Concrete Jungle

This blog post should have been written a decade ago. That’s how long I’ve wanted to attempt concrete countertops. The first issue of Readymade had several concrete projects, but none of them were technically countertops. I do, however, feel that countertops fall within the spirit of the challenge.

We bought our little bungalow in 2016, and had plans to remodel the kitchen as soon as possible. Work, family, and if I am 100% honest, my ability to overlook anything I’m not currently obsessed with got in the way.

Having so much time on my hands during the pandemic gave me the perfect excuse to procrastinate working on my current work in progress, 2Moons 1RIVER. I watched a ton of YouTube videos about creating do-it-yourself countertops, and decided that doing a skim coat over my existing tile countertops would be the quickest, easiest, and least expensive route to go. Yeah, right.

I ordered what I could online, a palm sander, assorted sandpaper 40–1000 grit, Henry 549 skim coat, trowels, impregnator (this would become the source of many awkward jokes), and polycrylic sealer. My hopes were that this would prevent mid-project runs to the hardware store.

I started off by painting my cabinets crisp white, which completely soaked into the raw wood, and will require several more coats. My backsplash was a dingy aquamarine color, which I updated with a hunter green chalkboard paint. That’s when the real work started.

The counters had to be deglossed and then sanded with 40 grit sandpaper. We quickly discovered that regular sandpaper wouldn’t cut through the glaze on the tile. We had to invest in some diamond grit sandpaper. Well, actually, we aren’t Rockefellers, so we got cubic zirconia sandpaper. This was the first of many unscheduled trips to many hardware stores near and far.

All in all, we planned for 4 boxes of concrete, and ended up using 9. Also, we ended up having to enclose our kitchen, because every inch of our house was covered in concrete dust from sanding. There was SO MUCH SANDING. In the end we ended up with unique countertops that I love.

I will update this post with the cabinet doors and hardware soon.

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