DIY Cutting Boards

The cutting board I’m replacing is not a nice hardwood like a cutting board should be, it’s just a piece of 3/4” plywood someone cut to size at one point and used the heck out of. Yuck! 🤢🗑 The reason it’s important to use hardwood is because the grain is finer, which prevents bacteria growth.

I chose to use walnut for my cutting boards, because of the coloring. My vent hood cover is stained special walnut, so this will be a nice match. I picked up a 1” x 8” x 8’ piece of walnut from a local lumber yard for around $50.

For my built-in replacement cutting board, I needed it to be 16” wide, so I used my miter saw to cut two pieces to the correct length and then joined the two pieces together with wood glue and clamps to secure it over night.

After that, I still had a good amount of walnut leftover! I sketched out some cute shapes with a pencil and used my jigsaw to cut them out.

The next day, I unclamped everything and got to work sanding.

I used my hand sander to sand it all down with 80 grit, followed by 220 grit and then 400 grit.

I sanded these the same way and then added some holes for hanging with my drill and a larger drill bit.

After everything was sanded, I used a tack cloth to get all the dust off and seasoned them with cutting board oil. This is also great for wood cooking utensils!

The largest cutting board fit into my cabinet cutout a little tight though, so I brought it to a local Amish cabinet maker to plane it down for me. I told him I needed about an 1/8” taken off and they had it ready the very next day and only charged me $20. It looks so pretty now! 😍

I styled the rest of my cutting boards on this cute hanging hook rack for the perfect touch of functional decor! Click here to see more of my home and DIYs.