When we planned the kitchen counters, we wanted something heat-proof and impervious. Our last house had Paperstone, which had some great qualities (recycled, one piece,  nice-looking), it was high maintenance in the areas that got wet around the sink. It required oiling every month or so, and it couldn’t handle hot things.

For the kitchen in the ranch we wanted something heat and water resistant. With a tight timeline & budget, Caesarstone quartz from IKEA seemed like a good bet. So far, we are very happy with the Caesarstone. But we left the area by the bar open so we could take our time creating something more fun: a wooden bar top made out of local, live edge wood. (Queue the Portlandia music. Wait until you see our local, artisinally hand-hewn steampunk bar!)

In the middle of all the remodeling craziness when we gutted the kitchen, Laura got these beautiful pieces of Elm from Salvage Works. There is a cool story about this wood: these slabs are from a Siberian Elm tree that was removed to make way for the new Orange Max train line down to Milwaukie. We grabbed these pieces of wood knowing they were at least big enough to complete the bar, but exactly how we were going to install them was something Laura took her time stewing on while doing other projects.

Here’s the kitchen with the Ceasarstone installed, but a gap between the dining room and kitchen where the wood bar top was going to go:

Here are the wood slabs before any cuts:

Laura broke down the larger pieces of wood at home with the table saw, then took them to ADX to do the planing and cut clean edges on all sides but the one facing the dining room. The two pieces needed to be joined in the middle with a dowel joint (creatively put together on site without a dowel jointer):

After much sanding and finishing, the bar looks great!  It’s my favorite place to lean and watch what amazing things are cooking up in the kitchen.