The New Face of Concrete
You might think of concrete as something drab and dutiful. Far from it! The happy fact is that modern concrete is a remarkably versatile and visual substance. Concrete is the perfect material to match your needs: moldable to your aesthetic preferences, durable for decades, and eco-friendly. There’s not much more you could ask for. Except price, and it’s perfect there too!
Endless Possibility
Working with concrete means practically limitless possibilities. You can have a concrete sink reminiscent of a French cook-room as a kitchen centerpiece….or a burnished concrete dining table with subtle flecking and pressed leaves in its top surface.
Light can play on your concrete countertops such that, at different times of day, they sparkle gold or even indigo. You can have elegant rounded corners or a futuristic jettison construct.
Concrete is an open book – flip through the pages!
Here’s an idea of the many options you have:
- Curves and angles
- Sparkle with aggregates
- Integrating personal mementos
- Built-ins (sinks & other features)
- Personal colors and textures
View our gallery to see these design features in action.
How To Do Decorative Concrete
Thinking of using decorative concrete but don’t know where to start? Our suggestion is to try to envision your perfect kitchen or bathroom.
What’s the mood you want to evoke? What are the textures that will be pleasing to the touch? How much counter space is there? What kind of sink is desired? What colors are most prevalent in the room already?
As your environment comes into focus, jot down the specifics. Draw a picture.
If you’re still having trouble imagining how to do decorative concrete in your home, get in touch with us. We can make suggestions and show you photos that will fire up the imagination.
Concrete Benefits
It’s not just about versatility; concrete is a beautiful material in its own right with its own set of benefits.
- Earthy – Concrete is an all natural substance which combines elements like sand, stone, and cement. Because it’s not synthetic, expect pleasing variation instead of manufactured uniformity. Each piece of concrete has its own story.
- Eco-friendly – Our concrete is eco-friendly in a number of ways.
- Many concrete mixtures use recycled material. We use VCAS. It is post-industrial waste which directly replaces cement in our mix. We can also replace sand and aggregate with recycled glass.
- Concrete is not a petrol-based synthetic material. Making these materials uses high amounts of fossil fuels and releases dangerous chemicals into the environment. Cement production isn’t perfect, but has significantly less impact on the environment than the manufacture of petrol-based materials.
- Durable – Using our interior concrete sealer (our own formula) your decorative concrete piece will last scratch- and stain-free for decades. (A caveat: Cutting directly on the surface will harm your knife more than the countertop. Under normal circumstances our interior concrete sealer does not need to be re-applied, but can be used to touch up a scratch.)
The History of Concrete
Concrete has a longer history than you might guess. The ancient Romans used concrete abundantly and many of their architectural breakthroughs had to do with this material. Concrete was also used in the building of the ancient Egyptian pyramids.
However, just prior to 500 A.D. concrete disappeared for some 13 centuries. Then in 1756 a British engineer helped to reintroduce concrete to engineering. Now concrete is used more than any other man-made material on earth.
Recently, advances in concrete mixtures have made concrete more desirable as an interior decorative material and many designers have chosen concrete over traditional stone like granite and marble for ecological and economic reasons.
