Concrete polished kitchen island – London – Surrey

Monolithic cast concrete kitchen island

This concrete kitchen island was fabricated as one whole integral unit. Pleasant lay-lines and rustic air bubbles are naturally formed on the cascading ‘waterfall’ ends. This type of casting takes a lot of practice to master . We need to pour the wet concrete into the negative formwork, whilst managing to keep the weight and pressure of the vertical legs from forcing the mix out of the bottom of the mould. Normally this type of project can only be considered using a cast-in-place method with a trowelled surface.  The island measures 3.2mtr x 1.2mtr x 80mm with full width legs, and weighs just under one ton. Careful consideration was required when planning the logistics.
A crane was used to lift the concrete over the house, and a custom trolley was fabricated to manoeuvre the island into position. The top was cast using a slight black pigment, and finished using an acid staining technique to give a pre-weathered and aged look which brings out the natural grain or ‘patina’. This particular project was over two years old when the photo shoot was taken and is a good example of how concrete will gracefully age over time.