Jump into the trend of terrazzo homewares and furniture by making your own! DIY specialist Natasha Dickins from Little Red Industries has created an easy formula that can be adapted to any size project.
Terrazzo is traditionally made by adding marble chips, stone pieces or crushed glass to a concrete formula that is poured into a mould, left to harden and polished. I love the look and decided to have a go at making it myself.
STEP 1 – THE MIXTURE
The magic formula for this terrazzo mix is…
• three parts white builder’s cement
• one part fine, washed sand
• one part oxide cement colouring
• one part bonding solution
DIY TIP
Adjust the volume of mixture by simply changing the size of the measuring vessel for bigger or smaller parts.
STEP 2
For the materials, I’ve used an off-white cement (instead of the more common grey) as it gives a lighter colour. Note that cement is not concrete – it’s a dry powder that is just one ingredient the makes up concrete.
Also choose washed sand, rather than builder’s sand, which contains clay that can make the mixture sticky and heavy.
DIY TIP
Use store-bought crushed quartz that has already been tumbled so there are no sharp edges.
STEP 3
To sieve the dry contents, I covered a round plastic basin with insect mesh and used a spatula to push through the cement, sand and oxide.
DIY TIP
Adjust the oxide mix for different tones. This mid-pink colouring is made up of three parts white and one part red powder.
STEP 4 – BONDING AGENT
In a jug, I combined one part Bondall Bondcrete as the bonding agent with four parts water.
STEP 5 – POUR
Then I poured small amounts into the dry mix, combining it into the smooth consistency of toothpaste.
DIY TIP
Use a spatula to combine small amounts, but a drill with a paint mixer to combine a larger quantity, working quickly to keep it from hardening.
STEP 6 – ADD MIXTURE TO MOULD
Then I sprinkled rose-coloured quartz crushed glass evenly over the base of the mould and dolloped on the mixture, trying not to move the pieces while covering the base and filling the mould.
STEP 7 – SMOOTH
After sprinkling the top with more crushed glass, I lightly smoothed the surface with a rubber trowel, agitated the mould to remove air bubbles and left it to dry overnight.
STEP 8 – SEAL
I gently flipped the terrazzo out of the mould onto a flat surface and left it for another day to cure. After sanding along the slightly rough edges with 180-grit wet-and-dry abrasive paper, I wiped away dust with a damp cloth then brushed on two coats of Betta TileCare Natural Look Sealer for a lovely matt finish.
OTHER PROJECT IDEAS
To make bookends, measure out the formula with a 250ml jug for the parts and use half a box of quartz crushed glass.
To make a small side tabletop, use the formula with a 1L jug to measure out the parts into16L round basin. Use a Northocote Pottery 780mm x 365mm plastic planter saucer as the mould and two boxes of quartz crushed glass.
