Cutting Board DIY
I love homemade projects but sometimes they feel a little too…homemade. I wanted to do some posts on gifts that are totally doable and that I would have bought from a store let alone be excited to receive it as a homemade gift from a friend. The first is this gorgeous geometric cutting board. I asked my friend and woodworker Jared Rusten to break it down into simple easy steps. You’ll definitely need some basic jigsaw skills but it isn’t anything too tricky. These would make great neighbor gifts or even for a friend that loves to entertain. If you have access to the tools and can find the scraps of wood the whole project is very affordable.
Click through for the easy step by step instructions.
Materials Needed: Scrap Pieces of Hardwood like Walnut, Maple or Cherry in 1.75″ thick, A jigsaw with a long blade, sandpaper in three grits: 80, 120, 220, pencil, paper, Mineral Oil or Linseed Oil.
The key to a great cutting board is starting with a good piece of wood. Soft woods won’t work for a cutting board because they absorb everything like a sponge. Hardwoods are perfect but you can’t find them at a Home Depot. Try contacting a furniture maker or checking the scrap bin at a supplier like Rockler or a local hardwood dealer to get great deals on small pieces of hardwood.
Step 1: Draw on a piece of paper what shape you want your cutting board. (See the photo at the bottom, we also made a heart!) Cut it out and lay it on the wood to trace it.
Step 2: Take the jigsaw and cut along the pencil lines.
Step 3: Take the 80 grit sandpaper and wrap it around a piece of wood and begin sanding. Take off the corners and the edges to look a little rounded. When you are sanding you are sanding for “feel” or how smooth it is, and also for “clarity” so you can see the beauty of the wood. Continue with the other two grits 120, then 220 until the board feels smooth and the wood looks beautiful.
Step 4: Take some oil like Mineral Oil and thoroughly wipe the board down. That’s it! Gift the board with a beautiful knife or some delicious cheeses.
Credits + Contributors:
All photography by Heather Zweig for Oh Happy Day
Art Directed by Jordan Ferney
Crafting by Jared Rusten
Styling by Stacy Wichelhaus
Category: DIY projects, Gifts to Make
28 Comments
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Oh Happy Day is a party and lifestyle blog based in San Francisco. We just moved back after spending a year in Paris, France. We love to throw parties and make things!
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Love it….this is going to be my next project.
What a cool idea, this cutting board is beautiful (so cool that I wouldn’t want to use it so it wouldn’t get damages, haha). And amazing photos.
this looks fantastic. i want to eat that lovely cheese!
Ooo I love the heart board!!! I have a custom furniture designer in my town and they are ALWAYS throwing away scraps of wood…I might have to do some searching in their backlot or ask…This would be such a great personal holiday gift! Thanks for the inspiration! =)
Ergo – Blog
That is a beautiful cutting board! I love the shape. Wish I had a jigsaw.
loulou
absolutely love it! & its in the perfect shade
Lovely gift idea. And I wouldn’t mine gifting one to myself either
love this gifting idea!
That would be perfect for a picnic in the park!
SUCH a great gift idea! i would love to give/receive this
Lovely! It would be a great Christmas gift!
Too cute! Love the heart board
This is a great project for those with handy woodworking skills
Another idea would be to buy a glass baking dish (Pyrex is the standard) and use glass etching potion to etch something personal on the side; such as a last name or monogram.
And I must admit… the shape of the cutting board instantly made me think of a coffin. Just a consideration; you wouldn’t want to weird out your gift recipients.
Brilliant!
Love this idea for Christmas gifts. We’ll have to look for a place to find scraps.
Thanks for the tutorial.
These are fantastic. I love the shape you used here. Makes a lot of sense to have it bulge in the middle! Nicely done!
These are so beautiful – I was wondering if they require any special consideration for washing? Can they be put in the dishwasher? Would they need to be reconditioned after washing?
I wouldn’t put a butcher block in the dish washer. I usually hand wash with a little soap and water and I use mineral oil every 3 weeks. (You can oil it less over time.)
These are beautiful!
I was just wondering – are there any special washing instructions? Would the board need to be reconditioned after washing? Can these survive the dishwasher?
What a cool idea and how to!
Do you need to worried that the wood has been treated with anything weird? How do you know that it’s food-safe?
Martina, naturally derived pure oils like Tung Oil, Linseed Oil, or Mineral Oil (sometimes ingested as a laxative!) are all food safe. Here’s a little article about food safe finishes: http://www.finewoodworking.com/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=26893
The three mentioned above are all readily available at your local hardware/paint store.
For special projects, I use Tried & True (Linseed Oil) for furniture/wood pieces that need to be food safe: http://www.triedandtruewoodfinish.com/
Good luck!
This is a beautiful DIY! I’d like to experiment with possibly personalizing through adding my last name or my initials to the bottom right or left corner.
Wow, great DIY!
Thank you!
Hardwoods tend to be really expensive. How much on average should we expect to pay for these scrap but thick pieces? Thank you, and they look beautiful
Hey Bonnie, it’s true that hardwoods can be expensive. The walnut cutting board featured is probably $15-20 worth of lumber, but it was scrap cut off a longer board. I know my local hardwood dealer (MacBeath here in San Francisco) has a big scrap bin in the office where they sell off-cuts like this. You *can* get “hardwoods” at Home Depot. They usually have oak, and sometimes birch, but it is only available there in 3/4″ thicknesses. And, you can always make a cutting board out of a softwood, like from pine shelving boards, but because of it’s softness you may find you’re “seasoning” your food with more cut fibers from your board.
You’re on fire! I featured this post as well!
Anestazia @ Eccentric Delirium
http://yourworkistodiscoveryourworld.blogspot.com/