Need 'rustic' kitchen countertop ideas

Very nice!!! That's what is on my bathroom counter top and it's ok in there 'cause it's already 'in' and my son doesn't put dishes away in there..... ;/ Sigh, maybe I'll just have to put away the dishes and have him do something else...the tile does look nice.

concrete. we did ours.

Have you considered tin? It would look great, be easy to clean, easy to install, very rustic and durable!

Humm...that's a new one! Would it rust? Do you know of someone who has used that for a countertop and did they like it? Where would one get a piece about 2' x 10' ???

Contact a local roofer that does copper or tin roofs, they may be able to supply you with what you wish, cut to size, and may be able to offer either installation or installation suggestions. A local sheet metal fabricator may be able to make a stainless steel countertop to your specs.

As far as hard maple goes, look for a local lumber yard. Firms dealing with the woodworking trade will frequently cut to size for 10¢ or so a board foot additional charge, surfacing (planing smooth) is also offered. If you have access to a table saw, you can buy stock and cut it to size yourself. You may wish to consider cypress, which is extremely rot resistant, or one of the other cabinet woods such as cherry or walnut. Hickory is also an excellent choice. When gluing up, you need to use a waterproof glue and adhere to the instructions.

For reference, here's the url for Steve Wall Lumber, one of my suppliers.

Note that prices in Idaho will vary from prices in VA, sometimes by a considerable margin.

http://www.walllumber.com/default.asp

What I am hearing negative about using tile relly seems to be bad grout. I put dark green marble tile on my cabinet tops a few months back. I love it. You can't get much more rustic and country than my house. The green tile compliments the natural wood cabinets and plank wood floors. I used sanded grount on the main cabinets. I later tiled a sideboard in my adjoined dining room. I had to buy more grout and all they had was unsanded. It was so much better than the sanded. My cabinets are NOT square. I just cut slivers of tile to fill the gaps. I don't think the sanded grout will hold up long, but I do have it pretty even with my tile edge and have no problems at all cleaning my cabinets.
I had thought of using parquet for the tops but wanted a contrast. I can not make myself paint a pretty piece of wood so went with the 12" tiles. I just love it. And remember. Rustic means old. Most older homes aren't square so the tile would just imphasize the rustic.
I saw another counter top one time that I have always thought of replicating ,but haven't yet. They had taken round logs anywhere from 3" across up to about 8". They used a cut off saw and cut them into 1" thick slices. They lay them with contact glue as close together as they could. They poured polyurithane over the top and made sure to fill the gaps. I don't know if they did several thin apps of the urithane or poured it all at once and let it dry. I plan to do the later when I try it. I have thought of putting acorns and seeds between the round pieces. small bunches of herbs would look neat if they didn't fade to much.
Old newspapers with polyurithane would look neat to.

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If you decide to go with the tin, you can get flashing. My mother had tin flashing on one of her cabinets. Every once in a while she would scrub the dickens out of it and then apply a thin coat of vegetable oil with a papertowel. It has lots of traffic and never rusted. My dad had built it for her. He used flashind wide enough that he bent it up the wall for the back splash. There was no seams. He nailed a 1X2 across the top of the back splash like a chair railing. My mother had cup hooks on the board to hold pot holders and smaller kitchen utensils. When I built my cabinet tops, I used a 1X6 as the back splash backer. I put a 1X3 board on the top and now have a shelf around the top of my cabinets. I can sit cups, spices and a bunch of little junk around my kitchen and still have the cabinet tops clear.

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My first thought was stainless steel. You might be able to find some at a restaurant supply or a restaurant that has gone out of business.

Diane

we'd love to see some pictures.

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We bought butcher block from Lumber Liquidators and installed it ourselves. It is beautiful, fairly inexpensive and should last a lifetime. It will have more of a rustic look after we've used it a while. I prefer wood because I know I would break a lot of glassware on tile and concrete. Butcher block is easy to maintain. I clean it after use with soapy water and keep a spray bottle of water with a little alcohol to take care of any bacteria. A coat of mineral oil occasionally will keep the wood from drying out. If a whole countertop made of butcher block is cost prohibitive you might consider using one section of that in your work area and using a rustic tile on the balance.

Thought I'd update you all on what we decided to use: hardwood flooring...the stuff you buy in the boxes and lay down. We found "blond oak"...so it will be very light in color but very tough as well. We will trim the outside and cover the outer edge so it wont' look like flooring at all! Thanks fo rall the ideas!

Make sure to get us pictures.

Some of the coolest tables/countertops I have ever seen were bowling alley lanes.

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Nothing more rustic than free sawmill slabwood. Gets dirty, pull the nails, cut it to length and into the woodstove. Then more clean slabs.

For those who are thinking about tiles and worry about forever cleaning the grout, grout comes tinted, you can even get black (talk about not seeing any dirt).

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Just saw this thread. I would have suggested maple hardwood plank flooring, looks just like butcher block. Finish it however you want or not at all, but there is a product that creates a clear 1/4 thick acrylic coating that is pretty cool and will seal any kind of wood surface you come up with.

Tile is good, but grout is hard to keep clean and everything has to be quite square and right angle turns tend to mess things up (if you want more detail, just ask as Ive done about 6 tile countertops).

I used marble 12"x12" squares butted tightly aginst each other at this place. The grout lines are only about 2mm so it looks and acts like a solid stone surface. If someone wants a pic, Ill try and post one.

Formica is a great product, cheep too.

Stainless steel is good, but will dent for sure and look like a autopsy lab.

Concrete is a very bad idea. Stainless steel is the harvest gold of tomorow but can you imagine how gross concrete will be in a few years.LOL! Seriously though, Its heavy and prone to cracking. But the real problem is it is delicate, gouges and scratches super easy. I know its trendy, but Its by far the worst type of counter used today.

Laminite wood for flooring in stips or squares. Be sure to use enough glue.Its available in a lot of different finishes and patterns.

I would love to see this if you have pics. It is basically what i was trying to convince my DH to do, but he didn't really understand what I wanted. If you could post pics...you just might save me from the worse fate of laminate...

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Christanie Farm...living life as it was intended

http://www.westsystem.com/

FOR WOOD_ We use this at our sign shop- it is a clear almost glass like resin, we are doing a sandblasted bench to sit and watch the chickens, we will be sealing it with west system epoxy so there will be no divets for the water to get in and rot the wood, it will look like glass, but with the sandblasted look beneath- The folks at West System will talk to you about technical issues, what you need/temp. etc. It aint cheap but it is good stuff! We have already talked about doing a slab coutertop down the road and west systeing it to seal it so no food gets into the grain.

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Check out our Ebay stuff! http://myworld.ebay.com/writelite/

I have seen sheets of metal that are "wrapped" around the countertop base material and then "tacked" w/ brads like used in chairs. Looks good is sanitary and dents and scratches just make it look more authentic. Copper, stainless, galvenized, aluminum.

Poured concrete that has been treated to look old. Explore your options!

In my old house, the original 1930s cupboards had galvanized metal countertops, they refered to it as a zinc counter, but it was not solid zinc. After a bit of use, it gets a dull gray color. The metal is formed around the edges and tacked under the overhang. Since there is no patern, an out of square counter wouldn't be obvious.

I framed out my counter top, put a layer of small river rocks and then poured the epoxy over it. It looks like a river bed. I love the look and everyone that sees it is amazed and wants to know how I did it. I bought the epoxy in 5 gallon buckets. If it gets scratches I just sand them out. I like the look so well I'm thinking about doing it to the bathroom floor, when I remodel it.

Afriend of mine glued rooster prints on her plywood and then cover it with the bar top. She also made her own cabinet doors with 1x2's and used chiken wire for the inside. Looks very nice.