Building a Concrete Countertop

Concrete countertops, greeted first by designers and architects for their esthetical electric potential and labor versatility, are fast getting the answer to householders' demands for a comparatively cheap countertop option that doesn't command a high altitude of expertness to establish. In improver, they volunteer householders an exciting chance to literally seek their paws at being creative. Step-by-step books, telecastings and hands on preparation are directly promptly uncommitted for householders to confidently mesh in such do it yourself (DIY) tasks as edifice concrete countertops.

Marriage Chris and Ali were stimulated to take on a DIY projection after buying their San Francisco flat. A logistic immovable developer construction coach and an educational medical specialist, Chris and Ali are besides architecture and dwelling house pattern fanciers. With a preference for getting their paws soiled, edifice and installing their ain concrete countertop appeared a natural option for them.

Chris goes on to be no unknown to concrete : "My interest group goes back several twelvemonths when I was making eateries and retail quads. I set up concrete countertops and worked with concrete artificers doing intact coloring material and stained concrete trading floors." .

In April of 2003, Chris and Ali bought a two-flat building in space-challenged San Francisco. Of late, they sold the lower plane as a tenant-in-common unit of measurement and directly take the upper plane, which proffers rough 950 sq. Federal Trade Commission of lebensraum. Before they viewed making their ain kitchen concrete countertop, they engaged a contractor for an extended remodel of the rest home. The consequence is an overt, loft-like lebensraum where the kitchen and living zones flowing in concert.

"We both enjoy the appendage of designing and making our ain lebensraum to tally how we live. This utilizes to the space we reside likewise as the items within it," sounds out Ali. "We both like the thought of working with our manuses, applying fabrics that are natural, accessible (...) and conciliatory." Chris added, "Concrete counters are beautiful, nerveless, down to earth, solid, and you merely desire to tinge them. The counters were a perfect direction for us to make something beautiful out of our ain thoughts and difficult work, and the singularity of the output is a representation of our unparalleled melodic themes." .

Their kitchen, 10 feet broad by 15 feet long (150 sq. FTC), didn't proffer much room for Chris and Ali to do work -- but that didn't halt the large programmes they had for their narrow kitchen. They desired to have a logical preparation zone with a work trigon, flock of antagonistic space and stock still have decent room to reconcile a dining area.

Like most urban San Francisco properties, space is virtually constantly an publication. To relieve this, a straight test of upper and lower cabinets and a concrete countertop with a dishwasher, sink, oven and stove were posed along one wall of the kitchen. A constitutional banquette and board are situated opposite the concrete countertop work surface area. An adjacent wall masters of ceremonies a icebox and tall consoles.

Chris and Ali agree that the most interesting addition to the kitchen is the concrete countertop. The match's instructional guidebook and root for figure breathing in was award winning graphic designer Fu-Tung Cheng's Concrete Countertops : Design, Forms, and Finishes for the New Kitchen and Bathtub (Taunton, 2002), a national best seller in the remodeling and intent genre.

The ceased countertop is a visually stunning work surface with rich, complex colouring materials : red brown with spots of semi-precious Leopardskin (yellowed and black) conglomerations. "This exceptional colouring material compounding blended dead with the coloring material idea we had for the cabinetwork, tile backsplash, level and wall conclusions," says Ali.

Unostentatious pattern items of the 12-foot long, 3-inch thick concrete countertop include assailed edges at the countertop movement and the sink openings too as a ornamental metallic element slip under the front edge of the countertop to hold in the plyboard sub-top.

Chris and Ali took especial tone that despite the tight doing work space of their cellar, their collaborative work fed smoothly from stream to finish. "Like the balance of our redoing undertaking, making the concrete countertop took us closer together," says Chris. "We act very well in concert. It starts out from the fact that we intercommunicate very well and our figure thoughts complement each other." .

With the closing of the labor and the originative body of work done, Chris and Ali acknowledge that their biggest challenge was constructing the concrete patterns. "Particularly for the sink cut-out, which has r nooks and two different size basins," says Chris.

Despite a few minor teaching curved shapes, Chris keeps that there is an consuming sentiency of achievement upon finishing their concrete countertop. "The best part is regarding and experiencing the finished production and knowing we did it!" It's been told that if a match can make it a home remodel -- peculiarly a DIY labor -- together, they can outlast anything.

From the lookings of a line considerably done on their first concrete countertop, these happy do-it-yourselfers are in it for the long haul. Chris enunciates of future tasks, "We design to make a concrete hearth border and mayhap a fireside to go with it!" .