Butcher Block Counters

When we moved into our house we knew we wanted to change out the dark green faux marble laminate counters. My husband suggested butcher block counters which he thought would look good with the white cabinets. We bought them from Ikea.
We finished painting our cabinets in September 2011 and then took a break from the kitchen renovation. We bought the counters in February 2012.
I wanted to have a breakfast bar so we measured out what we needed for the counters to include that and brought a sketch to Ikea. For some reason I thought the counters came custom sized. But of course this is Ikea so you have to do some work. They sell the butcher block pieces in set sizes and then you have to cut them down to size.

These are the counters that we picked out:

We bought three pieces of butcher block. One was a thinner piece because my husband wanted to use it for a small back splash. We spent around $350 total! You don't need to buy the back splash piece if you want to save some extra money- I don't think I have seen anyone else do that.

If you have to cut the butcher block down you need to sand the edges but otherwise its ready to go.

This is my lone picture of the installation... (That's our old dishwasher on the left we didn't replace it until we put the new counters in.)

After you install and caulk the cracks you need to oil the wood to protect it. And then do it again every 6 months. We bought the Behandla oil right from Ikea.

After a year and a half I can say that our counters are still holding up great and I have no regrets! We use Clorox wipes to clean them and try to clean up any spills right away. We do NOT cut on them. I did have a rogue blueberry leave a stain but you can lightly sand the wood and re-oil it for any hard to get out spots. The only spot where I see some wear is around the sink. We clean any spilled water up right away but I think if we oiled it there extra that would help.

Full counter after pictures coming with the tile back splash post and kitchen afters.