Among the hundreds of exhibitors at the local home and garden show last weekend, only a handful stood out in my mind. Buried in the sea of roofers and storm shutter vendors, trying to capitalize on hurricane paranoia, were some truly unique products. Among them was a European Sculptured Stone. Don’t be fooled by the name however, they don’t sell stone, but your neighbors won’t know. Business owner, David Machado, explained how he converts ugly concrete into beautiful ‘faux-flagstone’ driveways and patios using a simple and inexpensive technique of scoring and staining concrete.

The job takes no more than a few days and jobs start at around $500. David says his customers are always thrilled with the work and the results are guaranteed. The idea of decorating concrete goes back to ancient Rome but only now have methods been developed to make the concrete resistant to daily use. Looking at the samples at David’s booth, you would really need to look closely to tell that it’s not real flagstone. He also showed me a before and after album with hundreds of completed projects. The results are amazing.

After that, I saw a few more booths and then made the mandatory stops at the amazing folding ladder guys, the mop guys, and the incredible revolutionary cooking systems. Left empty handed though. Let’s see what the next home show has in store for me.