Concrete countertops that get mistaken for stone.

Every surface on this page is cement. No slab was quarried, cut or craned in through a window. Some are poured solid, some are a quarter-inch overlay laid straight over the laminate that was already there — and from two feet away you cannot tell which is which.

Hand-coloured overlay with a cast ogee edgeThis is the shot that answers most of the questions we get. The colour is built up in layers — oxide and acid working into the cement rather than sitting on it — so it reads with depth instead of like paint. The moulded edge is cast in place, not a strip glued on afterwards.

Overlay or solid pour

Two ways to do it, and the customer rarely cares which.

An overlay goes over what is already there — laminate, tile, an old concrete top — which means no demolition and no cabinets to reinforce. A solid pour is cast from scratch, in place or on a bench, when the shape or the edge calls for it. Both are taught the same way: forming, colouring, finishing, sealing.

A large kitchen island with a concrete countertop finished to look like wide timber planks, edged with a heavily chiselled dark stone border, in a kitchen with hickory cabinets. — **Concrete finished as timber planks**The top, the planks, the grain and the heavy chiselled edge are all cement. Wood texture is rolled into the surface while it is still workable, then coloured plank by plank so no two boards match.

A long concrete bar top in cream and pale gold with a rust-coloured vein running across it, polished glossy, with a clipped corner and bar stools alongside. — **Cream and rust, with a clipped corner**A single vein of rust carried the length of the run, over a warm cream ground. Clipping the corner off an eating bar is a small thing that stops people catching a hip on it.

Countertops Countertops, Overlay or Resurfacing — Do It Yourself

Edges and colour

The edge is what people look at first.

A flat square edge announces itself as a coating. A cast profile — ogee, bullnose, chiselled rock — is what makes the eye read the whole thing as solid stone. It is also the part most first attempts get wrong, which is why edge forms are half the tooling we sell.

A kitchen with cream cabinets and glass tile backsplash, with concrete countertops coloured in mottled brown and grey across the perimeter, island and a raised breakfast bar. — **A whole kitchen, counters and raised bar**Perimeter runs, island and a raised breakfast bar, all in the same warm brown and pewter colouring so the room reads as one surface rather than three separate jobs.

A kitchen island and counters finished in near-black concrete with fine light speckling and a high-gloss seal, with timber cabinets and a stainless sink. — **Dark speckle over an existing top**Deep charcoal with a fine light speckle through it — the look people go to a stone yard for. This one is an overlay, which is why the cabinets and sink underneath never moved.

Not only kitchens

Anything with a flat top is fair game.

Vanities, tables, reception desks, window sills. The method does not change with the room — and a bathroom is often where a first job should start, because it is small enough to finish in a weekend.

A long bathroom double vanity with a grey and white marbled concrete top, two white undermount basins, chrome taps and a backsplash of rounded river stones. — **Double vanity in grey and white**Cool grey drifting into white, run the full length of a double vanity and up into a river rock backsplash. Both basins are undermounted, which on concrete is a forming decision made long before any colour goes down.

A round dining table with a concrete top coloured in amber, gold and rust with a glossy finish, surrounded by black wrought-iron chairs. — **A round table top**Amber, cream and rust poured and worked wet, then sealed to a full gloss. Round tops are good practice — there is no straight edge to hide behind.

A kitchen countertop finished in pale cream concrete with soft tan veining, running up to a stainless steel double sink. — **Cream marble, run to the sink**Soft cream with fine tan veining, carried around a drop-in sink. The quiet end of the range — and the one that sells most often in a kitchen people want to keep light.

Outdoors

Bar tops that live in the weather.

Outdoor kitchens are where concrete stops competing with stone and simply wins. It is poured to the shape of the bar, it does not have a seam every eight feet, and it does not care about the sun.

An outdoor L-shaped bar with a stacked stone base and a gold and tan concrete top, with wooden bar stools on a deck. — **Stacked stone bar, gold top**An L-shaped bar top poured to fit, over a stacked stone base. Warm gold and umber, sealed for exterior use.

An outdoor kitchen bar with cedar cladding and a thick grey and white speckled concrete countertop, outside a stucco house. — **Grey stone top over cedar**A charcoal and white top with a heavy square edge, wrapping a cedar-clad outdoor kitchen. The thickness is formed, not solid all the way through.

A person applying sealer to an outdoor concrete bar top coloured in copper and orange tones, the wet sealer bringing up a high shine. — **Sealing a copper-coloured top**The last step, and the one that decides how the colour finally reads. Sealer pulls the depth up out of the cement — the surface looks flat and chalky until the moment it goes on.

Every top on this page was made with methods taught in the course — and with the edge forms, colorants and raw materials on the SBC store. Nothing here needs a workshop you don't have.

Learn the method

Tooling Countertop edge forms

Ogee, bullnose and chiselled profiles — the part that makes an overlay read as solid stone.

Colour Colorants & pigments

Acrylic colorants, epoxy pigments, mica flakes and powder — the palette behind every top above.

Materials Raw materials

The base blends for countertops, floors, sinks and walls, mixed the way the course teaches them.

Want one of these in your own kitchen, or want to learn to sell them? Call 855-744-2900 or 623-267-4336.

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