DIY Cement Kitchen Paper towel stand

You won’t believe how easy this DIY is. All you need is cement, a wooden dowel, two wood screws and a mold. You don’t need buy molds. Just use any plastic container you have at home. Can be a round or square container as long as its wide enough to hold the kitchen towel roll. I salvaged a dates container and used it as my mold here.

If you want something like a wall mounted paper towel holder then check out this DIY wall mounted paper towel holder that I made.

Materials required:

Cement
Any oil
1 inch dia wood dowel
Wood screw 2inch long – 2 nos
Mold – Square or round container
Silicone bumpers
Painter’s tape
Water
Mixing container
Mixing stick
Water based clear Sealer- polyacrylic
Sand paper or sanding block

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DOs and DONTs

You can use any kind of mold for your casting. I have seen people use all kinds of material as mold. You can make silicone mold with this kit from amazon or buy one (like I did to make my DIY cement coaster) or make one with melamine wood or use any plastic container. It really depends on the size of your object and what shape you want to cast. If you are casting a small and simple object, you can also make a mold in the desired shape with cardboard. Once concrete cures, cardboard can be peeled off easily.
Prepping the mold: Make sure the mold is water tight. If you are using any material other than silicone or melamine, I recommend coating the mold with clean vegetable oil or some release agent. This will help a lot when you demold.
Make sure that you follow the cement to water ratio as per the manufacturer’s specification. I have used ‘Cement All’ in this project. As per the direction, I used a 1:4 ratio. You want the mixture to be in pancake batter-like consistency.

After you fill the mold, it is very important to release the air bubbles. So, give a few taps on all sides and corners of the mold. If you are casting a bigger item, pound on the mold with a rubber mallet.
To add a personal touch, you can add liquid cement color to your concrete mix. In this project, I have only used acrylic paints to color the cement. In the case of acrylic paints, use as little as possible. Otherwise, it could affect the composition of the mixture.
After curing, you should seal it with a water-based sealer. I use this polyacrylic sealer for most of my projects. It gives a little shiny finish to it.

DIY Cement Kitchen Paper towel stand

Step – 1: Cut the wood dowel to 13.5 inches long.

Step – 2: Then add two screws on one end of the dowel like in below image. No need to drill all the way through. It just needs to screwed in 1/8th inch. These screws are very important as they will act as reinforcement and strengthen the bond between dowel and cement after its cured. If you do not provide such reinforcement, the connection between dowel and hardened cement will break.

Step – 3: Glue the dowel (with screw end down) to the center of the mold or container.

Step – 4: Grease the mold with vegetable oil. You can use any kind of oil here. The oil will not mix with cement and it will make the demolding process easier. Make sure you do not oil the dowel and screws.

Step – 5: Mix the cement. Follow the ratio as per the instructions given in the package. I use the ratio 1 : 4 water to cement ratio for the cement all.

Step – 6: Pour into the container for about an inch thick and tap the container on all sides. This will help to release the air pockets. Next, tape the container and the dowel to secure the dowel in its straight vertical position.

Step – 7: Let it cure for at least 24 hours.

DIY Cement Kitchen Paper towel stand — The mold for base

Demold, Sand & Personalize

Step – 8: Before de molding, try to loosen up the edges a bit. Then, slowly remove the piece out of the container.

Step – 9 : Sand the whole piece and remove dust with clean towel.

Step – 10: Personalize the stand with any color paint you want or leave it as it is in cement color. Finally finish with water based clear sealer.

Step – 11: Add bumpers.