When you have 4 adults and one baby {who is cloth diapered} in a home, you need a functional laundry room..and stat! We still have no idea what the heck we are doing in there design wise, but we finally installed the cabinet and made a countertop for it. I originally had wanted to use the regular butcher block from Ikea, but when J went to get it, he found something even greater. They sell tops for desks so you can create whatever base you want, and its only $60. For the amount of butcher block counter we were needing, it was going to be $140! SCORE! Now also keep in mind, J wanted to keep it super simple and just make a top using plywood, but I vetoed that idea. That obviously could have made this even cheaper, but sometimes I just like what I like;)
The process was super simple.
- Cut the desk top to your desired size {we made ours shorter and thinner}
- Sand the entire top {edges especially to make smooth again}
- Stain in whatever shade you desire. We did two coats.
- Now here you have options for finishing it. You can either ‘treat’ the block with a product, or you can seal it using Polyurethane. We chose to seal ours since I know myself, and there will be many days where I throw a wet shirt with stain remover on it on the counter and forget about it. I didn’t want to have to worry at all about that ruining the counter.
- Once top is cut, sanded, stained, and sealed, its install time. We simply used caulk to adhere it to the base cabinet and then screwed it in place. Easy peasy.
Sorry for not doing a million process shots, but it was all so straight forward I felt silly! Here is the pretty after:
For those who were asking more about the door trim we are doing, here is a shot of it. A tutorial is coming, but I cannot handle having too many tutorials on stuff until they are fully finished…and none of the trim is painted yet.
It is so nice not having a fold up card table in there any more. Yes, that is what we have been using for the past three months. We know how to keep it classy! Happy Friday, and Happy Memorial Day!! Have fun and stay safe this weekend with whatever you end up doing.
I like the fact that you didn’t do a million shots of the process… I think it’s unnecessary.
You can only go through so many of “here is the first sanding, the second sanding, the first coat, the second coat, the third coat” before we all think OMG enough is enough already! LOL
I like the top of your door, makes the room look classy.
This is super smart! Such a thrifty couple you are. And I love the stained look. I continue to wish we had stained our butcher block countertops. Great job!
That looks so good! And I’m dying to add trim to the tops of our doorways too, but our molding isn’t flat…not sure how that would look. :/
I love this idea! My fiancé and I are looking for this same look in our laundry room. WE are currently painting a whole wall of cabinets that we have in our room. I was wondering, what type of stain did you use? And what process did you use to stain, rag, brush, foam? My fiancé is just getting into woodworking and he’s afraid the stain will not come out even and will not soak in, so I was wondering if you could help us! Thanks!