I have mentioned it before, but I absolutely hated the blue countertops. They just were not my style. So, after three years of considering our options, we decided to go with covering the countertops with concrete. This how to is one of the best out there.
I found Henry Feather Finish at Home Depot for around $15 a box. I bought two boxes, but could have gotten away with one.
Because our sink and countertops are one piece I taped off the sink.
While Wolfy removed our broken cooktop.
Using a box knife, I scored the countertops. This is a super important step. You want to make sure the concrete has something to grab onto.
Mix the feather finish up. You want it the consistency of peanut butter, or maybe slightly more runny. This stuff dries fast! So, from this point on, move quickly!
I tried to use a trowel to apply the concrete, but it just wasn’t working for me.
It was a lot easier for me to use my hands. Make sure you take your rings off! I forgot that and was picking concrete out of my rings for a couple of weeks.
After each coat dries, it needs to be sanded. While we were waiting on the first coat to dry, Wolfy started working on raising the celing light.
And I sanded.
Until Wolfy needed an extra set of hands.
Much better! And time to start mixing up the second coat.
I went through the process 4 times. Mix, coat, dry, sand. By the fourth coat, I had learned how to apply the concrete, so minimal sanding was needed.
I also changed the shape of the edge to more of a rounded look.
Using a sponge, we applied 6 coats of sealer.
Looks really good, once it dried, if you ask me.
After living with it for over a month, I am slightly on the fence. Visually, it looks great, but we didn’t use the right type of sealer. Anything cardboard sticks to it and is almost impossible to remove without doing damage to the countertops. The plan is to sand the sealant off and recoat with a different brand. I will report and, hopefully at that time, I can recommend it without any hesitation.
There are more pictures of this project on our Facebook page.
Previous Kitchen Posts:
Our Wolf Den 
September 18, 2013 at 6:40 pm
Looking good! found via the thrivin on thursday blog hop and liked your facebook 🙂
September 21, 2013 at 1:29 pm
They look great! About 8 years ago my husband and I did ours, but we poured them and I loved them, so easy to maintain. Thanks for sharing your project on this weeks Creative Muster. Now that you found our party I hope that you’ll continue to join us every Tuesday evening.
September 24, 2013 at 4:48 am
Wow… how exciting! you must be thrilled with your new countertops. Thank you so much for sharing ‘m with us at the Fine Craft Guild. I can’t wait to see what you’ll link up with us tomorrow! ~ Rose
September 24, 2013 at 1:12 pm
Thank you! I think I finally found the correct type of sealer. So once it is sanded and resealed hopefully I can give a better opinion of this project.
September 25, 2013 at 6:24 am
Wow guys! This looks amazing. You’ve done a fantastic job. I can’t wait to check out your other tutorials. I’m in the process of doing my place up too. Thank you so much for linking up to Thriving on Thursdays. I’ll be featuring this post at tomorrow’s party. Thanks so much for linking up. Anne xx
September 25, 2013 at 7:57 am
Thank you so much for your kind words and for featuring me! Isn’t it so fun to completely redo a place? I can’t wait to see what you do with yours as well!
October 4, 2013 at 6:42 am
It looks beautiful! I am going to do our kitchen island next week. Yours look great and I am so glad to see that the Henry Feather Finish can be used because they have it locally. Previously, I had only seen Ardex Feather Finish used and we would have to special order that.
Did you find the right sealer? If not, can you let us know which you tried so we can eliminate those as options? Also, do you by any chance know how the Henry brand might take stain? I don’t think we’d stain ours because the beige look you came out with was really pretty, but just in case…
Thank you SOOO much for the tutorial!
October 4, 2013 at 7:38 am
Thank you for your kind words. I haven’t tried stain on the product, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. If nothing else you could always mix a small amount of concrete up and apply it to an extra board you have laying around somewhere to play with the stain (mixing it in dry, applying after once it is on the counter, are you artistic enough to make it look like granite?-I didn’t think I was…). Without the stain it is a medium to dark grey, I think it looks like soap stone. I will get the name of sealer we used once I get home tonight. I do have the sealer that was recommended but I need to either apply another coat or sand the sealer off. I will make sure to post once I do that. In fact we are planning a trip in the next couple of weeks so getting the countertops redone right before we leave might be perfect.
October 4, 2013 at 9:47 am
I didn’t realize it came out grey. From my computer it looks like a pretty beige, but I wasn’t sure if maybe I wanted mine to be more grey so I was thinking of staining it. I guess I don’t have to now, LOL. I will send a pic of how mine come out. I can’t wait to get started- we bought a fixer upper and there are just too many projects that need to be done for us to spend a bunch of money on countertops. Yours look beautiful so I am feeling much more brave now!
October 4, 2013 at 1:18 pm
I can’t wait to see how yours turn out. They are a very light grey once they are dry and then you add the sealer and makes them a more medium color, much better, I think. I will still highly recommend mixing up a cup or less of the mix and putting it on a piece of scrap wood first just to see. We are going to get more concrete tonight so I can put another coat on a reseal.
December 7, 2013 at 1:48 am
Looks great! What brand and type of sealer did you find worked well?
Thanks!
December 18, 2013 at 11:29 am
What are your thoughts on the counter now? Any staining? I’m so nervious! I hear oil stains are the worst.
March 14, 2014 at 11:35 am
Yes, lots of staining none of the sealers have worked yet. I will be doing a post soon, it is kind of sad that I can’t get the sealer to work. It looks so nice until we start using it.
January 8, 2014 at 10:19 am
What was the brand of the second kind of sealer you used? (Mentioned on YHL.) I’m at the same point… DIY concrete counters and gone through 2 types of sealer, neither of which worked. I’m considering buying the Cheng brand, but don’t want to waste MORE $$$.
March 14, 2014 at 11:34 am
None have worked yet. I will be doing a post soon, it is kind of sad that I can’t get the sealer to work. It looks so nice until we start using it.
February 19, 2014 at 3:53 pm
I wanted to do a skim coat on my laminate countertops, I wondered what sealer brand ended up working?
March 14, 2014 at 11:34 am
None have worked yet. I will be doing a post soon, it is kind of sad that I can’t get the sealer to work. It looks so nice until we start using it.
March 18, 2014 at 7:25 pm
Have you tried an acrylic sealer? Wonder if that would work.
April 28, 2014 at 2:07 pm
I haven’t tried that. I am a little dejected now about the counter tops. They looked so good, and now they look so bad. I need to sand and put more concrete down or find a new option for a counter top. I’m not sure what the plan is quite yet. Thanks for the suggestion!
April 25, 2014 at 6:49 am
Get some Richard James TK6 Nanocoat. It’s highly recommended by The Concrete Countertop Institute. It’s countertop safe and makes feather finish countertops very hard and stain resistant. It’s a pricier and you have to pay a bit for shipping as you can’t find it on places like Amazon, but it’s highly worth it for less time and aggravation. We used it on ours and haven’t had any of the issues that people who bought hardware sealant have had. We followed the instructions precisely (two diluted primer coats followed by 4 full strength coats of sealant). I’ve heard that Cheng’s is also very good. $50 for sealant for feather finish countertops is still very inexpensive in the long run. Check out The Concrete Countertop Institute. It has a lot of helpful info.
I would suggest you roughen up the sealant you have, put on two new coats of feather finish and then seal with the TK6. Good luck.
April 28, 2014 at 2:00 pm
Thank you so much for the tips!
April 25, 2014 at 1:49 pm
One more thing. Richard James company is super helpful and can offer a lot of good support. We called them many times during the process to the point where it was almost embarrassing and each time they offered a lot of good tips and problem solving ideas. Also, we’re planning on buying some Cheng’s food-safe countertop wax for extra protection. We haven’t gotten around to it, but it’s on the to do list.