Wood is, IMO, the most practical of countertops because it is very forgiving. I am having wood countertops made and put in in the kitchen I'm redoing right now. I saved money by going directly to the sawmill myself and ordering the wood. I made the templates myself for him. He mills the wood and biscuits the planks for me and cuts them to the length of each piece of counter I need (four).

I will then pick them up myself this Thursday.

I then found a fabricator who is going to come to my house and fabricate the counters, i.e.: cut the holes for the sink, faucet, and sprayer, miter the two corners (I want mitered corners, not blocks), and rout the underside for the clamps which will pull the counter pieces together.

I will then stain the counters myself using Monocoat - a one application product.

The fabricators will then come back and install the counters for me. Total will come to @ $4500. Of course, sq. footage is everything, so if you have only a little bit of countertop, it won't be expensive, but if you have a lot, it will be. The sawmill charges by the foot.

But here is why I feel it is a more practical countertop. It's softer, so if you bang or drop glass on it, it won't break.

Monocoat technology is really great. The way it works is that the stuff causes the wood fibers to bond together. This is why it will only make one coat. Once it's bonded, the wood will not accept anything, including water.

But if you make a scratch in the wood, say, all you do is get a rag and apply Monocoat on the scratch. Because the areas around the scratch are not damaged, they are still bonded by the Monocoat and will not take anymore Monocoat, so only the scratch accepts the monocoat, which means you can't tell at all that there was a scratch. It completely blends in with the rest of the counter.

Monocoat comes in a ton of colors. If you go this route, definitely read up on it and find a local place that sells is so you can see it in person and get some sample colors to try on the underside of the counters.

I also personally think wood counters get better as they age and wear, add charm.

I would not get Ikea, though. You'd have to decide if you want end grain, edge grain, or plank. I am getting plank.

I just had Formica counters put in. They look awesome, and very updated.

The only regret I have is that I went with a Matt gray finish on my island. Which gets a lot of traffic. We slid a plate across the counter and it scratched. It seems like the matte shows the scratches easily. (We also have pendant lights directly over head, so maybe that helps them show.)

I would do it again in a heartbeat. There are so many choices in patterns. (The picture isn't the highest quality, and the counters were the second phase of our kitchen project)

It did not matter whether I selected quartz, granite or Formica (solid surface or sheet), or corian or its look-alikes all bids came in within a few dollars of $65 per square foot.

If you are planning on moving in two years and do not think you can recoup the costs I don't see any reason to do the counters at this point in time.

We want to do the counters because they are mauve. We're updating the house to make it more modern and the new colors will look terrible with mauve countertops. We live here and want to enjoy where we live so we're willing to put some money in the house even though we won't get it back when we sell but there is to limit to how much money we're okay with losing.

A lot depends on what you'll be able to sell the house for. A house that will sell for say $125,000 doesn't warrant $5000+ in granite or quartz countertops. However a house that is $500,000 probably does. What do most of the houses in your neighborhood have? If the majority are formica, then do that or the butcher block. When I was redoing my counters for resale, I went to HD, bought stock formica (the kind you take with you that day) in a black "stone" look, and put them in. I put a nice, inexpensive tile backsplash on and the kitchen looked wonderful. They cost next to nothing and you can buy some iron on edging for where it's needed.

I'll bet they've got some really nice laminate out there now. Least expensive for countertops, so that's the way I'd go.

I have always had laminate and have thought about putting it in our new house. The thing about laminate though is the only way for it to make sense financially is to DIY. You can order and buy sheets from the big box stores, and there are lots of how to videos.

Senator13 has a really great laminate counter they DIY. http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2671405/as-good-as-it-gets-for-now-finished-kitchen-minus-backsplash

I think if you do decide on the wood counters you will need to treat them with something that will not allow for stains to penetrate. I have seen many people do this. I think they could look great and last without staining if you do it right.

I personally would prefer a nice, neutral laminate over butcher block. The butcher block do not stay nice around a sink and show wear easily. I have 30 year old laminate which is still in good shape but the color is ugly yellow. The bigbox stores sell precut slabs. I also know that the basic laminates are also not too expensive.

do u have any DIY skills? any family members or friends?? my DH is a carpenter and he made our laundry room countertops with sheet formica and plywood and they came out great....it was about 8-9 years ago and cost under $500. granted it was only about 8 feet of straight counter but I'm sure this way would be your cheapest route, looks great and will give u the update that u want. I'm sure the formica prices and plywood prices have increased since then but it has to be cheaper than any other option....

if i was moving in 2 years, I'm not sure i would do anything although i understand your reason for wanting to do so.....

I have no real DIY skills but DH is pretty handy although he has no carpentry skills and we don't have those kinds of tools. We have some friends who can help with carpentry things.

So this is a stupid question but what is sheet formica? The sheet that you glue (or whatever) to the wood that goes on top of the cabinets?

We're laminate fans. Our kitchen is a working kitchen and the laminate is a working surface, we don't have any stress over it and it's easy to maintain. Unless you're really good at DIY, I would not recommend doing it yourself, that's where your selection of laminate would begin to seem like a cheap choice, rather than a smart choice for how you use your kitchen. One option, depending on the layout of your kitchen, is just to replace a section of the counter with butcher block, for example a peninsula area that is highly visible but not near your sink or used for prep. IKEA's real butcher block sections look great and the maintenance might be very manageable if it's not in your main kitchen work area.

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From the article:

"She replaced dark black-green soapstone countertops with butcher block
from Ikea. “I love the soapstone look, but it required more
maintenance,” she says. She kept a piece of the original soapstone and
used it to the left of the stove."

[https://www.houzz.com/magazine/new-this-week-2-kitchens-that-show-how-to-mix-materials-stsetivw-vs~57637008?utm_source=Houzz[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/new-this-week-2-kitchens-that-show-how-to-mix-materials-stsetivw-vs~57637008?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u2175&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery1)

If you're handy, google DIY wood counter tops.

nosoccermom - that's amazing she replaced soapstone with butcher block. Hmmm.

After Joe's recommendation HERE I'm going to go check out bamboo countertops.

That's what I thought. Hm...

I bought an IKEA bamboo chopping board a couple of months ago for all of 15.00 bucks or thereabouts. Treated it with beeswax butcherblock oil (?). It gets heavy DH gets it wet and leaves rings from coffee mugs, etc. Whenever I think it's ruined, I scrub it with a kitchen sponge, and it's as good as new. So, I was really thinking about bamboo counters.

Why in the world would someone replace soapstone with butcher block? What am I missing?

Annaw_123 yes sheet laminate is just the thin sheet you glue down. You can also buy the 'slabs,' but the less you DIY the more cost goes up. You should Google a how to.video on laminate and butcher block and you should be able to.figure out from that what you feel comfortable with.