Rustic Kitchen Countertops – Craig’s Project
Everybody wants rustic kitchen countertops, but where do you start? Just give us a call and let us help. We have redwood slabs in a variety of sizes and styles. If we don’t have what you’re looking for on our website, we can always custom cut it for you. It is important to plan ahead. Some pieces may need some time to dry prior to finish if they are not already dry. Fortunately, we have a large kiln to help speed drying times up.
Once you’ve determined the size of your rustic countertop, we need to find the appropriate piece. We can always resize something bigger into something smaller with the characteristics you might desire. I am going to demonstrate this process using photos from a project that we did for an actual customer.
Just for reference, here is a picture of the 10′ wide slab that we started with:
Natural Edge / Live Edge Countertops
Most of our rustic kitchen countertop slabs will already have at least one natural edge. So if you are looking for a consistent edge around the whole piece, then it’s going to have to be carved. On an actual bar top, most people usually want just one natural edge. In these cases, we can take almost any slab that is wider than what you are looking for, and take it down to your desired width for you before it even leaves our shop.
The slab pictured below has been roughly shaped with the help of a chainsaw by someone in our shop.
Some of you may have noticed that this piece does have a couple of cracks in it. They have been clearly defined on the slab for the customer to see. Not all slabs are 100% perfect, but I would almost dare you to try and source a 10′ wide slab of a redwood without any small flaws. Pieces like this are far and few between. Finding a slab for this project might have been a feat on its own if Redwood Burl Inc. hadn’t been saving this one for several years.
After getting roughed out, it went to our finishing department for sanding. Sanding is what gave this piece its final shape since it was sold as an unfinished piece. After we shaped the slab we crated and shipped it to our customer, who later sent back the following picture of the installed project after it was complete. The picture below is the final picture of the completed project, which came out pretty amazing.
If you are in the market for a really unique countertop, something really rustic, or even something simple and beautiful, please be sure to give us a call!