Yesterday we installed our second integral farm sink which was poured in two colors simultaneously – I posted in-progress shots of this a few days ago.  Here’s a photo of the (very compact) kitchen before we pulled the old Formica tops with the drop-in stainless steel sink in preparation for the new concrete countertops. This is a service which I am happy to offer homeowners, simplifying their scheduling and coordinating for the R & R involved with most simple remodel projects. Make it easy.

After we removed the screws holding the builtup laminate tops to the cabinet corner blocks from beneath and cut the caulked backsplash upper edge away from the painted wall, we carefully lifted them out and exposed the cabinet tops. We cleaned excess caulk, adhesives, and joint compound away from the contact surfaces and then turned our attention to the sink base cabinet. Since we were installing an exposed apron front farm sink, we needed to modify the cabinet frame to accept the sink’s projecting mass. We cut the topmost rail at the endjoints and removed the dividing stile at the false front panels in the same manner. This left a rectangular cutout into which the sink box could slide and fit tightly (we planned it that way, of course – every retrofit farm sink is a little different than the next and made exactly to order). We built a rugged shelf inside the cabinet, flush with the cutout to help carry the weight of the casting and made a circular opening in the 3/4″ plywood for the sink drain fitting to pass through.

Then we carried the concrete countertop section with the integral sink into the house ( not the fun part!) and slid it into place. Voila! It’s all in the planning. The remainder of the sections were placed, aligned, shimmed and adhered. The four backsplash sections followed suit. Several minutes of photographs documented the process and off we went. Another custom concrete creation by Concrete Detail for an appreciative client – thank you! Off to the next – a streamlined top in “Sage” with extra black sand exposed in the honed surface, an undermount Blanco Silgranit sink, and embedded glass mosaic tiles – stay posted…

A couple shots of the recent two-tone top and sink combo we are working on:  in the curing room, waiting to be polished. The color combination is pretty sharp, “Slate” with “Night” this time… a small kitchen, so it’s moving along quickly. I will need to modify the existing cabinetry to accept the farm sink installation by cutting out the topmost rail in the sink base unit, and then build a sturdy shelf to carry the weight of the sink casting itself. Not a big deal to an old carpenter…

Mid-pour: cap mold in place

We have begun another area kitchen this past week: concrete countertops in “Night” shade and an integral farm sink in “Slate”. Following hard on the heels of the Nelson project, we are once again pouring two colors simultaneously, stacking them in the form and consolidating with vibration. Being a smallish kitchen, this set of tops has no integral drainboard taking up surface area, but it does have a soap dish recess and a small scoop around the faucet mounting area, to catch drips from users with wet hands. The sink itself is quite large, a 30 x 18 single bowl with generously rounded corners (1 3/4″ radii) amd of course a pitched bottom to a standard-sized drain flange set back from dead center a bit.

We also incorporated a simple rectangular frame panel into the exposed front apron as an accent, broadcast crushed blue bottle glass in one corner of the main top, and placed four pairs of “Slate” square inserts at the angled seam to the right of the sink. All excellent examples of concrete’s versatility and ability to be personalized for a unique application…