The Process

This page is a bit technical: it describes the process I go through when I design a countertop for a customer.

I begin with a conversation: I want to know what the customer wants. Concrete design is about freedom of choice, and I have to make certain I understand what the homeowner has in mind.

Then I respond with a color sample, and a hand sketch of the existing top, if there is one, and of the space, primarily so that I have the general dimensions and shape. Then I create a rendering, which serves as a blueprint to build the top. After that, we lay out the inlays in custom-built molds and move them around until we are happy with their placement. Finally, we mix, test and pour concrete, and wax, buff and install the piece.

It is a lot simpler to write about it than to do it, and every piece is unique, and has to be done in a careful, different way. It takes between two and four weeks to build the average top, depending on inlays, size and other features.

Double Vanity
This double vanity, in a beautiful new mountaintop home near Cambridge, N.Y., is classic and elegant. The people who bought the house say they love it, and it swayed their decision to buy the home. It has two sink holes for drop-in sinks, and is platinum. The surface is ground heavy to reveal the aggregate within. The edge is standard. There is a custom three-inch high and one-inch thick back splash that is 60 inches long and 25 inches wide.

Union Village, Greenwich, NY - Dual Countertops
This was my first commercial piece – built in two parts and presenting a very difficult logistical challenge due to its massive size and weight. It is 86" long by 36" wide, and is 2" thick. It also has a custom stone mosaic in front and pieces of quartz inlaid towards the rear. The color is pewter with stone gray. The “small” piece is sixty-nine inches long by 25" wide, and is also 2" thick with a seven-degree bevel on the front, back and one side. The color is also pewter with a ground finish. The logo of Union Village, a classy home furnishings and design shop, is a pineapple, and I thought long and hard how to incorporate that into the top at the cash wrap area.

So I asked Scott Thetford of Old School Designs in Salem, N.Y. to design and create a custom copper inlay, and we placed it front and center in the larger counter. For me, this intricate and complicated inlay is what I love about the concrete process – it couldn’t be done with any other material, and it combines functionality with a sense of individuality – how many surfaces allow a business to incorporate its logo in that way? The store owner was so pleased she hosted a reception for then young company. It was a blast, from beginning to end! I loved this project.

Vanity Top with Broken Edge
This was a fairly straightforward commission, really. The customers wanted a vanity in a modern bathroom. But it turned out to be interesting. They brought me a piece of orange tile, and I chose an orange color to match it. The vanity is 42" by 23" long and 2" thick. The edge is a "broken" style on the front and standard (flat) edge on both sides. There is a one piece back splash which is 3" high and 1.5" thick. The color is a custom-variegated finish, with the main color charcoal gray and the secondary colors orange and red (this was a custom color we mixed ourselves). This piece has an undermount (installed from below) sink. Between the variegated finish and broken edge, this piece was an eye-catcher!

The First Countertop
My first countertop was made for an attorney in Cambridge, N.Y. It was challenging, for several reasons. One was that it was a new kind of design for a very old home. It was the first concrete counter ever seen in this old town, and my customers were brave and innovative. Another interesting feature was the size. It was built in two pieces. And another, of course, was the fact I'd never done it before.

The first top is 8" by 24". One end of each is diagonal and they meet in the middle. The sink knockout (the hole through which a sink is placed) is in the middle, and is a drop-in sink (dropped into the hole from above). There are several inlays, including glass beads, sand dollars, pieces of a vase and a broken plate. All were chosen by different family members for sentimental value (the sand dollars came from a favorite vacation beach), giving the countertop a particular meaning to everyone who used it to put a plate or cup down or make coffee. On the right side of the stove are stainless steel bars inlaid into the top for use as a trivet. The top is red and polished, and the exciting thing about this project for me is that the countertop was put into an 18th century home in the middle of a modern, custom-built kitchen and it not only looks natural there, but adds a new dimension of contemporary style and color.

This is my idea of functional art - striking color, functional design, custom shape, in many ways unique to concrete.