I love the look and feel of finished concrete – the texture and feeling that is both organic and industrial – and although typical in modern and industrial design, I think it works really well in many other genres…it reminds me of old French farmhouses and converted barn spaces.
I used concrete for a fabulous countertop in my bathroom – it is easy, flexible and creative. There are tons of instruction online…but it is super easy, just trowel several coats of a feather finish (made to be able to be trowelled on very thinly) concrete product onto a rough material, such as plywood, and seal.
I wanted an especially distressed look with some efflorescence and color variation so I faux-finished using drywall compound and some cement powder, troweling it into the surface to highlight the texture (I used drywall compound because it is what I had available to create needed a white color – applied in this very thin way and mixed with the cement powder it has been durable).
Many of the online instructions suggest using Ardex, however I couldn’t find this so used a topping product available at The Home Depot (it had thread fibres that I needed to screen out prior to using). The challenges I found were getting the feather finish to stick to the vertical sides – especially the edge between top on side which kept chipping off and needing to be refilled – and trowelling it to a perfectly flat finish.
Have a beautiful week!
xo
shelley