My counter tops used to give me the heebie-jeebies. No lie.

When we bought this house, the counter tops were made of 4” tumbled marble tiles with the occasional hand-painted Nemoesque fish. Sounds cute, but it wasn’t really.

For the record, tumbled marble is pretty porous as a surface. Yes, you can seal it. Of course you can. I’m pretty sure you can seal any surface. But whoever sealed these counter tops, didn’t do a fantastic job. And I don’t know if they used a food-grade quality sealer either.

Anyway, the sealant had peeled away in places, and worn away in others. This led to moisture getting locked in the tile surfaces, eventually turning into mold. Yum.

So, when I had my kitchen ripped out, I was extra happy to see those tiles go.

I looked at an array of countertop options: butcher block, concrete, stainless steel, granite, recycled glass and Corian.

My criteria was simple:

• Non-toxic

• Eco-friendly

• Food-friendly

• Low-maintenance

• Yummy looking

Not a bad list, right?

Well, each of these surfaces had their pros and cons, so it was just a matter of which pros mattered to me, and which cons bothered me the most. The stainless steel was a bit too cold for me. The Corian is a synthetic product that just didn’t appeal to me in the end. The granite and recycled glass were out of my budget, so that narrowed it down to butcher block and concrete.

I’d been scouting about on the interweb in search of inspiration, and I kept coming back to the concrete kitchen countertops. And it just so happens that I have a friend who is a general contractor who is also a master at making such things out of concrete.

I wanted a built-in concrete moulded sink like this one, with a built-in slot for a cutting board:

[ Source ]

I picked the concrete color, and his team built this for me:

Awesome, isn’t it?

These concrete countertops ticked all the boxes. Every. Single. One.

I even got the custom sink and drain board.

With the slots for my cutting board:

My kitchen is so low maintenance now, I almost feel like a slacker. Seriously.

And my countertops are gorgeous.

The cool thing about concrete is that it continues to cure and harden over time. And, if I ever get the urge, I can stain it, and give it a completely different look.

Of course, I needed concrete floating shelves to go with these countertops. You can read about those here.

What do you think? Concrete counter tops? Or do you have another favorite that I missed? Share in the comments below.

Love the idea of concrete counter tops?

I’ve collected some RESOURCES and INSPIRATION for you:

Here’s a link for do-it-yourself concrete finish over an existing countertop (budget-friendly) with excellent step-by-step photos and how-to.

And a tutorial to make your own concrete counter tops.

And then there’s these guys, if you want it done professionally: Nelson Construction

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