent to that wall is a wall covered in vintage wallpaper, a white paper, with a raised/textured floral pattern.
so anways, the concrete wall was imprinted with this floral, textured wallpaper so it looks like the wallpapered wall - except it is concrete.
it is pretty amazing.