The final day is the fun part. You get to put your own artistic touches to the oven (and if you don’t have any arty bones in your body – you can always paint).

Day 3

Step 1: Render the oven

1. In the same manner as before, get your rubber gloves on and cover the entire oven with cement. This is so much fun, and you will get to shape the oven into a shape that you like
2. Ensure you smooth all edges and cover the entire oven
3. Allow to dry

Step 2: Paint the oven

1. Paint the oven with bondcrete. This will waterproof the outer layer of your oven
2. Paint your oven. We used render paint so that it has a rough finish and is textured (colourbond: Paperbark)

Step 3: Tile the oven

1. To finish the bench, you can use tiles or pebbles. I used pebble tiles, but this was because the oven wasn’t perfect, and I could hide a myriad of crooked edges. Plus I love the look of smoothed pebbles.
2. Lay your pebbles out roughly
3. Using tile adhesive stick the tiles down
4. Fill any gaps with loose pebbles
5. Allow the adhesive to dry
6. Test your pebbles to ensure any loose pebbles are stuck down

Step 4: Grout your bench

1. Cover your pebbles or tiles into place with grout. Again, messy, but fun.
2. Allow the grout to dry
3. Using a wet sponge, sponge wipe of any excess grout
4. Paint a tile waterproofer over your pebbles to protect them

Final step: Get cooking

I will post how to make things in your wood-fired oven in future blogs!