Does anyone have experience with distressed solid wood countertops?
(Hello again, Persnicula. Believe it or not, I am not stalking you on Askville!) What wood? Something relatively hard and dimensionally stable. People often use maple, but it tends to warp unless dried well beforehand. But it isn’t super-expensive and it is easy to find. Other than that, most closed-pore hardwoods would be fine, the harder the better. I wouldn’t use cherry, which is beautiful but soft, and darkens with exposure to light. Open-pore hardwoods like oak have pores which tend to trap dirt over time and turn black, unevenly. So you can fill the pores yourself beforehand, but that creates another finishing step. Some unconventional alternatives include bamboo and those incredibly dense tropical hardwoods (like ipe.) Recommend one at all? I haven’t built one, but I do have a friend who had one. She set a hot skillet on it and made a nice scorch mark. Wood is the softest and least durable counter material in general use. A wood countertop dings pretty easily. And it can stain,
