If you’re dissatisfied for any reason, I’ll repay you in acorns.
– Cletus
Coming up on a year ago, Helen and Geoff redid their kitchen.
I love the classic white-and-wood look, the wall of windows, and all the SPACE. It’s a huge kitchen, but still cozy.
Plus, it’s in Yorkshire, so it’s got that going for it.
As if they ever weren’t!
Helen picked oak butcher block for her worktops. We thought seriously about using wood before we decided on quartz, so Helen has our alternative-reality counters. I was concerned about my personal ability to maintain them in my own kitchen, so I’ve been really interested to see how they would hold up for her — and especially how they would fare around her undermount farm sink.
The conventional wisdom says it can’t be done, but Helen’s undermount installation looks pretty dang good to me.
All they use on the wood is boiled linseed oil (referred to as “BLO” on GardenWeb and other kitchen discussion boards) on the top and edges. I asked Helen how often they apply it, and she replied, “I would like to say every eight weeks, but in reality it’s closer to twelve.”
After some debate, Helen and Geoff had the installer cut a drainboard area on one side of the sink, and it’s not just decorative.
They also have a dishwasher, so the drainboard handles small jobs.
The linseed oil just gets rubbed into the drainboard grooves at the same time as the rest of the wood. I love the look of the oiled wood against the white ceramic.
Lookin’ good, Helen’s kitchen! If I didn’t love our quartz, I’d have some serious thinking to do.
