Come on! You can't ask that without showing us your kitchen! Cabinet style, crown moldings, hardware...We can't advise you on how much frill you need without all the other details! :)

Well I don't have a kitchen yet but
this is my cabinet style

{{gwi:1593614}}

and I have no hardware selected yet.. but I am guessing it won't be too ornate

Poorowner - Here's my cherry counter from Lumber Liquidators. We wanted a simple look, so I like the way it turned out.

gardenburgher I love it, can you tell me what you used for that edge? And is your end grain also routed? And did you sand the corner?

I was going to get the cherry too but the only thing was that it was about 25% softer than the maple, and we are kind of rough with our kitchen so the harder the better.

I like Garden's edge too, and since you don't have really ornate cabinets, I think that's what you're after. No ogee for you!

Is that the Liljestad style by any chance? That's going to look really good with maple BB, and definitely not something you'll see everywhere.

Hi fori, yes I have Liljestad cabinets, I have not seen maple butcherblock paired with it before. I have seen oak on it and I thought it looked great. Right now my unfinished maple looks very pale, but I think it will look fine after waterlox adds some amber to it.

I have seen "safety" edges rounded completely like on the generic granite edges, but I think it would look like kindergarden furniture.

Well, hurry and get to work so I can see the end result! =)

I did a 1 1/2" ogee on my tabletop , and also a 3/8" bead on the underside (not visible in photo) because the top's 1 3/4" thick. The ogee bit was from Whiteside.

Casey

I was just thinking today how much I liked the edge on our small maple BB island. It's similar to gardenburgher's: a rounded edge on top, sharp (tho not dangerously so!) perpendicular edge on the bottom. If you're going to use polyurethane, which I don't recommend, don't have sharp edges.

Poorowner - Sorry to be just getting back to you. I had to check with DH for your answers.

He said it's a 1/2" roundover all the way around, top and bottom. And it was all sanded.

Although our kitchen is mostly DIY, we hired someone to cut the butcher block. We couldn't see buying new tools for just a 4' countertop.

It's not our main work surface, so I was happy to go with the cherry. Otherwise, I probably would have gone with the maple, too.

I look forward to seeing your finished work!

Here's my 1/4" roundover on an extra deep edge grain Lyptus countertop. By the way, that's the actual color of the wood before any finish treatment.

{{gwi:1593620}}

StaticFritz that's a beautiful counter, I clicked on your online gallery and excellent work with the Ikea cabinets!

Can I ask you a question, how deep is your fridge frame you built? How come it can sit flush with the fridge installed and the base cabinets? Is your fridge recessed or did you installed base cabinets away from the wall?

Thanks!
I installed the base cabinets away from the wall with little triangle brackets:
{{gwi:1593622}}
This let me accomplish a bunch of things:

-Built-in fridge look with a regular depth fridge
-extra-deep (32") butcherblock counter for lots of prep space
-tall pantry cabinet, with room for a broom closet behind it (side access)

you can check out the rest of my progress in the other galleries:
http://picasaweb.google.com/romieg/KitchenProgress1
http://picasaweb.google.com/romieg/KitchenProgress2
http://picasaweb.google.com/romieg/KitchenProgress3
http://picasaweb.google.com/romieg/KitchenProgress4
http://picasaweb.google.com/romieg/KitchenProgress5

If you're still looking for edges - here are a couple pictures of ours. DH built the maple butcher block from scratch and the routing was definitely nerve racking.
We ordered a beading router bit from Rockler. It was a little fancy - but didn't take up too much of the surface area of the top of the counter.

The first picture is after a coat of Mineral Oil, the second was just the plain wood.

We wanted as minimal of an eased edge as possible so we did it ourselves with a router. DH practiced on scrap board but it was a little nerve wracking!

staticfritz,

I looked at all your pictures -- what a cool process. Especially seeing the step by step work with the soapstone. It came out great! You've done some creative stuff there.

Sorry to hijack the thread for a minute!

Thanks Egganddart!