Does anyone have a solid wood kitchen counter top?

[meggymoo]

Message withdrawn

Yep, I've got one, got it with new kitchen in March. Ours came from a builders company called Howdens and is thick butchers block type, my mum got hers from Ikea. It's easy to maintain just use as a normal formica one but you'll need to treat it with a special oil a couple of times initally then every few months thereafter. Ours hasn't marked or stained or anything. My mum also bleaches her worktop once a week or so to "prevent it from yellowing as wood does naturally", don't know about that myself.

well wood does naturally darken but surely if you bleach the top it would be more uneven, ie the sides would be darker than the top?

We have solid wood. I can't for the life of me remember what kind it is, but I certainly hadn't heard of it before. It's dark, but I wouldn't say it was what I think of as butchers block type.

Pros I guess are it looks v nice and is v hygienic.

Cons are that you can't put hot stuff down on it, so will need to use trivets and become super paranoid about people with hot cups of tea , and that it does require some maintenance. Ours needs oiling about once every 3-6 months, particularly around the sink where it gets wet a lot.

Still looks gorgeous and good as new 4 years after we got it though.

Well looks like we were unlucky ! We have a solid wood work top from MFI and its awful . I had wanted solid wood for ages and it has really split. Was treated as it was supposed to be but obvious areas like round the sink (we have a butler sink which probably doesn't help) are split and ruined. I would go for granite next time (will start saving now !).

we have two inch thick pine which i had from a timber place. Supposedly not ideal as it can split under alot of water

does it begin with an "I" Tabs?

No, think it might have been a T, but not sure. DH will be home soon so I'll ask him if he remembers.

Hazellnut - we have butler sink too. Think I'd complain to MFI if I were you.

He didn't remember, but I looked up the old invoices as it would have bugged me otherwise!

It was Sipo. Link here shows roughly what it's like, though obviously ours looks much nicer in the flesh

We have solid wood - I think it is probably from John Lewis
Marks, stains and dents fairly easily
If I had the kitchen redone I would not have wood

We have solid wood and I love it. It can stain but the oles we have (FS units from Habitat and another surface from Ikea) you can sand out any stains. Ikea are the cheapest I found and do the nice thick 3cm stuff at reasonable prices. I have duck egg blue walls and wooden units and a dark slate floor. We have only had the wooden units and surfaces for about 16 months and whilst they do 'age' and getthe odd mark I think that addsd to the charm!

Message withdrawn