Often when people are going to redo their kitchen, they will visit a marble yard, where they then get to choose their perfect piece. The same can be done with a wood slab. You can actually visit the site, evaluate the slabs, determine what color/texture serve your needs and tastes, and voila, you have your new countertop. With a wood slab counter though you can also take it a step further; you can actually start with…the tree.

At Live Edge Refined we take client projects from tree to all the way to table or any other type of wood piece you can imagine. Our Rochester based mill site is home to literally millions of board feet of raw timber. So if you are looking to redo your kitchen and want to start with slab (or tree) selection, we can certainly help.

Wood Slabs in Rochester, NY

So what should you consider when selecting a wood slab, (or tree species) for your kitchen remodel? Here are a few things to keep in mind in terms of slab selection:

• The wood will be exposed to moisture—probably quite a bit of moisture when serving as a kitchen counter. It is thus important that you maintain the finish of your wood slab. If there will be sections being utilized in more of a preparatory capacity, you probably don’t want anything on the surface other than mineral oil. This will have to be reapplied quite frequently if you wish to maintain the inherent look of the wood. Otherwise, there are a variety of products that can be used on the surface, just not necessarily if you plan to do a great deal of cutting on it.

• There are different grain orientations that you can get. And those are face grain, edge grain and end grain. These all generally involved gluing pieces together and depending on what type of grain you choose, that is the effect the countertop will have. You can also do a single solid wood slab. This provides a more continuous and uninterrupted look.

• Color counts. Depending on your kitchen design aesthetic, you want to examine the color of the wood. While yes, the pieces can be stained, there are innate differences in even how each species takes stain. Walnut is going to give you a darker potentially more rustic looking countertop. Whereas, something like a spalted maple or even a cottonwood are going to be quite a bit lighter when all is said and done.

Live Edge Refined: Come Choose Your Slab in Rochester