How to Make a Countertop out of Wood Flooring
So Adam and I have been working on our laundry room for a while now, but as we are not HGTV it actually takes us real-life amounts of time to finish a room remodel. Two years so far, I think… that’s normal, right? Don’t answer that. It has been a process but I swear we are almost done, and it gets more usable every time we work on it. It’s actually starting to look pretty dang amazing.
As a refresher, here are the posts I have already written about the laundry room –
- Laundry room design plans
- Adding shiplap over drywall
- How to paint shiplap
- Herringbone brick paver floor
- Our brick flooring – One year later
Related – Mudroom Reveal
Here is a before picture (this is what it looked like when the builder turned the house over to us to finish).
Here is what it looked like a few weeks ago –
And here it is with the new counter and shelves –
We’re so close to wrapping this room up! Can’t wait.
One of the last projects in here was to add a countertop over the washer and dryer, for folding and ironing (haha, yeah right) and general junk collection and display (that’s more like it).
I wanted a wood countertop, and installing a piece of butcher block seemed like the obvious choice. It wouldn’t even of been that expensive, the cheapest one I could find was around $17o. However, we have made a few countertops out of wood flooring instead, with great results. Making a countertop was slightly more work, but the total cost was only $11. $11! That was the price of the flooring and we had the rest of the materials on hand, but if we didn’t the total cost would have still only been about $60. Also, we didn’t have to spend a day borrowing a truck and driving into San Antonio to pick up a piece of butcher block…so this might have even been the quicker and easier choice for us.
So if you are interested in doing something similar here is the tutorial!
Materials Needed
- Plywood base (3/4 inch or more), cut to size (they will do this at the hardware store for you)
- wood flooring (we used Lumber Liquidators utility oak)
- wood glue
- rubber mallet/hammer
- brad nailer
- chop saw
- fiberglass resin (optional)
- palm sander
- pre-stain
- stain
- sealer
- rags
- brush/small roller
HOW TO MAKE A COUNTERTOP OUT OF WOOD FLOORING
The first step is to cut a piece of plywood (3/4 inch thick or more) to fit the space.
If you are replacing an existing countertop just cut it to the same dimensions. Ours was a little unique in that we had to leave a gap in the back for all the utility connections, and also pull it bac from the front of the washer about two inches (so that they can be pulled out when needed without the countertop getting in the way, and so it’s easy to add the detergent).
After making sure everything fit, we removed ours and took it outside to put it together. You could leave it in place if you prefer, but sanding and staining will be messy.
The next step is to add your wood flooring, we used utility oak we got from Lumber Liquidators. They sell their not-so-great pieces at .99 a sq ft, and a few years ago we bought enough to do a few countertops in our home. They are cracked, have holes, and are mostly short pieces…not something you would want to use for a floor. But they are great for countertops!
Making the actual countertop is simple, you just install the wood the same way you would on the floor. Start by making the first plank flush with the edge of the plywood, that way you can add the front piece later and make the countertop look like a solid hunk of wood.
To install the planks, simply add some wood glue –
use a rubber mallet or hammer (gently) to tap into place –
and brad nail to secure.
at the end of each row use a pencil and chop saw to cut the ends to the correct length.
Now you need to address the problem of the holes and cracks.
If you buy better wood this step won’t be necessary, but we definitely needed it. If you leave them they will just fill full of crud and snag your cleaning rags, so what I do is fill them with fiberglass resin. We have used this on quite a few projects now (here) and it works really, really well.
It’s simple to do , I use a ziplock bag to mix the resin with a hardener in small batches, cut a TINY hole in the corner, and squeeze into the cracks.
You only have a few minutes to do this before it hardens in the bag, so you have to move quickly. It’s not going to be pretty, but thats okay.
You may have to repeat this process a few times, but after everything is filled in and dry you just sand it smooth with a palm sander.
Last comes the staining and sealing.
I used pre-stain, which seems like something that is totally unneccessay but makes a world of difference. Then thee coats of stain, followed by two coats of Varathane water based sealer in a matte finish.
And there you have it, our $11 countertop!
We also added a large DIY industrial pipe shelf above it, which I’m excited to decorate. If you are looking for a shelf tutorial I wrote one a few years ago, you can read it here.
I realize this is just for folding, etc. But I am curious if there is anyway to make something like this work for a more high “traffic” countertop like in a kitchen or bathroom?
We also made a wood flooring countertop for the master bathroom in our last house, and it worked great (read it here)! It’s really the same as a butcher block countertop (which we had in our kitchen), you just have to use an awesome sealer and may have to sand it down and reseal it every couple of years.
I love the idea of the wood flooring counter top! I was thinking of trying it in the bathrooms! The only problem is that one of the bathrooms has a counter edge that would need to to be finished – it is not nestled between two walls, but only in corner. What to do with the exposed end?????
Did you two build the shelving with the laundry baskets yourselves or did you have someone else build? If you built them, do you have a product list or tutorial? I’m not seeing one.
My husband built that unit and all the cabinets in our house, but I never wrote a tutorial on it. I might do that actually…I will have to look through my photos and see if I have enough to put a post together.
Love your style!
It would be really worth it to you to raise the laundry unit on a wooden platform to the height of a laundry basket. You just let clothes from the dryer fall right in!????????
My raised wooden unit has countersunk circles that keep a washer from travelling???? and has saved my back from heavy wet loads — no bending!!!????????????????
There is front open storage for my baskets but you could use the space for soap storage once all your kids are past toddler stage.
There are loads of plans online.
Wow! I love the wood countertop. I never would have thought to get imperfect pieces of wood flooring to make this project. Thank you for sharing. I will certainly save this for ideas in our home! Keep up the great work. The laundry room is gorgeous by the way ;)
Wow! I love this counter top. Your presentation has filled me with ideas! Thank you!
Looks beautiful! I dont get the price though the plywood alone would be 40.
You’re right, thick plywood is more expensive than I thought it was. Home Depot has a 4×8 3/4 for $30, plus other materials would be more than $40. I updated the price in the post, thank you for pointing that out!
Love your style!!! Are the floors hard to keep clean? Also how our your countertops in the kitchen wearing? We are looking at doing concrete countertops in grey. Thanks
OMG I’m so glad you shared this. I’m planning on making a built-in unit in our dining room and the product I was looking at for the countertop was over $200 and then I’d still have to cut it down. Now I can use this tutorial and save a bunch of money and make it just the right size.
It’s beautiful! We actually did all 1000 sq ft of our upstairs with that quality of wood and I love it :-D! Just saved the fine sawdust from sanding it, mixed with with some special goop stuff from a pro wood floor install company and puttied it into all those holes, cracks, and crevices, and resanded. Rustic and cheap!
What a beautiful laundry room! Now even doing laundry will be a joy. :)
May I ask where you bought your laundry room curtains and rod?? I was so excited to see them in the corner of your picture. I think they’re exactly what I’ve been looking for!!
Love your blog and peruse often. Barb :)
Thank you! The rod is from Pottery Barn, and the curtain is a DIY.
I loved your post! I have three kids, it´s really help me! :)
These turned out beautifully, just as nice as butcherblock. Great idea!
Keep up the great work – I always enjoy reading your posts <3
Great tutorial.. Can you tell me how you covered the ends of the hardwood flooring,to make it look like a solid piece of wood ? Thx Al (Pembroke Ontario Canada)
Would this be safe to use in a kitchen?