I've Decided To Pour My Own Concrete Countertops (2024)

Since my right arm was out of commission for the last week, I’ve tried to use that time to really nail down some decisions for my kitchen. The main decision that was still undecided was my countertops.

When I was planning on doing an interim, quick fix makeover on my kitchen, I was going to do the Ardex Feather Finish. But gradually this kitchen project has turned into a full-blown kitchen remodel, so I don’t really want to consider any short-term countertop solutions.

I’ve shared several times that my ultimate dream countertops would be white marble. I know. I’ve read all about how marble etches like crazy, and I had myself convinced that it wouldn’t bother me.

About a year ago, Joan at For The Love Of A House wrote a post about her marble countertops, and about how they etch, and how she still loves her marble. They look absolutely gorgeous in her picture perfect farmhouse kitchen.

And also about a year ago, Edie at Life In Grace wrote about living with marble countertops, which she put not only in her kitchen, but also in her bathrooms.

And then recently, Michelle from 4 men 1 lady shared her experience with living with marble countertops.

A year ago, when I read about how easily marble etches (sometimes all it takes is water to make them etch!), the talk of aging and patina sounded so…I don’t know…romantic, I guess. It sounded so casual, and laid back, and oh so very European. I had convinced myself that it wouldn’t bother me at all.

But you know what? It’s time for a reality check. All of those etched water spots, etched rings, etched everything else on my marble countertops that I had spent thousands of dollars on would probably have me curled up in the corner of my kitchen crying like a child who just broke her favorite toy.

And seeing that I’m just not a cook, and the kitchen isn’t really a room where I spend a lot of time, and I’ve said a thousand times that I don’t need or want some high dollar gourmet kitchen, it’s just not worth the headache to save up for, and then have to baby, marble countertops.

Now what I’ve also wanted for a very long time is concrete countertops!

I’ve been dreaming of making my own concrete countertops for at least eight years now, ever since I first read the book about how to make your own concrete countertops by Fu tung Cheng. But my goodness, what a long and drawn out process! With that method, you have to build your molds from scratch, pour your countertops (upside down), let them cure, break away the molds, and then lift and place the countertop into place on your cabinets.

This is the process that Jessie at Imperfectly Polished used to do her concrete countertops. They look great! But wow…what a lot of work.

That always seemed so labor intensive. So I was thrilled to find a much easier system about a year ago called Z Counterform, where you use their edge profiles to create a mold, and then you pour the concrete countertops right there in place. Here’s a peek from Modern Mountain Life from last year when they poured their concrete countertops using the square edge profile. You can see that the edge profile molds are just installed right in place.

Once dry, you break away the molds, and…taaaaa daaaaa…you have concrete countertops. No building molds from scratch with precise measurements. No lifting and carrying insanely heavy concrete countertops. (Can you imagine how heavy a concrete countertop would be for a kitchen island?!)

So that’s what I’m going to do! I’m so excited! I even contacted the company last week to see if they would provide the materials and let me show y’all the process on my blog, and they said yes! I spoke with the owner on the phone, and what a nice guy! He’s so helpful and full of info. So I’m going to be using one of their brand new products that’s supposed to make this process pretty fool-proof.

And the best part? This new product that I’ll be using produces a white countertop! 🙂 Yep, white concrete countertops, kind of like this…

Of course, it can be stained or tinted for those who don’t want white countertops. But of course, white is exactly what I want! I’m pretty darn excited.

This new product is very similar to their LiquiCrete system (which you can see in the video below), but instead of having a separate product that you then mix with a bag of concrete, it all comes in one bag together — the LiquiCrete and the concrete all mixed together from the start. All you do is add water. So there’s no need to go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and buy the concrete separately!

So now that my arm is feeling so much better, I suppose I better get busy! I’ve got quite a bit to do before I can start pouring my concrete countertops. 🙂

Update:

My concrete countertops are done! If you’d like to jump right to the finished countertops, you can see them here…

Or if you’d like to read about the whole process, you can start reading about it here…