Budget Friendly Wood Countertops

New Counter tops!  I am so happy with how they turned out.  I never expected them to turn out so good. Plus, these are not the counter tops that were in my original plan...Ikea Butcher Block counter tops. When we went to go buy our counter tops, we learned that they did not have any in stock and could not tell us when they would be getting another load in.  They said we would have to just check back.  Well, Ikea is about an hour away so just checking in was not an option.  Or, I could have ordered them online and had them delivered directly to my house, which would be great, but, the shipping charges were more than the counter tops.  

So back to the drawing board I went.  I was determined to have dark wood counter tops.  After much research I discovered how I could do them myself.  Below I have outlined how I did it.  Keep in mind I'm new to the blogging world, so please bare with me. (haha)

At Lowe's we found Red Oak Hardwood Plywood 3/4" thick.  I needed a 1 1/2" thick counter top, so we glued and fastened them together.  Once they were dry, we cut the sizes we needed.

Once we had them measured and cut to size we sanded each one with an orbital sander to get rid of the rough edges and get a smooth finish.  Make sure that when you are sanding you go with the grain of the wood.  Once they were sanded, I then wiped them off with tack cloth to make sure they were free of all dust before applying the wood conditioner.

The first thing I did was to apply a wood conditioner on both sides.  I used Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner.  Make sure you do both sides and the edges.

This is with the wood conditioner.  Look at how it makes the grain of the wood pop.  After the conditioner dried for a couple hours it was time to start staining.

This is one coat of stain.  I used Minwax Dark Walnut Stain.  I let the stain soak into the wood for about 15 minutes and then wiped off any access stain with a clean soft cloth and let dry about 6-8 hours before applying another coat of stain.

I applied 3 coats of stain.  I wanted to make sure I got it dark enough, because when you apply the sealer, it has a tendency to lighten the stain.

I used a water based sealer called ENDURO-VAR Water Based Urethane.  I applied 3 coats on the underneath side of the counters and 5 coats on top.  I applied each coat with a paint brush and let dry about 3-4 hours.  After each coat I did a very light sanding, using 1200 grit sand paper (go with the grain) to get a smooth finish. Make sure you do the underneath side first so that you don't take a chance of making marks on the top side when you turn them over.

Like I said earlier, they turned out so well.  I am extremely happy with them.

I welcome any comments or suggestions.