DIY Remix: Koi Fish $5 Bucket Stool DIY

Check out the short video I made of this DIY above.

I was wondering what would embossing and inlaying concrete look like. So I used Homemade Modern's bucket stool DIY as a project to try it out on. I ended up with stool that had a Koi fish inlay design.

For more of my weird DIY's check out my blog: Home Tree Atlas

Materials

You'll need:

1 1/4 inch dowels
A bucket
Cardboard
Packing tape
Exacto knife
Sandpaper
And 2 colors of concrete. I used normal concrete and a bag of white concrete. You can also buy concrete dye and use it with white concrete.
A print out of a design, I found mine online

Cutting Out the Template

Cut out your print out, then trace it onto a sheet of cardboard. I did this twice so I could get a thick mold for the concrete.

Save the Leftovers

You can save the scrap pieces of the cut out, and use them to create embossed concrete pieces. Find my DIY for that here.

Glueing It Together

After you have your pieces cut out, then you'll need to glue them together. Since the bottom of my bucket wasn't flat, I needed to cut a circle from the cardboard.

Waterproofing

Take the packing tape and cover the whole piece. This will protect it from the wet cement.

Pouring the Cement

You will want a bit of a wet mix of cement. So that it will nicely cover the design.

Before you pour in the cement, make a mark 3 inches from the bottom of the bucket, so you'll know when to stop pouring. Also make a mark 1 1/2 inches from the bottom of your dowels, so you'll know how far to push them in.

The Stool Legs

Push in the dowels, and spread them evenly around the bucket. Since mine wanted to float up, I taped them to the bucket.

Tap and shake the bucket gently to get the air bubbles out.

Getting the Stool Out

Let it dry for over 20+ hours.

I had to break my stool out. But you should be able to bend the sides of the bucket to loosen it and pull it out.

The Inlay

The next step is pouring the colored/white cement into the inlay. Again you'll want a wet mix. Use a tooth pick to push the cement around making sure it gets in all of the corners of the design.

Sanding

Once the new cement is dry, you'll need to sand it to bring out the design.