Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Butcher Block Counter Top Update

A while back, I told you about the butcher block counter tops we had installed in the downstairs kitchen. I found that they were really, really hard to keep clean and acted like a sponge, soaking up every little stain:

So I decided something had to be done. I bought the IKEA wood oil treatment Behandla (side note: on one of my 12 IKEA trips, I found myself in line behind Gilbert Gottfried. Voice was unmistakable and I'll never forget the sound of him ordering an IKEA vanilla ice cream cone. Yeah, I eat the ice cream there, get over it).  

Here's a useful tip: I always lose paint keys but you can use a quarter to open a can of paint.  Anyway, I taped off the edges with my favorite frog tape, and then used my new BFF, my sanding block (seriously, I want 30 of these for Christmas) to sand down some of the stains. Then I wiped the excess dust off the surface so it adheres better. Its kind of like when you get your nails done and they buff the surfaces lightly so the nail polish adheres better. You like how I just combined worlds like that?!

The treatment is meant to be applied thinly and then wipe the excess off once the layer has dried. At the same time, I decided I would also treat the wood top of this kitchen freestanding cart that we bought at the same time as the kitchen cabinets (it was on sale):
Obviously, Marlo is involved
Well, the oil treatment wasn't really that smelly, and that's coming from someone who inhaled paint fumes for a good three days painting her own house. So I didn't really think to take any precautions in terms of taking the cart outside, ventilating the kitchen space, opening windows, etc. like I normally would do for paint.

Big mistake.

I woke up at 3am and seriously considered if I should go hang out outside for an our until I felt less nauseous and headache-y. I felt sick the whole next day and my sense of smell was off. Like everything at IKEA, its probably going to give me cancer now.

It went on really thick and weird but the excess was really easy to wipe off.


It gave it a really warm glow (which is probably the cancer)


And here's the cart:





In all, not a terrible DIY project, and the results came out really nice!  The surface doesn't hold stains anymore and are much easier to wipe down.  I can't believe this DIWhy project came out so well!

2 comments:

  1. LOLOL first of all you just said the sentence "my favorite frog tape" Second of all that warm glow is DEF. the cancer! LOL sounds like strong stuff but it looks great! Lessons learned and hopefully only a month or two was actually taken off of your life...

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    1. LOL I'm getting ridiculous with the frog tape. But mark my words, one day you'll be doing some kind of stupid project and you'll need a solution....and frog tape will pop into your little mind and you will silently thank me.

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