DIY Concrete Beverage Cooler

For our June Home Depot Gift Challenge, several other bloggers and myself used concrete to make a gift for our good ol' pops. It IS this weekend, you know. So, in thinking about what dads would want, I came up with this fun DIY Concrete Beverage Cooler!
Not gonna lie; we had NO idea if this would even work out like the visions I had in my head. And, it was a little time consuming and took awhile to figure it all out. BUT... it came out just how I was hoping!
Since the tutorial is quite lengthy, I will shorten it a bit. If you'd like to read more on how to make your own, click on over to my blog from the link below! So, to start, we used a concrete form tube and cut it down a bit to around 15". We used a piece of round foam and put it inside the concrete form, and then duct taped it like crazy (to keep the concrete out).
Cut a piece of wood to fit in the bottom of your 5 gallon bucket. We don't have any fancy saws, so my hubby cut it in an octagon shape to fit perfectly. Using a threaded coupling (shown below), duct tape both ends complete to make sure no concrete can seep into that as well.
Now it's time to mix your concrete. MAKE SURE to wear gloves and a mask, and do this outside in a very well ventilated area!!! You'll also need 2 people for this part. Start slowly pouring concrete into your 5 gallon bucket on top of the piece of plywood. Pour about 3 inches of concrete, making sure the plywood is covered and there's an inch or so of concrete on top.
Carefully push in your threaded coupling agains the side of the bucket, and gently push it down into the concrete.
Carefully put the concrete form tube in the bucket, pushing down just a little to get it in the concrete. Have one person push the form tube into the coupling to make sure concrete does get between it and the bucket. The other person can finish adding the concrete up to the top of the bucket.
Gently tap the bucket with a hammer to get out air bubbles. We also added in sisal rope handles. Let it all dry for about 36 to 48 hours. Once dry, carefully twist the concrete tube form around and tear it out. if the concrete doesn't easily come out of the bucket, cut it out with an xacto knife.
Turn the concrete cooler upside down, and screw on heavy duty casters to the wood. Flip it back over, cut through the duct tape from the coupling, and twist on your spigot/hose bib.
That's it! Phew, sorry if that was totally confusing!
Such a fun way to entertain outdoors this summer and keep your beverages nice and cool.
To read a more detailed tutorial (so that this will all make a lot more sense!), head over to my blog!
Amanda @ Dwelling In Happiness
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Amy Amy on Jul 02, 2017

    I like the look, but how much does it weigh?


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  • Lori Haro Lori Haro on Jun 21, 2018

    I love this idea. But I am going to make it all the same way but with a bigger tub. I think getting that water faucet into the cement before it dries would be easier then trying to make a hole later for it. ALso wonder if there is any kind of paint for cement to paint some pictures on it. Thank you for the "cool" idea.

  • Suzanne Suzanne on Mar 13, 2019

    Sounds like a winner

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