Installing DIY Concrete Countertops with a Feather Finish

If you have an old countertop, one way to give it an entirely new look with a skim coat of concrete on top.

This technique applies concrete over the top of your existing counter to give it the look of a full concrete slab. It holds up very well without chipping or scratching if it’s applied correctly. You can give your bathroom a completely new look with these DIY concrete countertops.

This post was originally published in 2016 and has been updated with details on the tutorials and notes on how well it held up after eight years of use.

Our main bathroom needed help.  It was one of the only rooms I hadn’t touched since moving into our house ten years ago, besides giving it a new coat of paint.

To save money, I knew I needed to keep our vanity and top, but I hated the dark black, glossy surface. It’s not granite, quartz, laminate, or solid surface.  I actually don’t know what it is, except ugly and cheap looking.

Using Feather Finish concrete allows you to apply a thin coat of concrete over your existing surface. Once it dries, it’s as hard as, well, concrete, and can be painted or finished to any color. There are two brands I’ve used and both worked well: Ardex Feather Finish and Henry Feather Finish.

How to Apply Concrete on Top of Countertop

Start by sanding the surface with 60-100 grit sandpaper.  This scuffs up the surface so the concrete has something to grip to. If you have an electric sander I’d recommend using it to make the job go much faster, but you can also get the job done by hand sanding.

Mix up a small batch of the concrete according to the directions on the package (2 parts dry concrete to 1 part water). It’s helpful to mix up smaller batches so the concrete doesn’t start drying in the bucket before you’re ready to apply it. 

I found that mixing up batches in smaller amounts with 2 cups concrete to 1 cup water to be the perfect amount to apply before the concrete starting to set a bit.

To apply the concrete, spread the layer on thin.  Even if it seems like it’s not covering every part of the counter, that’s okay, as you’ll be adding 2 more layers after this one.  

After the first layer dries, sand it down by hand with 120 grit sandpaper.  There’s no need to get it super smooth here, just sand down the larger ridges and bumps. If you use an electric sander, you might sand right down to the countertop because this first layer is so thin.

You’ll continue this process two more times, sanding between layers. After the second and third layer, you can use an orbital sander.  

Here are a couple of the tricks I learned while applying it:

• If you’ve ever done drywall patching, the motion will feel very similar.  It also reminded me of putting icing on a cake.
• I found my cheap plastic tools to work much better than my metal drywall tools.
• My hands and fingers were probably my best tool, and it was pretty fun to get messy in the process.
• My countertop has a curved back corner, so I found that running my finger in that groove (just like when you’re applying caulk) gave me a rounded “corner” and I didn’t need to mess with tools in that area.
• I hand sanded after the first layer, since it was so thin, and then used my orbital sander after the second and third layer.
• I would not recommend applying concrete inside a sink (like I did). I explain this more later in the post here: Do concrete countertops hold up?

In the bottom of the sink were the drain sits in, I made sure to keep that concrete layer very thin and smooth.  I wanted to be sure the drain fit in properly and there were no ridges.  (When everything dries, be sure to use plumber’s putty when installing the drain, so it creates a water-tight seal.)  We’ve had no problem with our drain leaking or any sort of other issues, and we’ve been using it for the past four months.

After the final layer dries, I would highly recommend using a power sander to get to a smooth finish.  It will take you FOREVER to hand sand the whole thing.  It still took quite a while to sand it with my orbital sander, and I even left some of the groove and ridges because I liked the look.  

When sanding along the edges, be careful with a power sander – it can easily take off the concrete down to the old counter on the corners or edges.

After the concrete has cured (the box will state the exact cure time), it can be finished. There are a couple of options here including sealing it for a natural concrete look or painting it. I decided to try out a method I’ve never seen used before, to blend sealing with “painting” in one.

Using Grout Colorant to “paint” Concrete Countertops

Grout colorant is designed to penetrate grout and change the color of it. This is exactly what I wanted for my concrete countertops – something that would penetrate the surface and lighten it up.

I decided to try out grout colorant to “paint” my concrete counter, and it worked, SO well! Here are the steps I took and how it turned out.

Grout colorant it sold at any home improvement store and comes in multiple colors that are typical grout colors (whites, creams, beiges, grays, black).

To apply the grout colorant, work in small sections and squeeze some of the colorant onto the surface. Then, use a toothbrush to swirl it in and across the surface evenly. Grout colorant does start to dry and tack up quite quickly, so be sure to work in small sections so it doesn’t dry in place.

I ended up using two coats of the grout colorant.  The images above show how it looked after just one coat.  I almost left it as is because I loved all the imperfections of the surface and the variations in color.  I’m sure I still would have loved it, but in the end I’m glad I ended up adding the second coat.

Here’s how it covered after the second coat.  There were a few places that I ended up adding a little more colorant too in a third application, but in the end, I still left some of the concrete color showing through.  If you wanted a pure white counter top, you could probably keep applying coats and get to that place, but I can’t make any guarantees because I haven’t tried it myself.

To give it a marble look, I used a bottle of dark gray grout colorant and mixed it with some white grout colorant to get varying shades of gray.

I lightly pulled a feather across the surface.  In some places, I flipped the feather over and in other places I pushed back just a bit so the line thickened out.

At this point, the lines were looking a little harsh to me, so I took a paint brush and lightly pulled it across the wet grout colorant.  Then, I dipped a thicker brush in the white, dabbed off most of it, and ran it across the gray lines in the opposite direction.  This smoothed and softened everything out perfectly.

Because grout colorant has a water resistant property to it, I didn’t seal it for the countertop surface. (I did seal the bowl, but in hindsight, I wouldn’t recommend using concrete on the inside of sink bowl to start with. I explain more on this below.)

The grout colorant does a great job at repelling water droplets and can be cleaned up easily. It essential sealed up the concrete and gave it color all in one step. It gives a smooth, silky texture that held up very, very well on the top of my countertop.

The concrete underneath gives it a rustic, imperfect look, which I absolutely love.  You can see little grooves and notches when you look close.

How Long Does a Skim Coat Concrete Countertop Hold Up?

We used this concrete coated vanity top for five years, and it got a lot of use. This is our main bathroom, and it’s basically the only sink the family uses. In those five years, there were no scratched, dents, chips of the concrete or fading of the grout colorant on the surface of the countertop.

Unfortunately, the concrete did not hold up as well inside the bowl of the sink and I would not recommend using a skim coat concrete layer inside your sink bowl.

After less than a year, I noticed the concrete near the drain outlet starting to break away. The water was penetrating and degrading the adhesion to the original surface. My best guess is that it just couldn’t stand up to the constant water pooling near the drain outlet.

(Note: When I applied the concrete, I removed the drain completely in order to apply the concrete underneath the fixture. I then applied plumber’s putty underneath to hopefully keep it sealed, but it just didn’t end up working long term. I also don’t think it would work to apply the concrete without removing the drain either, so I would just recommend not to use this skim coat concrete technique in a sink bowl.)

This bathroom makeover on a budget ended up lasting us eight years! Although the inside of the sink bowl did not, the rest of the DIY concrete countertop did hold up very well until I was ready to completely remodel it.

I completely gutted the space and gave it an entirely new look – all with DIY power! You can see that full modern bathroom reveal here.