I used antique pine on our island. We ordered the wood from our local lumber yard.

Here is a link that might be useful: my kitchen

Walnut is lovely, and dark. We have it on our peninsula, and topping two built-in bookcases.

Walnut, Iroko, Mahogany, African mahogany, and many others depending on the look and PC-ness or green-ness you're looking for!

You can get any thickness you want. A good thickness to match 3mm granite is about 1 1/4" or so. Our cherry tops are 1 1/2".

Like Allison, we used "old" - reclaimed red oak planks. I thought they were quite reasonable and I very proudly finished the top myself with Waterlox. I think they look beautiful and I love the fact that they have "history".

Eliz

I was going to suggest walnut or wenge

In our mudroom, I was going to do laminate, but really wanted something else. I asked my trim guy about a wood counter. He made it for me in alder. I stained it dark. It looks great and was affordable. I don't know how durable it is. I never hear it mentioned for counters, so I wonder. I know it used a lot for cabinets. I can post pictures eventually if you are interested.

allison0704

Your kitchen is so beautiful! I love it. The colors are so pretty and that gray looks so lovely. Totally jealous!
:)

We used Brazilian Mahogany on our island, from Grothouse Lumber-they're great. My pictures are posted, not in the FKB, but here. There are so many beautiful choices-you really can't go wrong with wood. Grothouse puts a special finish on the wood that makes it easy to clean.

I used heart pine and love it. The quality of antique heart pine can vary. You want a tight, smooth grain. It is very easy to maintain.

As you said "reasonably priced" I will chime in with Ikea. You can join together two different pieces, and seal with Waterlox. The oak one is a bit darker, and there is a gorgeous picture of one that Chloe's Mom did in the link below, and actually the entire thread shows Ikea countertops.

Here is a link that might be useful: Waterloxed Ikea Oak Butcher Block

I have written quite a bit about wooden countertops in general and Brooks Custom in particular, so I won't add to that discussion here. If you're interested in what I had to say on the subject, you can click on the link at the bottom of this. But I will say here that Brooks Custom makes the most spectacular wood countertops that absolutely ever was. This is their URL, if you want to go to them direct:

http://www.brookswood.com/

Wood countertops, as it turns out, comes in all sizes and shapes. If all you've seen is butcher block countertops, you really haven't seen what can be done with a wood countertop. I suppose the difference in cost would have to be several thousand dollars, but the difference in "wow" is pretty much off the charts. And if cost really is that much of a factor, you might want to consider painted cabinets, as paint grade cabinets can often be had for less. Use the saved money for dark wood countertops, and you will have an absolutely awesome conversation piece!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cabinet & Furniture Trends & Information

A nearby coffee shop has a custom countertop made from spalted maple, which is absolutely beautiful. Every time I go there, I find myself running my hands over the counter, admiring the wood. To quote www.spaltedmaplelumber.com : "Spalting is any form of wood coloration caused by fungi. Although primarily found in dead trees, it can also occur under stressed tree conditions or even in living trees." Which sounds kind of gross, but here's a sample picture of the wood:

Because the spalting process does make the wood softer, the coffeeshop owner said he first coated the wood with a clear penetrating epoxy sealer, which soaks into the wood fibers and strengthens and hardens the wood.

The wood is really beautiful, however based on the information I read at the above website when looking for an image, it doesn't seem that it would qualify as "reasonably priced".

We are using black walnut and just received the first countertop back from our carpenter this week... it looks great and its not even waterloxed yet. We were really trying to cut costs (nearing the end and over budget! :) so we went right to the SOURCE of the wood (rather than a retail establishment/middleman). We drove about 40 minutes outside to chicago to a guy who does milling. We knew we weren't in chicago when our arrival was greeted by 20-30 large hens/roosters who surrounded the truck at our arrival. After determining that they were probably not a threat (i'm a city girl... who knows :) we were able to find some lovely black walnut with lots of color variations/interest. I think we figured that the total cost of the black walnut, underlayment, sealing and labor will be 15 to 18. a square foot.

Teak

bob cville - that counter is just stunning!!!! Too bad it's not "reasonbably priced."

Anyone having wood countertops please post your pics or direct me to where I might see them. WE are getting ready to build and will have reclaimed heart pine floors, white glazed cabinets with heart pine sink base and range hood. We want to use antique heart pine on island...what y'all think?? I love the look of cherry, but we have huge pine beams which we will have milled for island top. Any guidance when doing so is greatly appreciated! Can anyone tell me what (ballpark) it might cost to have island top made by one of the above mentioned companies? (size 3.5'x 7") Thanks for any help!
Dana

Dana, here are a couple pof pix of our reclaimed oak plank island top. We did not use any of the companies above (I'm in Canada), but instead used a local company that specialises in reclaimed lumber and architectural salvage. The wood itself and the work cost about $800.

Your pine beams sound like they will be wonderful. A couple of things we learned the hard way. Using more planks gave more stability to the island top. The first piece, which was about four planks wide, did not get installed immediately because the kitchen was still a major construction zone, and it bowed by the time we did install. It was also cut too narrow and because it is butted up against a soapstone island end, that was a problem. They recut a new piece at their expense. Also we would have made the island thicker if we had the choice - again, we were constrained by the fact that the plank wood meets up with soapstone. I wish we could have had at least a two inch thick piece.

We love it!

Eliz

elizpiz...your kitchen is beautiful! The wood top is also beautiful! Thanks so much for the advice..so what you're saying is instead of having fewer wider planks, use more narrow planks?? What did they finish the wood with? I like that it's not super shiney. It's so odd that you should post a pic of your kitchen, because it's so much along the taste/style that mine will be. I'm using white glazed cabinetry with black granite, bracket feet on cabinets, farmhouse sink (rohl white) black island with wood top. I love your hardware by the way!! Just gorgeous! Thanks so much!

Oops! I just saw where you mentioned that you used waterlox! BTW, how thick is your island top? Thanks!
Dana

Thanks so much for the nice compliments Dana! You can see more pix of the kitchen if you do a search with my user name - I haven't gotten around to posting on the FKB yet. The cabs are actually more of a sage-y green, and there are details on where I got my hardware (which was a long and painful search!)

Here's a photo of the original islandtop piece. I was heartbroken when we discovered that it was cut incorrectly, because it had that unusual butterfly effect with the graining. I'm not sure if you can tell, but it is four planks wide.

I am certainly no expert on wood, but I would think that if you are cutting your island top more thickly, that even with fewer planks there would be less tendency to "bow". Whoever does the countertop will best be able to advise you. Our plank top is 1 1/4" thick. As I said, I would have loved to do it two inches thick to make it really substantial, but the soapstone did not allow for that.

HTH!
Eliz

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Eliz - A couple of questions for you:

1) How wide are your widest planks in your countertop? It appears that the three middle ones are wider and then the two end ones were ripped to be the same size as each other but thinner than the others.

2) Were the boards tongue and groove or were they straight edges? DH thinks if they're T & G he might be able to tackle it himself!?!?

3) The knots,...did any of them go all the way through? Were they pretty solid? We're worried about durability over time!

Our cabinet maker (who could do the island top) said he recommends walnut, cherry, or maple for durability, but I love the look of the knots and grains in the oak (esp. since our floor are made out of that).

THANKS, again, for the feedback!

Hi Labradoodlemom -

1. There are nine planks on the island top (I had forgotten there were so many, since they kinda "blend"; makes me think that the original was probably also more than four, but less than this number).

The planks are definitely not uniform in width. From left to right:
- 4.25"
- 7.5"
- 4.25"
- 5"
- 5.25"
- 4.25"
- 4"
- 3.25"

The width is 42"

2. It is not T+G.

3. None of the knots go all the way through. We were also worried about durability and in fact the original piece had more "wormy" bits (knots and such). The knots are very much on the surface, with only a couple having tiny crevices.

HTH! and happy to answer any other q's.

Eliz

Hi Labra, when you get the lumber you can get the whole board planed to be flat and you can also ask that they cut it to be "glue straight" on one side. This enables you to put together the straight edges and cut the other edge to meet the next board. When you go to pick out your wood you can choose boards that are attractive to you (perhaps have a lot of movement or color variation or knots, whatever). It really is a fascinating process and very "custom"

beth

We used walnut for the island countertop and then finished it with Waterlox...love it! The island is 12 feet long because we had to build in columns around two support beams (the new kitchen used to be our attached garage!)

labradoodlemom, i finally have pics that you requested. I have to say I respectfully disagree with Joseph7505, the cost of walnut countertops does NOT have to be "thousands more"... in fact, this countertop cost us less than 350 dollars! (including fabrication)

Here is a link that might be useful: one of our walnut countertops

so... I know this post is really old, but we are wanting to make some wood countertops. I looked online at Ikea... said hey $129 bucks is not bad and it's exactly what we need! Then, I saw the shipping... $350! I guess all of you guys live close to an Ikea store? So, I put in 99 boards just to see what it would cost to ship.... they wanted over $100,000 to ship. Pretty funny.