Concrete Detail Innovative Countertops
11 March 2010
“It’s Not Your Papa’s Floor Anymore”
One of the things that interests me about countertops is the wide multitude of materials that can be used for them. I remember years ago when I was an Army cook in Berlin (OK, OK, decades ago-never mind how many!) and got a crash course in different countertop materials. I was transferred there from a post in West Germany, and I was appalled when I saw the steel countertops I would have to use. At that time I thought that the only acceptable countertop was a butcher block, but what I found was that I could get along just fine with a chopping block for the kind of things that needed to be done that way.
If you learn to cook by simply plopping down a head of lettuce on a countertop and going to work on it, having to switch over to a chopping block is something of a jolt. But, interestingly enough, from that day to this, that is how I have worked, excepting only the year or so I spent in restaurant kitchens. But for home use, it has always been a countertop made of material that necessitated the use of a chopping block of some sort for salads or cutting up meat for stews and the like. But once you get used to that sort of thing the actual material used for countertops can take on many dimensions.
In recent years one of the more innovative countertops has been concrete, which is a bit startling to an old codger like myself, but it is, as it turns out, a most plastic medium, in that it can be shaped, colored, and formed in an absolutely astonishing number of ways. I bring that up because I recently came across Concrete Detail, a New England-based company that specializes in countertops. What I find myself liking about their designs is the simplicity with which they have approached this ancient medium. The coolest thing about concrete these days is the many things that can be done with it, but that can be a seductive trap. The object, as I see it, is to design a countertop that is a focal point, without overpowering the kitchen.
Really, what should guide the design of the countertop of is the environment in which the finished product will sit. I bring that up because Concrete Detail has made countertops with that marvelous colored concrete and embedded glass, which is just a stunning concept. But they also know when to say when. Sometimes all a kitchen really needs is a simple countertop with a solid color to make a pleasing contrast with lighter-colored cabinets.
Another countertop I found myself particularly admiring was made with a soft gray/green they call “Sage.” They chose it because it complemented the existing cabinets, which had been handmade of cherry and had aged to that glorious patina that gives cherry its character-when you can keep it away from the Big Plant Manufacturers who insist on staining it to ensure “homogeneity,” thereby robbing it of all that makes cherry such a wondrous wood. To dress up this particular countertop, though, Concrete Detail used a series of back-painted, glass, mosaic tiles in a foursquare pattern that was embedded in three different locations. Each of the tiles they used was a different color, suggested by the slate backsplash tiles they used. It’s a design that is both simple and stunning.
I also like what they have done with an integrated farmhouse sink, which is pretty slick because you don’t often see a farmhouse sink that is integrated into the countertop, as opposed to a drop-in sink. And the splash of color they use from time to time in their designs is really just skilled artisans taking advantage of one of concrete’s primary advantages, which is that you can do anything you want to do with it.
My father worked in construction a lot as a young man, and really could have hired himself out as a general contractor, had he been so inclined. Back in the 1950s he made and installed a Formica countertop with a stainless steel double sink for our kitchen, not seeing, as indeed no one did then, other materials beneath his feet that could have been put to the same use. I remember watching him when he built out the basement in that house and expanded what was really just a crawl space to a complete, finished basement for our growing family. It had a bedroom, laundry room, and workshop for the Old Man. One of the thrills (hey, this was pre-almost-any-other-kind-of-entertainment days!) was when the concrete truck came to our house and they pumped concrete into the basement which my father then troweled himself. Whoever would have thought that same material would one day be used for absolutely glorious countertops?
Joseph
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2 Responses to “Concrete Detail Innovative Countertops”
March 11th, 2010 at 6:28 PM
Joe,
I am flabbergasted and honored! I’m the guy behind Concrete Detail… You have homed in unerringly to the heart of the concrete matter: whereas artisan concrete can become whatever you want, it is at its finest when it is designed to “belong”. Restraint and clarity are appropriate virtues when it comes to knowing where to start and when to finish; I am so fortunate to have found a medium that gives me unrestrained license, yet delivers with subtlety. Thank you for the wonderful insights!
March 13th, 2010 at 9:09 AM
Excellent! Wish they were closer!