A kitchen rennovation in Bloomsburg, PA was capped off with a gorgeous slab Walnut counter on the island. After considering a butcher block versus a thick solid slab, the homeowners opted for the latter. This beautiful wood countertop started as two enormous 3″ thick boards from Alderfer Lumber. The client decided to embrace the lighter sapwood and live edge details that define the edge of the former tree. Isn’t Walnut beautiful?
After flattening and joining them together, Adam used four carefully placed dovetail keys to strenthen defects or knots in four areas and filled another knot hole with epoxy. At each end a perpendicular board crosses the long grain of the counter, joined with mortises and tenons and pegged so as to allow seasonal movement of the wood. The counter then was sanded, and sanded, and sanded before heavy coats of mineral oil were applied and allowed to soak in under plastic wrap. Finally, a custom beeswax/ coconut oil/ mineral oil top coat was rubbed on and buffed out for a completely food safe finish. Some people think wood counters are hard to care for, we disagree. Here is a good arcticle on maintaining an oiled wood counter.
The homeowners seem pretty thrilled with the result.
” Oh my goodness gorgeous! This is unbelievably beautiful, Adam and Nicole. Thank you so much for your hard work and labor in this. We absolutely LOVE it.” – H.A.
“Thank you Adam. It has been a lovely experience to work with you guys on this… I got to see something that I always wanted come true, I felt fully involved with it and I LOVE the outcome. It means a lot to me.” – S.S.
