I used to think concrete was just for driveways and sidewalks, maybe the occasional brutalist building that made you feel vaguely depressed.
Turns out, concrete has this whole other life as a craft material—which I guess makes sense when you think about it, since it’s basically just fancy stone dust you can mold into whatever shape you want. The DIY concrete vase trend has been bubbling up for maybe three or four years now, give or take, and honestly I’m still a little surprised it works as well as it does. You mix Portland cement with water and maybe some sand, pour it into a mold (usually a plastic bottle or cardboard tube with a smaller container nested inside), wait roughly 24 to 48 hours depending on humidity and temperature and probably the phase of the moon, and you’ve got yourself a chunky, industrial-looking vessel that somehow makes even grocery store carnations look intentional. The texture is always slightly different—sometimes smooth, sometimes pitted with tiny air bubbles that give it this lunar surface quality. I’ve seen people obsess over getting it perfectly smooth, sanding for hours, but the imperfections are kind of the point, or at least that’s what I tell myself when mine come out looking like moon rocks.
The appeal is partly aesthetic, partly the weird satisfaction of working with a material that feels substantial. Concrete doesn’t lie to you. It sets or it doesn’t.
Why This Material Feels Right for Right Now (Even Though It’s Ancient)
Here’s the thing: concrete as a building material goes back to the Romans, who figured out how to make structures that are still standing after two thousand years, which is more than I can say for most IKEA furniture. But using it for home decor, especially in these small, sculptural forms, feels distinctly contemporary—something about the contrast between the rough, unfinished texture and the delicate organic forms of flowers. It’s the same aesthetic impulse behind exposed brick or unfinished wood edges, I think, this desire to have materials that look like themselves instead of pretending to be something else. The modern concrete vase movement (if we can call it that without sounding ridiculous) really picked up steam around 2018 or 2019 on Pinterest and Instagram, where the visual contrast photographs exceptionally well. Dark gray concrete, bright green stems, maybe some dusty pink roses—it’s catnip for the algorithm. But there’s also something genuinely appealing about making something permanent-feeling with your own hands, even if you’re just following a tutorial and half your attempts crack or come out lopsided.
I’ve tried maybe a dozen of these projects, and I definately recommend starting with simple cylindrical shapes before you get ambitious with geometric molds or embedded objects.
The basic technique involves creating a negative space—you need an outer mold (the shape of the outside of your vase) and an inner mold (the shape of the hollow part where the flowers go). People use everything from yogurt containers to PVC pipe to fancy silicone molds you can buy online for thirty or forty dollars. The concrete mix matters more than you’d think; standard Portland cement works fine but can be a bit rough, while some people swear by adding a concrete fortifier or using a specific blend meant for casting. The water-to-cement ratio is critical—too wet and it won’t set properly or will crack as it dries, too dry and you can’t pour it smoothly and you’ll get air pockets everywhere. Most recipes call for something like a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio of cement to water by weight, but honestly it varies so much based on your specific cement brand and local humidity that you kind of have to feel it out. Wait—maybe that’s terrible advice for beginners. Look up a specific recipe. But also be prepared to adjust based on how it’s actually behaving, which is the frustrating part they don’t always tell you in tutorials.
The Mess, the Waiting, and What Actually Makes These Vases Work in Your Home
The mess is real. Concrete dust gets everywhere.
You’ll want to work outside or in a garage, wear gloves (the alkaline cement can irritate your skin, sometimes badly if you’re sensitive), and accept that whatever surface you’re working on will probably have concrete residue on it forever. The waiting is also real—after you pour, you typically wait 24 hours before demolding, then another few days for it to fully cure before you actually use it with water. Some people seal their vases with a concrete sealer or even just a few coats of a waterproofing spray, which helps prevent that white efflorescence that can bloom on the surface when water seeps through. I usually skip this step out of impatience and then regret it later when I notice the white dusty patches appearing. As for what makes these work decorationally—and here I’m probably going to sound like I’m overthinking it—I think it’s the weight. These things are heavy in a way that feels good on a table, like they’re not going anywhere. They have presence. A single stem in a concrete vase feels like a deliberate choice rather than a sad leftover from a bouquet. The neutral gray goes with basically everything, which is helpful if you’re decorating-challenged like me. And there’s something satisfying about the contrast between the hard, permanent vessel and the temporary, fragile flowers—a memento mori situation, maybe, or I guess just proof that opposites attract, even in home decor.
Anyway, I keep making these even though I now have more concrete vases than any reasonable person needs.
