A Concrete Guitar Wins DIY Project Contest

A twist on its annual One Bag Wonder contest, QUIKRETE challenged people to make concrete gifts for family and friends this holiday season rather than buying from a department store or a retail website. Prevailing in a very stiff competition, Johnny Brooke hit all the right notes with his winning strat-style electric guitar.

Stephanie Leigh claimed second prize with her Christmas Tree Mannequin followed by Joseph Grout’s Geometric Atlas Sculpture in third place. Judged based on creative, craftmanship and quality, the winning DIY concrete projects netted Brooke, Leigh and Grout $2,500, $1,500 and $500, respectively, as well as a trip to Atlanta for the Haven Conference next July. Alicia Castano received honorable mention for her Concrete Christmas Village.

Stephanie Leigh's Christmas Tree Mannequin took second place in the 2020 QUIKRETE One Bag Wonder contest.QUIKRETE

Joseph Grout's Geometric Atlas Sculpture took third place in QUIKRETE's 2020 One Bag Wonder contest.QUIKRETE"We’ve traditionally held the QUIKRETE One Bag Wonder contest in the spring or summer when people are more actively engaged in DIY projects, but with the unique circumstances this year, we thought a holiday edition might be a nice change,” said Frank Owens, Senior Vice President of Marketing for The QUIKRETE^® Companies. “While we anticipated getting some unique projects, the level of creativity reached new heights led by Johnny’s QUIKRETE guitar. As a musician myself, I’m truly amazed at the imagination it took to even conceptualize transforming concrete into a functioning electric guitar. The same sentiment could be said about all the projects, which made picking the winners very difficult.”

Conducted from Nov. 1 to 30, the DIY holiday gift projects entered in the One Bag Wonder contest had to be completed with no more than one bag of any QUIKRETE product. A QUIKRETE panel was joined by the Home Projects Council, a think tank of home improvement experts, in judging the projects.