Butcher Block Countertops, uhm!

It's been a while since my last post, things have been super busy around here, and we still can't manage to finish our kitchen. Which means I didn't get to use it on Thanksgiving day. We're having a bit of a problem with our butcher block countertops, who new they will be such a problem, sigh. Anyways this is where we're at, as previously mentioned I wasn't sure during the beginning phase of the project, what I was going to be using as far as countertops go in our kitchen. But based upon our budget I decided to go with Ikea butcher block countertops. Did some research and read about other bloggers using them on their own kitchens, the after pictures were stunning so decided to go with it. The initial plan was to stain them and Waterlox them but due to my cities VOC regulations their was no way of ordering directly from their website. So on to plan B, General Finishes and Behlen products are good for wood countertops and food safe, so these where highly considered but because they are special orders it would take up to two weeks to received any of these, and I was running out of time. Next I decided to search for products available at my local hardware stores and I stumble upon this product by Zinsser, Bulls Eye Shellac. It's a natural resin and non toxic, so for ease of availability, I decided to go with it. The silly thing is, this was applied after I had already applied the recommended Behandla oil from Ikea on to my countertops. I wasn't completely satisfied with the results and the color from the Behandla oil because I had envisioned dark stain butcher block countertops. So on went the Shellac, I applied it a night before Thanksgiving and was pretty happy with the results the morning next.

 {with Shellac}

The Shellac has an amber tone with a satin finish, so after several coats it looked great. The color was a little more on the yellow side but figured it would grow on me once the kitchen was 100% done. Boy was I wrong, on Thanksgiving night upon closer observation you could tell where my strokes would end and begin and felt I needed to fix it pronto. To get a smooth finish I felt that it was necessary to sand down to the bare wood, which took some time. The DH even got in the action, and once the countertops where ready he applied the Shellac, it looked really beautiful towards the center areas but around the edges is were all the flaws show through. The product dries fairly quickly due to the alcohol content so it doesn't allow enough time for application. Anyways after enough time wasted, it was decide that it would be best to disregard these countertops and purchase two more from Ikea and to use their recommended oil for the time being.

Hoping for great after photos to show...

 

 (images above with new unfinished Ikea butcher block countertops}