How to Make a Concrete Soap Dish (Modern DIY, Step by Step)

Julian measures the packaging of his soap bar, marks a square on a piece of leftover wood, and cuts a base plus four side strips with a hand saw. His base ran about 8 by 8 cm, but any size that fits your soap works. The four strips become the walls of the mold.

Take your time squaring the cuts. The mold shape is exactly the shape your dish will be, so a wonky wall means a wonky dish. No power tools needed here - a basic hand saw does the whole job.

Here is the trick that gives this dish its look. Julian holds a sharp chisel at a low angle and shaves grooves along the grain of the base piece, working out the raised wood fibers. These carved lines press into the wet concrete and cast as ridges on the finished surface.

Those ridges are not just decoration. They lift the soap off the flat and let water run down into the low channels, so the bar dries out instead of turning to mush. Work with the grain and let the tool do the cutting.

A quick rub with sandpaper knocks off the loose fibers the chisel left standing, so the grooves cast crisp. Then Julian stands the four side strips up around the carved base to build the open box.

He wraps the whole thing tightly in adhesive tape to hold the walls against the base. The tape is your clamp - pull it snug so the corners stay closed. Any gap here is a spot where wet concrete can seep out and leave a ragged edge.

Before any concrete goes in, Julian brushes plain household oil over the inside of the wood mold. This is your release coat. It stops the concrete from bonding to the wood and to the carved grooves.

Get oil into every ridge and corner. When the concrete has cured, an oiled mold peels away clean and leaves the grain pattern sharp. Skip this and the wood can stick and tear chunks off the surface when you demold.

Julian mixes a fast-setting concrete in a bucket, shaking and stirring it well to work the air bubbles out. Then he fills the taped mold and levels the top with a stick.

Push the mix into the corners and over the carved grooves so it fills every line. Tap the sides of the mold a few times to bring trapped air to the surface - that gives you a denser cast with fewer pinholes. Then set it aside to cure.

Julian covers the mold with plastic and parks it in a shady spot so it cures slowly and does not crack. Once it has set, he peels off the tape and runs a craft knife along each side strip to break it free.

The four walls lift off first. The base is the stubborn one, so a light tap with a small hammer releases it. Out drops a solid grey slab carrying the crisp grain pattern from the carved mold.

Raw concrete can scratch a sink or countertop, so Julian glues four small feet to the underside - he used cut-off pieces of hot-glue stick, but felt pads or rubber bumpers work too. He wipes away the squeezed-out glue for a clean bottom.

Then he brushes a coat of sealer over the whole dish. The sealer locks the surface, keeps water from soaking in, and makes the piece ready for daily bathroom use. Let it dry before you put soap on it.

The dish goes on the sink with a fresh bar of soap set into the grooves. Those carved ridges hold the bar up off the flat so water drains into the channels and the soap dries out between washes.

That is the whole build - scrap wood, a bag of concrete, and a few hand tools turned into a solid modern piece for the counter. It also makes a genuinely good handmade gift, so consider casting a second one while the mold is still together.