Vintage Butcher Block Table

Yet another DIY project to share. This butcher block table was actually in two pieces-the bottom had been kicking around the barn loft for the past 15-20 years, and the top was a throw-away Coach picked up over the summer at a yard sale.

The bottom looked like this:

The top looked like this:

And now the whole piece looks like this!

I started with the base, painting it in my favorite dark charcoal gray home-made chalk-like paint.

You can find that recipe here. Then I sanded down the edges, added a glaze finish with Martha Stewart Antique Glaze  mixed with Madagascar Mocha Couture Paint.

The glazing technique is so simple: Mix the glaze and paint together, paint it on your piece,

then wipe it off where you don’t want it.

Allowed the entire base to dry. Finished with a coat of Fidde’s Soft Wax, which gives it a nice glowing finish.

The top required a bit more elbow grease and some heavy implements.

I wanted to rough it up just a bit to give it a more “antiqued” appearance, but since there will be food prep on it, I didn’t want it to be so rustic as to have holes in it where food could get caught!

Used a chain, a hammer and a screwdriver and just banged it around a bit. (I wonder why my hands are so cracked and bleeding…) Since I wanted this to be a food safe butcher block top, but also wanted a shade or two darker, I attempted a technique I had found online: staining with brewed coffee grounds.

Really didn’t work out too well, but it smelled great! The butcher block top is finished with Howard Butcher Block Conditioner. This is a product that I picked up at Home Depot -its FDA food safe-perfect!

To secure the top to the base, I used some old black iron decorative brackets Coach got from somewhere…(seems to be a recurrent theme, right? I tell him what I need, he finds it.)

The brackets were a little too black and “new-looking”, even though they are pretty old, so I sprayed them with Rustoleum Gray gloss paint,

but that was a bit too shiny, so I resprayed them with Rustoelum soft flat iron black spray paint.

to complement the antiqued gray base color. I found that the simplest way to attach the top to the base was to place it on top, measured the four corners to ensure they were evenly spaced,

marked the holes with a sharpie, (apologies for the blurry pic-too much leftover coffee, perhaps?)

then drilled starter holes for the screws,

flipped the top upside down and secured the brackets to the underside of the top.

Slipped the top back onto the base and secured it with screws. For the embellishments, I added this cool, rustic, vintage, winged front piece to be used as a towel or utensil hanger.

I am told it was the handle to an old wood planer. These side pieces

are old window lock parts.

Perfect for hanging a pot or pan with an “s” hook. Old wooden rulers are kind of a thing right now, so I added one from “A.J. Wilkinson, The Oldest Hardware Company in Boston” across the front (perfect for measuring out dough!) and secured it with some rustic corner brackets to give it industrial “old general store” kind of vibe. Then I rubbed that with the Howard Butcher Block Conditioning to finish it.

Done and ready for some butchering, or pie-making, or whatever. But it won’t be in my kitchen, or my daughter’s (sorry, Kate-I promise I will make you another one), because it was sold this past weekend at the Vintage Thymes Monthly Market-yay! And, if you are in the market for an old wooden ruler, drop me a line. Since I mentioned to Coach that I needed a few, he’s been on the lookout, and now I have an immeasurable amount to choose from!

Have a “block-buster” Tuesday everyone! Susan