How to Make a Kitchen Island With a Concrete CounterTop, START-FINISH
by
Lumnah Acres
6 Materials
In this video series we start by making the kitchen Island with left over flooring that we had left from when we built or house in May of 2015. The other BIG INSPIRATION for the kitchen Island was the weathered corbels that we found at a local antique shop. Once we had those items the rest of the project fell right into place.
Here you can see the corbels. The wood flooring you see on our floor is locally milled larch(poor mans cherry), that we finished with tung oil. We used left over flooring and milled the paneling for the island out of them.
Once we started designing the kitchen island we knew there was no way we were affording a piece of granite to go on top of it. Since the top measured 6'x7'!We hate DEBT and a counter top is not WORTH that! . We decided to make a concrete counter top. I ordered quickrete's counter top mix. I had to special order it from Lowes. It took two weeks to get. It was under $25 a bag. We need six bags, it cost us just under $150. Then we needed to buy the drip edge we used for the edge detail and some 2x4s to sturdy it up. We have under $300 invested in the concrete and supplies to make the top.
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Here is the video on us making and pouring the concrete. If you want to see more on the WHOLE PROCESS! Which there is alot to. Go on over to our youtube channel Lumnah Acres and we have a playlist on the series.
One of the first things we did, was we masked out were the kitchen island would be going with tape on our kitchen floor. To make sure the size that we planned on making for the island, fit well in the kitchen. Once we found the corbels, we had to come up with a color we liked and that would go nicely with the weathered wood of the corbels. We chose the dark blue that Lowe's offers in their furniture paint line. We painted a sample of the wood that we would be using. And made sure that we liked the corbel and the blue together. This whole Kitchen Island build took place over a few months. We wanted to make sure that we liked the Kitchen Island, since we knew it was going to be a statement piece in the kitchen!
Here you can see the masking tape on the floor better! LOL I framed up the island using 2x4s. I made the island this way for two reasons. The first was I knew the concrete counter top would be heavy,and I wanted to make sure the island could support it. Secondly I wanted electrical outlets in the island and I didn't want electrical boxes inside the cabinet, I wanted the boxes and wiring hidden inside the framing.
Once I had the Island framed up "which was on a Sunday, and I had to go back to work the next day and wouldn't be able to work on it again till the following weekend" I temporarily attached the corbels to the frame work and put some plywood on the island so we could use it. If there was anything we didn't like we could adjust them at this point.
This is what it looked like before we got the trim on. We had milled up all the lumber, cut it all to length and painted it before we installed it on the island.
This is what it looked like all formed up waiting for the concrete to dry!
It is amazing how SMOOTH you can get the CONCRETE with a little sanding! Now we just have to let the concrete finish curing for the full 28 days, that is how long it takes concrete to cure, before we should seal it!
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2 of 35 comments
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Genial!
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Absolutely gorgeous!! You guy's did an awesome job!
Frequently asked questions
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Have you considered finishing the countertop with that garage floor resin stuff that would give it a nice smooth texture and appearance.?
I love it and I’m going to build mine too for my house since I can’t seem to find one that will fit in my kitchen. Does your video show how you built the island? I’m going to use bead board to surround mine and use the 2x4’s as well. Thank you for posting this. Now I have a guide to help me figure out how to do mine.
the plywood stay on but do you see it
Also is concrete board better or plywood. I want to do a 6x3.5. Yours looks great