I think it's really cool looking. No busier than some granites. Make sure you seal it with a marine grade sealer. :)

That would be so cool on an island. How thick is it? Do try to find out if it's food safe though.

Sorry, I mis-typed the post, too late to edit it. The stock is 1 1/2 inches x 1 1/2 inches square.

Could wood you don't know what it is or where it came from have chemicals or exposed to stuff you don't want near door? Just wondering...

I'm not fond of it as the novelty would quickly wear off, and it would just look weird.

It appears to be poplar. We did a plank wood countertop in poplar. Before you start working with this, know that it doesn't hold most colors well. It shines up well with a clear coat, an oil, or it comes out lovely with a gel stain but regular stains and polyurethanes don't do well with poplar. Remember to use a food grade oil if you plan to actually have food in contact with the wood. We used gel stain and clean poly on ours. It came out beautiful and serves as our laundry countertop.

Update on my test BB piece.

I decided to go with a more conventional look.

I glued it up, planed, sanded, and applied Minwax pre-stain, then a Minwax light maple-toned oil stain.

Applied 3 coats of Deftoil Danish
Finishing Oil, and let it dry for a week. Topped it off with 3 coats of
Minwax satin wiping poly.

Planing it down by about 1/8" took away a lot of the surface coloring, though IMHO there's still too much green tone.

Whaddayathink?

I think that's as good as you're gonna get with poplar. If you want the green tone gone, you will need to go to a dark stain like General Gel Stain in Java.

Looks great! Still has the interesting grain showing through. Great job!

If you can gouge it easily with your thumbnail, it's poplar, which is so soft, it'll mark up really easily. But I think it might be maple, in which case it's a hardwood, and great for kitchen counters. I really like the variety of colours in your boards, and I wouldn't try and sand that out, as it has so much character.

Some "experts" on another forum are sure it's poplar due to the green color.

It's not rock-hard like oak or mahogany, but it's much harder than say a softwood like pine. But with 3 coats of poly on the top, it is a very hard finish. I may add a couple of more coats on top and I think it will hold up just fine.

As I said above, I do like the variety of colors, but I am concerned that it will not appeal to enough buyers 3 or 5 years down the road when it may be time to sell, and that it might be a turn-off. I guess a buyer can always strip it and sand it down and refinish in a dark color, or just replace it altogether.

Next week I'm going to get to work on building about 8 feet of the counter. I will post more photos then.

Wish me luck. :-)

Thanks everybody.

Did you try the hardwood flooring forum? The reason I thought maple is because Winners here in Canada (TJ Max) have a very similar wood floor in many of their stores - really multi-toned greens, blues, greys, as well as the normal wood colours - and it's maple.....and looks great, even after quite a few years of tough traffic.

Oh, and good luck! Tis a shame we have to bow to future, duller, home-owners, isn't it.

It is poplar, it has the grain qualities as well as the color variation. Poplar would be fine for a counter top. Like you have probably heard it isn't as hard as maple or oak but that is okay. The color will actually tone down after awhile and mellow out a little bit. But it will look great if you want that color variation in your kitchen!

I just had an idea, that I will consider. In addition to the cabinet countertops, I also need to build about 10 (linear) feet of tops for two islands. I may leave those "au naturale" color to provide some contrast with the cabinet counters , and add a little pop to the white kitchen theme.

Did you see the recent post on remodelista about a custom island with a butcher block top? They ran the wood down the sides a bit too, and it looks great.

http://www.remodelista.com/posts/before-and-after-goode-green-kitchen-remodel-with-custom-kitchen-island-by-siosi-design

Just to put a nail in this thread's coffin, here's the end result.

I chickened out and went for the more conventional look. I selected for the top of the counter the more neutral face of each strip of wood. Finished with two coats of a Deft clear Danish Oil finish topped with 5 coats of Minwax PolyWipe matte wiping poly (water based).

There's another section of counter-top to fabricate and then a large island.

The projects just never end when you rescue a fixer upper from foreclosure. :-)

Gorgeous!

Stunning!!!

That wood is poplar and is pretty soft. Keep a good finish on it and it will serve you well as it ages and over time will look fabulous as it becomes "used" and will take on a completely different look. Beautiful!!

Like it.

I think it looks incredible.

Very much doubt it will turn off future buyers.

I like it, too! But a simpler backsplash might be better as the counter is "busy." Go larger and/ or single color for backsplash. I admire your talent & tenacity...carry on!

I know this is old, but for others reading this,,

yikes. Minwax poly??? When that fails down the road, at it will, sand everything new and apply Waterlox. And no water base finishes over a "Danish Oil finish". You don't Oil something and then apply a water base top coat. It's one or the other, not both.

As for Danish Oil Finish, don't even use that stuff. anything that says "finish' on it, isn't 100 percent pure oil. It's got chemicals in it.