Crafting A Counter…

Our sad, old laminate counter came off with some prying (with a pry bar), and some sweat…

I cut my boards to size, and laid them out to make sure they would fit. I marked the boards so I would remember which side went up and toward the wall, then I glued them together.

I used elmer’s wood filler to fill the grooves between the boards… on our larger counters, we used a table saw to plane the curved edges off, so there wasn’t as much curve, or area needing filled.
Even though the wood filler can be stained, it doesn’t take the stain the same way the wood does, so we wanted as little filler as we could have.

I filled and sanded,

And sanded some more…

Then I started applying the stain. I used three colors… a honey, a red oak, and a dark walnut.

I randomly applied them in no specific pattern, and let it sit for quite a while, to let it darken up.

Then I wiped it off, let it sit some more, until it was dry, and started applying my polyurethane.

For our larger counters, I set up the three pieces in our garage, so I could work my way through assembly line style, without ripping out our current counters until we were ready to install them. After cutting the curved edges off our boards, we glued them together, holding them with clamps to make them super secure until the wood glue dried.

I applied what little wood filler I needed, sanded and sanded and sanded, and then stained…

I like that you can see the different areas of stain, the honey, reds, and walnut…

The husband very sweetly cut my sink hole for me…

I polyurethaned the bottom of my counters, as well, to protect against water, moisture, condensation, and whatever else might happen under there…

And there you have it…much harder than I thought, but so worth it!

You could use this same method for bathroom counters, bar tops, or even a table!