Concrete Countertops

Who wouldn’t want their kitchen to look picture perfect. Anybody can go through magazines, surf the net, find a perfect design for their kitchen and have it made. Only a few courageous people would get up confidently rely on their creativity, and design something from their imagination. Concrete counter tops are all about experimenting. You can have unusual shape counter tops made from concrete.

Concrete is an expensive manmade material. To make concrete, all you require is a bag or two of Portland cement, sand, small gravel and coloring pigments, which are all quite cheap. The component which makes concrete expensive is the sealer, which is used in its making. The sealer is an essential component, as it helps to minimize the penetration of liquids, oil and other substances into the functioning concrete counter tops. Concrete is an extraordinary material that is aesthetic, expressive and functional too. Once properly sealed, it can resist stains, burns and scratches. So if you are dealing with hotpots and pans, you can use your counter top without any worry of their getting damaged. If you have little kids at home, you need not to worry about their scratching the counter tops, as scratches do not show on a concrete counter top. Creativity need not see any boundaries while dealing with concrete. It not only allows you to make virtually any shaped counter, but it can also be color tinted adding to the exotic look of your kitchen. Grind it, polish it, stamp it, stain it or embed meaningful objects in it. It’s all about your choice and how you want your counters to look.

The counter tops can be built in two ways. You can have them made at the shops and then have them transported to your place to be placed on cabinets. The other way is that, they can be poured and finished right on top of the counter tops. The latter one is preferred, as the former one may cause the concrete to crack during transportation. The making of concrete counters is somewhat like baking a cake, if anything goes wrong in the mixing, pouring and finishing, it will show as a bad scar on the surface.

Concrete counter tops are heavy and are better if you get them professionally installed. However ‘Do It Yourself’ books on making concrete countertops are widely available and help you make a counter top with great ease by following their step-by-step instructions. The most famous is Fu Tung Cheng’s “Concrete Counter Tops’ for professional designers, architects and every human who likes to have fun and be creative There are endless possibilities for creative expression. Get up, roll your sleeves and let your imagination flow.