Everything to Know Before Installing Wood Counters in Your Kitchen

Wood counters are a beautiful, inexpensive and very DIY-friendly way to update your kitchen.  Here are some things you need to know about wood counters to help you make the right decision for your home.

We do not have a brand-new, top-of-the-line kitchen in our home, but we have a space that we love and that we think is beautiful nonetheless. Instead of a full kitchen renovation, we’ve done small updates and tweaks here and there to our space, reusing our beautiful 1996 oak cabinets in different ways to create a room that feels unique, full of character, and just right for our old house. One of my absolute favorite updates that we’ve done in this space is adding wood counters. While this was initially meant to be a cheap, temporary fix, we love the counters so much, and they’ve worn so well that we’re now just keeping them indefinitely. I get a lot of questions about our wood counters, so I thought I’d take a moment today to tell you all about them, and answer some my most frequently asked questions.

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About Our Wood Counters

First of all, this is not a new, recent update that we did in our kitchen, or even semi-recent. We actually installed these counters 10 years ago during one of our first mini updates in the space, so they’re really stood the test of time both in style and in durability. We were initially debating going with granite counters back when we were first thinking about this project, but we decided to use butcher block at the time because they were an inexpensive choice that fit our budget comfortably at the time. The thought was that we would later update to marble, granite, or some other type of stone counter, but truthfully, that just hasn’t been necessary. I like that my counters are a little different from what everyone else has. 🙂

The counters that we used are the Karlby walnut countertops from IKEA, which have a thicker veneer over an MDF core. These counters are still available at IKEA, and they now also have quite a few other butcher block countertop options available, too, in different wood tones and wood types. Here’s a picture of how they looked shortly after we first installed them about a decade ago.

If you’ve been thinking about installing wood counters in your kitchen, but have been hesitant and are wondering if they’ll work well in your home, here’s a little more about our experience with them as well as some things that I think you should know before you make the commitment.

They’re Super Beautiful

Pictured above: Inexpensive wall sconces | Wicker lampshades | Waterproof cafe curtains | Glass jars | Aged brass cabinet hardware | Wood counters

You may think this really goes without saying, but sometimes it’s hard to tell from a picture in an online store or on a website how something really looks in person. Wood is kind of tricky too, because sometimes wood can look really fake and plasticky even when it’s totally real and of a good quality, just because of the way it’s finished. With these walnut counters from IKEA, I was a little worried that they’d look fake as soon as we took them out of their protective packaging because it seemed like maybe they were a little too perfect, but once we got them installed and could see the way the light from the window hits them and the way the grain is really apparent, I knew that these were exactly what I was hoping for, and truthfully, they’ve gotten better with age.

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They’re Dirt Cheap-ish

Well, compared to other natural materials, like stone, they are. How much would granite, quartz, or marble be in a kitchen? Well, depending on the square footage of your counters and the type of stone you choose, I think most kitchens usually end up costing between $5000 and $20,000. Our beautiful walnut counters? About $500 at the time of installation. And I ordered too many pieces, so actually probably more like $400. You can’t beat that and you still get the beauty and the warmth of a natural material.

Wood Counters Scratch Easily

You may think that the next thing that I was going to tell you was that not only are these counters beautiful, but they’re also amazingly convenient, tough, and scratch-resistant. But I’m not. They definitely do scratch, get dinged up, and show marks if any of your kids happen to cut a strawberry with a butter knife on them. Of course they do. I know, I was hoping they would somehow be magically scratch-proof too, but they aren’t. We mostly have tiny dings near the side of the sink where we put our dirty dishes down, and a scratch or two from sliding a rough-bottomed pan out of the way without thinking. Nothing too huge and nothing that you would notice at first glance, but they’re definitely there.

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It’s Never a Big Deal

The great news about wood counters is that you can easily refinish them at any time if the scratching gets really out of hand. Just give them a sanding with a piece of fine-grit sandpaper and reseal them with an oil made for wood counters or even just a mineral oil. Other than conditioning them with a bit of oil every now and then when I’ve felt like it, I still haven’t needed to “refinish” my counters, despite those dings and scratches I mentioned earlier. And it’s been more than a decade. With any other material, if you mess it up, you’re pretty much stuck with it for the life of the counters, but with wood, it can all be fixed. Actually, those dings and scratches contribute to the beauty of the wood in the long term.

They’re Pretty Durable Otherwise

Despite those few scratches, I have been surprised at some of the more durable characteristics of our walnut counters. They hold up amazingly well to moisture from wiping, steam, and things like that. I was worried at first about wiping them down with soapy water, because that just seemed wrong to do to wood, but they continue to hold up to moisture perfectly despite my constant counter wiping throughout every day. I’ve also been amazed that they’ve not had any burn marks or heat marks when we’ve accidentally put a hot pot or pan down on them, which has happened pretty frequently. I definitely try to use trivets as much as possible, because I really don’t want to push my luck, but so far we haven’t had a single mark from any kind of heat.

They Get Dirty-looking Pretty Easily

There’s a reason that I wipe my counters down so often and that’s because they look like they need it. That’s mostly due to the fact that they’re a dark wood color, but just like dark hardwoods, they show every little speck, dust bit, or smudge, so wiping them down frequently really makes them look a whole lot better. You may think that having to wipe your counters so frequently is kind of annoying, but once you see how great they look when they’re freshly cleaned by such a quick and easy wipe-down, you’ll definitely know that it’s worth it.

Installation is so so so Easy

You can cut these counters yourself in almost any basic home workshop and you don’t need to worry about the weight of your counters being an issue for one or two people to handle on their own and those factors alone make wood counters a lot easier to install than most counter options. One extra little bonus that we were happy to discover was that corners don’t need to be mitered with wooden counters. Of course, we assumed that we would miter the corner,  just like our old laminate counters were mitered, but once we started looking at pictures of other wood counters, we realized that the mitered corners actually look kinda silly in a lot of cases and having the two straight-cut chunky pieces butt up against each other looks so so so much better. And of course, it’s a lot easier to cut too! You can see how the two pieces fit together in the photo above from when we first installed these counters back in the day.

They Really Make a Kitchen Come to Life

Pictured above: Inexpensive wall sconces | Wicker lampshades | Waterproof cafe curtains | Glass jars | Aged brass cabinet hardware | Wood counters

In the end, I’m really glad we went with the wood counters instead of the stone. I love my granite counters in the bathroom, but I think they would have made the kitchen look a little cold and sterile. Having so much wood right front and center in the room really gives it a warm and welcoming feel and our kitchen really does feel like “the heart of the home” now with our new wood counters.

You may also want to read my update on these counters from three years after we first installed them, as well my post detailing my easy routine for keeping my counters so beautiful after all these years.

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