Time for confession....I have a butcher block fetish. You know those big ol' butcher blocks on fat legs? The ones they used to use in actual butcher shops? I drool over them. But they're super expensive and H.E.A.V.Y.
I think I mentioned that we've been working on a very slow project to renovate our laundry room. We painted and put in the new cabinets this week and now we're ready for a countertop. There's a new Ikea opening in Kansas City next month and I was thinking about buying one of their 1.25" thick maple countertops for $170. But then I happened across a guy not far from where I work that was selling used butcher block countertops from a professional kitchen. These babies are 2.25" think hard rock maple with knife marks, gouges and even someone's declaration of love for someone with the initials "RH". Was it worth the extra $30 for these thicker countertops with more character? The question didn't even need to be asked.
We dragged the 8 foot piece home (yes, it's heavy!) and into the garage where I proceeded to sand and sand and sand and sand and sand some more to get the original finish off. I wasn't trying to get rid of the defects. Rather, I just wanted to get it to where it might take some reddish-brown stain since the natural maple color really doesn't match anything in our house. And, since it's going into our laundry room, putting stain and polyurethane on it is OK. Just don't do that if you're planning to put it into a kitchen or place food on it!
We must have burned up 2 saw blades and nearly caught the thing on fire when tried to cut it to length. Hard rock maple is just that...hard!
Anyway, I think the final result turned out pretty nice. That's two coats of Minwax Red Mahogany and three coats of poly. And I finally got that butcher block that I've always wanted.
Happy late birthday to me!
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