I don't have a toe-kick operated one - how cool would that be! - but I do have a pull-out cutting board. My cabinets are oak, and in this progress photo you can see that the end of the cutting board is also oak, finished to match the cabinets (the board itself, of course, is bare wood. The other end of the board is also finished, so when one side gets too cut up, I can flip it over.

The cabinet installer put a stop at the back of the cutting board, so it would stick out just enough to get our fingers into the notch, without sticking out past the counter overhang.

The cutting board is one of DH's favorite things about the kitchen (he's the cook in the family), and he wishes we had another one near the fridge.

Thanks, annkh! You've posted your cutting board for me before but I don't recall you sharing the tip about the stop behind the board to keep it from sliding too far into the cab. That's a great idea, thanks! That may mean that we can go with what the cab designer is suggesting and if that's not enough for us to grab the board, we should be able to modify it to stick our farther after it's installed.

Sure hoping loves2cook4six pops back in. I would love to know how that drawer kicker is working for her. btw, I don't think it's a toe kick. I think the mechanism is installed behind the board; to get the board to pop out, you simply push lightly on it.

A touch latch mounted at the back of the board might work. Have used cabinets with touch latches. They spring open with a light touch.

That's essentially what the drawer kicker is, jerilynzone7. At least that's my understanding of it.

I was really hoping that loves2cook4six was still around but it doesn't seem that she is. I would love to do what she's done but without hearing her first-hand testimony, I'm a bit scared to plan on having no room above and below the cutting board and then have it not work as planned.

We opted to extend the cutting board 1/4" more than planned from the cab face (1" now, not 3/4") and enlarge the space above and below by a smidge, too (from 3/4" to 1" as well) so that there's a little more room to grab the cutting board and pull it out. It will work and I think it will look good, too.

You could put a knob on the board.

That is Plan B. ;-)

loves2cook4six is often on the cooking forum of this website. You might try posting there to ask her.

Thanks for the email with the link to the question. I probably would not have seen it otherwise.

Our kitchen is still functioning as new. Got to thank our amazing Amish cabinet craftsmen - a shout out to Ayr Cabinetry in Indiana and yes they ship all over the country :)

The cutting board still works perfectly and it is sooooo useful. When closed, you really can't see it's there at all. Pop it open and pull it out.

Here it is pulled all the way out which shows the notch cut into the back. Not sure you need it but it does give you a few more inches of leverage when the board is pulled out and that is always a good thing, no?

Here I took out the top drawer so I could get the camera in there. You can see the tracks the board sits in as well as the push mechanism in the back. And I'm embarrassed but I have NO idea why it looks dirty.

Hope that answers all your questions. The only thing I would add is too keep the board and tracks clean otherwise the board could stick.

OK, just ran back for one last picture. Here you can see how the front of the board overlays the cabinet and that small 1/4" overlay gives your fingers something to grip on when pulling out the board.

And I just looked at the pictures above. My cabinets are NOT scratched and nicked and dirty. The poor quality camera just makes them look like that.

Thank you, thank you, loves2cook4six! Your photos and info are so helpful! I'm going to share it with hubby.

Our cabinet maker is putting a finger groove in the underside of our board, plus we have an inch above and below our board. The board is 1" walnut so it will look very similar to my inspiration photo. I'm hoping that the finger groove is enough for us to pull the board out but since it will be half again as heavy as our current board, we may end up using the drawer kicker gizmo as well.

cloud_swift, thanks for the heads up about where loves2cook4 six hangs out. I'll know where to look for her if I have additional questions.

Lovestocook, does the board slide easily in and out of the space? Do you do / did you do anything to make the "slide" easier ? Thanks

It slides easily enough. We didn't want it to shoot out and our kids were younger and our son for sure would have seen how far it could go, lol. You could wax the tracks, I suppose, if you wanted it to come out faster