Is a Butcher Block Surface on Kitchen Island a Good Idea?

It is typically a softwood that is likely to endure knife cuts, molds, and bacteria that will seep into the spores of the now-deaden wood and continue to thrive. This is why you want to avoid the dreaded moldy butcher block surface that came out in the Eighties when Martha Stewart was in her heyday.

The use of a wood block to do all of your prep work including cutting fresh and juicy fruits and vegetables, as well as bloody meat and raw fish, will lead to moisture concerns. This includes stainless steel or quartz or even marble, which are all less porous and more conducive when working with moist ingredients. How large your kitchen island is and what kind of wood you choose for your butcher block also make a huge difference. However, appearance-wise, most homeowners would avoid pine like the plague in favor of a more exotic and unique-looking wood-like acacia or teak.

What about something more exotic like black walnut and olivewood in combination, which has a striking dark and light wood grain appearance to it? While this does not include maintenance costs and installation expenses, you get a good idea of what you can look to spend at the store in the US on a ready-made butcher block. Plus installation costs and you can easily see where the average homeowner spends $3,500 on a kitchen butcher block island remodeling project. If you are a YouTuber or a food chef who writes your own cookbooks, and takes fancy photos of dishes, then, by all means, get yourself a butcher block on the kitchen island. That being said, there are also ways around having an entire kitchen island covered in thousands of dollars of butcher block. Simply pick up a chopping blockboard or carving board platter made from similar wood as a butcher block.

The sky’s the limit this way, and you can easily store your unused butcher block serving counters away when out of use.