Bathroom Vanity Make Over- Marble to Concrete Vanity

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Sixteen years and we finally, finally, finally changed up our kids bathroom! We will be attempting changing our cultured marble builder grade countertop into a DIY concrete vanity. You can read about demo day here.

It’s about time!

I spent a long time trying to find ideas that we could afford and that would be durable for the boys. I decided an industrial concrete look would be the perfect fit.

It takes a lot to destroy and can withstand the test of boys
It’s fairly inexpensive
Looked easy to do
Looks industrial with a touch of elegance.

I got my inspiration from all these really cool concrete countertops on Pinterest.

We had these cheap cultured marble countertops with integral sinks and hardly any money to work with. I did a lot of research and found that with the correct prep, Henrys Feather

Finish can be used on most surfaces.

To get started on our concrete vanity

Henrys Feather Finish
Latex gloves
A bucket or container to mix it in
A metal trowel
An electric sander
150 and 220 grit sandpaper
Sponge
Sealer

First, you will need to

Remove your faucets and drain stoppers.
Use the electric sander to sand all of the countertops. We made sure we got the ledge and I hand sanded the corners where it is really hard to clean. I want to make sure the concrete sticks to that. (The sink on the right has not been sanded that was just sixteen years of use…ewww)
Replace your drain plate.

Make sure to sand it to a dull finish. The rougher the better.

Mix the Henry’s Feather Finish in your chosen container. I just added a cup or two and then added water, mixing it until it was a pudding consistency. I ended up using my hand beater and mixed in an empty protein shake canister and then transferred it to my metal drywall mud pan. Most of the time we used equal powder to equal water.

Should look this consistency. This is Ardex a similar product but I forgot to take a picture of us mixing Henrys. So it should be about a pudding consistency.

Then with the trowel, I applied a fine layer of mud on the counter. It does not need to be thick. There will be layer upon layer applied.

Don’t forget to apply on the backsplash.

I applied the mud in the sink with gloved hands. I felt like I was sculpting. It doesn’t look good at first but layer after layer it looks better.
I also used my fingers to apply to the edges and corners.
It took about 20 min. to dry and then I applied another layer. I think I applied approx five thinner layers.
After each layer dried a few minutes, approx 10-15 min. I lightly wet my hands and smoothed every nook and cranny to my liking. You want the concrete to be slightly firm but not to hard. If you have too much water on your hands you will wipe concrete off and if it’s too dry you might just have to lightly sand some ridges.

Wrapping up sculpting of our concrete vanity

Once I got it the way I liked I allowed it to dry overnight and then gave it a light hand sanding.
I then sealed it by painting on Valspar protective sealer wet look… just because we already had it.
I wanted a super shiny look so I painted about fifteen layers of sealer on it. After all I have boys and I have to make this sucker look good for a long time. 🙂
After it dries set your faucet.

I finished my cabinet makeover by painting the base with Lowes Sherwin Williams Federate Blue satin paint, made up to be 80% lighter.