Hockey Table just for Christmas

Whether you call it a rec room, man cave, dude room, or entertainment area, theme rooms are becoming a great way to make a lower level basement into a fun, hang out place.

A couple in River Falls, WI did just that. Their lower level was remodeled to mimic a hockey rink. With rink boards, jerseys and hockey frames, there was only one piece left to set this "hockey center" apart, a hockey concrete countertop.

The countertop was a total of 12 feet long, colored wicker tan, and included all types of hockey equipment and memorabilia. The parents chose their daughters skates, helmet, gloves, sticks, and medals to embed into the countertop. To mask the seams in the large top, two hockey sticks were placed to give the illusion of one large precast piece.

The result was impressive. This family truly has a one-of-a-kind countertop. And we delivered it just in time before all the Holiday parties.


Merry Christmas!

Carly Dus
Concrete Arts
http://www.concretearts.com/

Best Precast Project - Gold Award

Bomanite Corporation announced the 2008 Project of the Year awards at its annual conference held in Kansas City, MO. Concrete Arts took home the prestigious Best Precast Project, Gold Award. The Best Precast Project featured a fireplace we did in Lakeville, MN. This fireplace project encompasses everything an award captures, artistry, innovation, and ambition.

This residential fireplace was made entirely out of concrete. Concrete Arts hand chiseled each individual pre casted block, totaling around 100 individual blocks. Each block was acid stained with two different colors. The base color was a walnut stain and accented with Auburn to create dimension. The lighter color stones are the natural concrete mix that simulates natural limestone.

Carly Dus

Concrete Arts

http://www.concretearts.com/

Concrete Countertops - Vessel Sinks

Vessel sinks used to be only used for classy venues such as sushi bars or upscale restaurants. Slowly this popular trend has been moving into the everyday homes and taken on many different looks from contemporary to industrial. Vessel sinks are formed from many different types of material, copper, limestone, bronze, glass, pewter, wood, ceramic, metals, and various stones. What some designers have neglected when buying or creating vessels sinks is concrete.

Vessels sinks allow a person to determine his or her own style. Now concrete vessel sinks can elaborate and take his or her creativity even further at a more reasonable price. The countertop below shows just how eye-catching and unique one can be with a vessel sink and countertop.

This particular vessel sink is integrally colored slate gray with the base countertop colored a darker slate gray. To tie the countertop and sink into the rest of the room, black, violet, and clear glass with mirror mixed in was exposed to add an interesting element to the piece.

Carly Dus

Concrete Arts

http://www.concretearts.com/

Asian Retreat

An architect striving for an "Asian Feel" commissioned Concrete Arts to create a surface of his front landscaping area and river side patio. He wanted to incorporate a unique design, product and methodology for this 1,340 square foot area. The result was a clever combination of local materials with an Eastern feel. The lake side patio was poured with our custom Revealed blend of white portland cement and salt and pepper granite aggregates. The front sidewalk was also poured with this mix with granite pepples hand placed in a diamond pattern. The pepples were slightly elevated above the rest of the surface area for texture.

Carly Dus

Concrete Arts

http://www.concretearts.com/

Remembering Nativity

Nativity Catholic School
250 quotes and 2,600 square feet in memory of Nativity

The Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Parish in St. Paul, MN put on a fundraiser for its private school. The fundraiser consisted of featuring an area in the front
entrance to the school commemorating loved ones and past members of the school and parish.

The 35 year old concrete was tore out and poured new with an integral color, Slate Gray. This 2,600 square foot area was then etched with a retarder to create a
beautiful Sand Cast texture.

All 250 quotes were then sand blasted into the concrete where we previously cut faux joints in the shape of the Nativity emblem. Instead of a separate pour or
staining, we sealed the surface with two different products, Siloxean and Acrylic
Solvent Based Sealer. These sealers created two different finishes on the Sand Cast accenting the boarders, stairs, and sandblasted areas.

Nativity now has a beautiful entrance to the school where people take note of it’s history and legacy. To you Nativity, we say thank you.

Carly Dus

Concrete Arts

http://www.concretearts.com/

A Boy Scout Tribute

A Sand Cast plaza adds beauty and elegance to commemorate the start of boy scouts.

A boy scout statue stood alone for many years unnoticed. As an effort by the Hudson community, a plaza area was designed around this statue to commemorate the achievements of the Boy Scouts.

A Sand Cast texture was chosen because of its durability and cost effectiveness. This texture resembles sand blasted concrete and can incorporate specialized colored sands and or aggregates. This mix however, used the typical concrete mix.

The plaza area had two separate pours. One Pour was integrally colored with Oxford Brown. The second pour was a Beach Sand. The Beach Sand texture was later stained with an Mission Brown to accent squares in front of the benches that surround the plaza.

A monumental feature was precasted to hold all the names of the donators and a write up of the history of the Boy Scouts. This 1200 lb precast piece was stained mission brown to match the accent squares.

The Boy Scout statue now is a focal point of the Hudson down town river front area. The plaza now adds beauty and elegance to the walkways that surround the Pier and St. Croix river area of Hudson, WI.

Carly Dus

Concrete Arts

http://www.concretearts.com/

Dream Home 2009, Parade of Homes

With such an immaculate home and beautiful artistry, one might overlook the simple yet elegant details of the 2009 Dream Home.

Concrete Arts teamed up and worked closely with Charles Cudd De Novo in creating the architectural exterior work for the Dream Home in Orono, MN. With such strong features, walk ways, patios, stoops, and the pool areas needed to match the artistry of the home's rich, classic décor.

There was over 3,500 square feet of concrete work for the home’s exterior. A traditional Ashlar slate pattern was chosen with a simple saw cut border deemed the perfect choice in featuring the home’s exterior. Curved edges and design scores added interest and detailing that created focal points for large areas and walk ways.

To match the home’s exterior, Concrete Arts created a custom color to integrally color the decorative concrete. An antique release was sprayed on to add dimension and depth. Take a look at the photos below!

Carly Dus

Concrete Arts

http://www.concretearts.com/