#Concrete countertop overlay how to

It would thicken up quickly on its own, so he had to work fast once he poured on the surface. He found it was easier to work with being more on the runny side rather than thick and mud-like. He mixed 1 part feather finish to 1 part grout and added water in the bucket until it was a somewhat runny consistency. The hubs gathered a bucket, a trowel, the grout, and a feather finish. It achieved the color we were looking for and seemed to be hard enough, like concrete. Our favorite sample was the equal parts, 1:1 ratio. We tested a mix of 3:1 ratio with 3 parts feather finish and 1 part grout. Mind you, we tested this method a lot before actually installing it, and it seemed to be working. The hubs had the idea to mix in white non-sanded grout, as it dries and hardens the same as feather finish (or appears to). This type of concrete overlay gives a dark gray color, and I really wanted a light gray. We decided to use the Home Depot brand as it was cheaper and local. There are 2 types of feather finish I’ve seen DIY’ers use online, and that is Ardex feather finish, or the Home Depot, Henry brand. Once we were ready to spread on the concrete, we did A LOT of testing on sample wood pieces. This had the structure of our new countertops in place. (Be sure to keep reading to the end, to see why would have done this a little differently). Then he made a flat edging with 1 x 4 pine ripped down to 2 3/4 inches and screwed in place. So my husband bought some plywood and built up our countertops to be about 2 3/4 inches thick. We knew we wanted the concrete to look thicker than the original Formica that was on there, and we thought it would adhere better to a raw wood surface.

#Concrete countertop overlay how to

How to Make DIY Feather Finish Concrete Countertops I will give you detailed directions on how he completed this project, as I feel like his techniques will work great if you are tackling concrete countertop projects yourself. It was even, silky smooth, and his methods seemed to work great in achieving this look. My husband did a wonderful job installing the concrete overlay surface. Then we had a baby, and it stayed like this for a long, long time. Here we are, with the concrete countertops finished (and looking A-MAZ-ING), and mid-way through the update. The original countertops were a Formica top with a maple wood edge piece, that had seen better days.

Needless to say – my hubs and I have put in a lot of work 😉 Here is the kitchen from the realtor listing before we bought it. The Original Kitchen When We Bought the House I’ve talked about each aspect of the kitchen in detail, HERE. The below pictures will be showing the kitchen in progress, so you will be seeing a lot of the good, bad, and ugly shots. Just keep in mind, the above pictures show our kitchen with the current remodel (almost) complete. But my hopes are to help you compare different methods and successes/failures to give you all the knowledge you need before you tackle this DIY project. It appears that many are having more success than we have had. I will not say our experience will be or has been the same as others. I’ll list the products we used, the steps we took, and the detailed results we got. I want to share our experience and methods, in order to help others determine if feather finish concrete countertops are the right choice for them and to aid in any research in the matter. We had imagined they were going to be a temporary fix (2 or more years), but they began to fall apart and look horrible much sooner than we had planned on. However (don’t you hate, however), a year later we came to the conclusion that the feather finish countertops had completely failed us. A Year Later… DIY Feather Finish Concrete Countertops Failed Us I was completely enthralled with the beautiful pictures and knew I wanted to give these affordable DIY countertops a try on our kitchen make-over.Īfter the days and days of research, work, and mess – our countertops were stunning! They looked better than I had hoped. A simple search on Pinterest will reveal many instances where people are trying this trending method of “faux” concrete countertops. Perhaps you have seen or heard of DIY feather finish concrete countertops. Today I am going to discuss our kitchen countertops in detail, as many of you have been very very curious about them from our kitchen reveal post, HERE. Details and instructions for installing DIY feather finish concrete countertops, and the possible complications you could face.