dewelartbv

From top-dollar homes in the San Francisco Bay Area to stretching hill residences in the Colorado Rockies, discriminating homeowners are requiring customized styles and also coatings in their kitchens. Particularly, they are wanting to share their individuality and also unique style preferences with the rapid growing style product of selection-- concrete.

Actually, concrete countertops have actually ended up being rather of a status symbol for kitchen areas, matching granite countertops denver colorado and also other high-end kitchen counter surface options. Consumer News Magazine (August 2004) ranked concrete highest possible for its "customization" and also "exclusivity" among high-end cooking area countertops.

As a customized item, the amount of time as well as workmanship required to produce concrete countertops puts them as one of the most labor-intensive as well as most costly amongst leading counter top materials.

Nevertheless, concrete countertops are ending up being extra obtainable for those on a modest budget. The most recent diy (DIY) fad to captivate home owners and also building contractors is constructing your very own concrete kitchen counter. This sensation has actually gotten appeal greatly as a result of Cheng's very successful publication Concrete Countertops: Style, Kinds, and Ends Up for the New Cooking Area as well as Bathroom (Taunton Press, 2002). According to Cheng, there is little monetary financial investment in making concrete counter tops, yet the imaginative gains of dealing with concrete abound.

THE SHOWSTOPPER

Significantly, property owners are moving away from the tedious, manufactured appearance of typical counter top surface areas as well as choosing concrete for its natural, timeless appeal. And also, the alternatives for personalizing concrete counter tops are limitless: one can tint, gloss, stamp and also stain concrete or imbed personal objects like stones, seashells as well as fossils into the counter top's surface, adding view and personality. Useful functions such as drainpipe boards, soap dishes, as well as trivets can additionally be incorporated to fit the home owners' own demands and also way of living.

Concrete is slowly becoming demystified as typically cold and commercial. In contrary, this old-time product is warm and also surprisingly tactile; people can not assist but touch their smooth, polished surfaces. Realty representative Delight Rasmussen, who has actually just recently marketed her mountain residence-- a temporary financial investment property in Boat Springs, CO-- recounts her visitors' experiences with concrete: "When I had open homes, visitors gravitated to the concrete kitchen counters-- many people around right here have never seen them".

Joy's 2,265 sq. ft. mountain residence was custom build by her other half, Ken Otterman, together with KJ Otterman, president of Standard Special Customized Residences. They developed pour-in-place concrete counters for the residence's kitchen area and 3 bathrooms by utilizing Concrete Countertops as their overview. The sand-colored concrete counter tops were brightened smooth, then paired with all-natural slate of differing shades-- like charcoal, rust and also gold tones-- that develops the backsplashes in the kitchen and also baths. As a design accent, small rectangular slate ceramic tiles were contributed to the edge of the bathroom sinks, which provided an unique information to the custom-made vanities.

When Pleasure as well as Ken determined to market their residence, their financial investment in concrete kitchen counters proved its value. "We had the ability to provide your home $20,000 over market value, as well as had not a problem offering it," remarks Delight, while talking about the long checklist of upgrades throughout their home, consisting of knotty pine solid doors, all-natural slate wall accents and hardwood floors. "The concrete counter tops were easily the most special as well as outstanding of all the coatings. I believe they were a substantial part in including value to the residence. Around below, all you see in houses are granite kitchen counters-- as well as I really think property buyers are getting fairly numb with granite."

" Concrete kitchen counters are a distinct offering to buyers who see the very same coatings used in residence after home they check out," clarifies Happiness, supplying her observation as an experienced real estate agent. "Having concrete countertops almost provides you boasting civil liberties-- you have something different from your neighbors."

DAMAGING THE MOLD AND MILDEW

An additional benefit of concrete is its flexibility in either contemporary or conventional settings, specifically when coupled with various other materials like different steels, wood or rock. "Concrete adds numerous [opportunities] to rock, and also the combination with slate, which is hugely preferred here, provides the hill homes an overall cozy, all-natural touch," says Delight.

Joy and Ken have since built a much bigger home (4,000 sq. ft.) that offers extensive views of the Steamboat Ski Resort and is suggested to work as a long-term financial investment for the pair. They have actually additionally increased their listing of customized coatings, consisting of hand-troweled wall surfaces, stylish oil-rubbed bronze equipment, knotty pine doors that arch on top, cupboards in an all-natural, knotty alder, and also their preferred-- concrete kitchen area counter tops.

Unlike in their previous house, KJ and also his specialty staff poured charcoal-colored counter tops using the pre-cast approach in the incomplete basement of the brand-new home. Before putting the concrete, they sprinkled a selection of semi-precious stones in the mold and mildew including Leopardskin, Moonstone, Mother-of-Pearl and also Blue-green. After the surface was ground as well as lightly brightened, the completed result was an outstanding mix of shades, "By far, the Mother-of-Pearl was the most incredible," states Joy.

The L-shaped concrete kitchen counter has a rough, rustic stone appearance, complementing its rugged nation surroundings. An important drainpipe board as well as trivets provides function as well as included interest to the concrete countertop. Natural slate backsplashes, unique wall surface accents, and a butcher block counter top at the kitchen island all resonate with the conventional heat and also earthiness of the concrete kitchen counters.

Pleasure and also Ken's respective backgrounds in realty as well as customized homebuilding, and as investment homebuyers, have aided them understand that concrete kitchen counters can include remarkable aesthetic and also economic worth to a home. Concrete's personalization and also "show-stopping" appeal resembles nothing else kitchen counter surface. Cheng is an advocate of emotional aesthetics and building residences that capture these feelings, as in the case of Delight and also Ken Otterman. Cheng ends: "People really want differentiation, something individual, something custom-made-- and also concrete can do that for them."