A few years ago, my wife and I bought a house in Long Beach and after doing all the interior improvements we moved to the backyard to improve the outdoor spaces with some do it yourself (DIY) projects.
Outdoor tables and matching benches? Check.
Fencing and lighting? Check.
Now we needed to create a central serving hub for our backyard. It needed to be moveable, use recycled materials, have a modern concrete and wood combo aesthetic, and of course, be a DIY project.
With the trend of Pinterest becoming the norm for DIY’ers to check out, we decided to use our creative skill set and see what came to fruition. The result, a spectacular serving station with a concrete countertop and recycled wood siding that turned out fantastic. Being designers and do’ers ourselves, we love the art of DIY and are pleased to share with you a step by step guide on how to build your own bar!
Some tips I learned that you can benefit from:
Tip 1: Look for discounted lumber at Home Depot 1st before buying your lumber. You can get up to 75% off if you find some damaged pieces that still have good portions that fit your ultimate dimensions. Don’t always shy away from the imperfect ones.
Tip 2: Use naturally rot resistant wood like cedar and redwood for the main structures. To further protect the wood, use a waterproofing sealer like Thompson’s Water Sealer and don’t forget to seal the countertop with a concrete sealer too.
Tip 3: When mixing your concrete don’t over-water the concrete because it weakens the concrete and it creates a watery film on top when vibrating the bubbles out.
Tip 4: Give yourself attachment points in the concrete to facilitate connecting the countertop to the wood structure. I used a wood piece that spanned across the mold, like a bridge over water, and I hung bolts down into the concrete. The wood kept all the bolts at the same depth. After the concrete dried I removed the wood and the bolts were in place for connecting the base lumber.
We hope you enjoy the art of DIY as much as we do, for other crafting projects we’ve done here at Land Concern, check out our Kitchen Table design!
