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Creative Ways With Countertop Inlays
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Greetings!
 Adding inlays and inserts is
a great way to personalize a
concrete countertop in a
kitchen, bathroom, or
outdoor room. Almost any
small object will work, as
long as it's not too fragile.
Look around your own home for items such as pieces of broken glass, leftover tiles, stone, and small metal objects. We've also seen concrete countertops that incorporate family heirlooms, fossils, unusual artifacts, and even old car parts. Check out these five examples of how to use inlays to give your countertops greater character.
Jim Peterson,
The Concrete Network
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Bathroom for a car enthusiast
Shelley Chomistek of Rafter C Precast Concrete transformed the bathroom of a car buff into an automotive men's room using car parts that he supplied. A polished concrete vanity top with a built-in backsplash incorporates three working car gauges that light up and serve as night lights.
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Broken glass lights up a bar top
For clients looking for an unusual bar top for entertaining, Alla Linetsky of Concrete Elegance built a cantilevered dark-purple concrete countertop jazzed up with thick chunks of broken glass backlit by LED lighting. The clients even got involved in the act by placing the pieces of glass where they wanted them before the concrete was poured.
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Excavated bottles add historic character
These farm-style concrete countertops, installed in a trio of restored homes in the historic district of Charleston, S.C., incorporate broken bottle fragments dug up from the backyard. They are the remnants of Bixby Bottles, antique ink bottles dating as far back as the 1600s.
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A river runs through it
For a client who wanted kitchen countertops with a river theme, Tommy Cook of Absolute ConcreteWorks set stones in the forms, some gathered from a stream on the client's own property, and then used grinding, polishing and staining to achieve the look of a flowing river.
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Kitchen island with blue coral
On the corner of this cast-in-place kitchen island is a blue agate stone that was glued into the mold before the concrete was poured around it. The island also features a raised teak-wood bar that complements the sink's teak drainboard.
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