How to make a butcher block counter top

In our new kitchen we are installing beautiful copper counter tops that will age and patina naturally. While I love the living finish of the copper I have my concerns about rolling and kneading bread dough on the bare counter and getting the verdigris all over my delicious bread. So instead I talked my husband into doing a section of butcherblock for my baking area, but on our VERY tight budget a brand new john boos block was absolutley out of the question. Ikea has very affordable butcherblock, but the nearest Ikea is about 5 hours away and by the time we shipped it or drove there we could have had a really nice brand of block. So instead I decided to keep my eyes out for a used quality butcher block kitchen table on craigslist. So for $30 I got something like this but with a thinner top


So we brought it home removed the beautiful legs, which I'm going to use to make a farmhouse style table, but that will come later...
Anyhow we cut it to fit and Jessie added some beautiful mahogany to the edge to give it some contrast and durability. We sanded it down, stained it a darker tone and sealed it. Installing it was a breeze, and now we have a custom, butcher block that looks like it was very expensive for about 75 dollars!

Here it is before we stained/sealed it we were dry fitting it make sure it fit nicely

alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5473741871299542866" />



and here it is all installed and waiting to get it's beadboard backsplash







Can you see that beautiful black beauty in the lower corner of the pictures, that's my new dishwasher! My mother's day gift. This house had never had one installed and I was VERY tired of doing dishes twice a day.

well I'm off to unload the dishwasher, a task I will never complain about!

Peace notice I do not have dishpan hands