Stage 5: Butcher block beauties
So we decided to go with butcher block countertops.
At first we were going to go with laminate because they are durable and we thought they were pretty inexpensive. But when we went to get a quote, I apparently wanted all these things that were custom that I hadn't realized so it was much more expensive. So we just decided to go for butcher block.
We ordered American Cherry from Lumber Liquidators. We also paid for delivery which I highly recommend. They are HUGE pieces. It was delivered in 7 days by an enormous Fed Ex truck.
They come unfinished. Aaron cut them on the floor after I measured a gazillion times. Then we made sure they all fit. Aaron sanded them with a random orbital sander down to 220 grit. Honestly, it's still a little grittier than I would like in places, but it's ok. It will wear with time.
Then we had debated how to protect them. I am paranoid about water, but whatever, I will get over it with time because we use our kitchen hardcore and other people use it a ton and water will get on it. I am not sure what to do about things like rolling out dough for biscuits or bread, but we'll see. The nice thing is we always could sand it again if we had to and re-oil it.
I wanted Waterlox which I read about on lots of blogs, but we ended up going with a natural food safe oil with natural waxes. I oiled it once a day for 4 days and then I am planning to oil it once a week for a month and then once a month for a year and then we will see from there.
The installation was actually incredibly easy, but working with wood is my husbands forte so it was pretty easy and we would definitely do it again. I will comment on that thought 2 years down the road once I see how they hold up. For now, they look lovely.
At first we were going to go with laminate because they are durable and we thought they were pretty inexpensive. But when we went to get a quote, I apparently wanted all these things that were custom that I hadn't realized so it was much more expensive. So we just decided to go for butcher block.
We ordered American Cherry from Lumber Liquidators. We also paid for delivery which I highly recommend. They are HUGE pieces. It was delivered in 7 days by an enormous Fed Ex truck.
They come unfinished. Aaron cut them on the floor after I measured a gazillion times. Then we made sure they all fit. Aaron sanded them with a random orbital sander down to 220 grit. Honestly, it's still a little grittier than I would like in places, but it's ok. It will wear with time.
Then we had debated how to protect them. I am paranoid about water, but whatever, I will get over it with time because we use our kitchen hardcore and other people use it a ton and water will get on it. I am not sure what to do about things like rolling out dough for biscuits or bread, but we'll see. The nice thing is we always could sand it again if we had to and re-oil it.
I wanted Waterlox which I read about on lots of blogs, but we ended up going with a natural food safe oil with natural waxes. I oiled it once a day for 4 days and then I am planning to oil it once a week for a month and then once a month for a year and then we will see from there.
The installation was actually incredibly easy, but working with wood is my husbands forte so it was pretty easy and we would definitely do it again. I will comment on that thought 2 years down the road once I see how they hold up. For now, they look lovely.
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