Saturday, October 8, 2011

Taking care of butcher block

Quality products are hard to find and when you do find them you have to pay a pretty penny for them.  When I was looking for an island for my kitchen, I knew I wanted something sturdy and with a relatively large surface area AND I didn't want to pay a lot for it.  I looked online and saw lots of islands - nice granite islands - but they didn't really have the area that I wanted and they wouldn't have fit the look of my kitchen.  Then I found a 45" x 60" Ikea butcher block island that a guy was selling on Craigslist for $45!!! At the time we didn't even have the house yet but I knew I needed it.  However, I didn't really have any idea of how big it really was or how it would fit into the kitchen. When I was actually putting it together, I realized that it was actually 2 Ikea kitchen cabinet pieces with butcher block sides and a top.

Needless to say, I have no idea how I'd function without it now.  I'd never owned real butcher block before so I did some research on how to take care of it.  You should season your butcher block at least once a month with a light coating of warmed mineral oil.  Since I didn't have any mineral oil on hand, I found that you can substitute grapeseed oil since it doesn't go rancid.  If your butcher block is new, do one coat and let it dry.  Then, repeat 5-6 times letting the coats dry each time.



On the left is the treated area and on the right is untreated.  See what a little oil can do :)

0 comments:

Post a Comment