How To Repurpose a Cutting Board

One of my favorite things to do is find old wooden cutting boards at estate sales.  I love to bring home these sometimes well used boards, clean them up and repurpose them.  Here's 2 that I recently nabbed.  This one had an extremely ugly fruit pattern painted on one side....

And this pig was too cute for words, but it was well used and a bit grimy.  Both boards needed quite a bit of work.

First up was to completely clean and disinfect them with bleach and lots of hot soapy water, before sitting them out in the sun to air dry for a couple of hours. Then I sand them down to remove the top layer of wood and to remove any knife-cut marks on both sides.  If the cutting board didn't have a hole in the top to hang it, I just drill a hole with a power drill at this time.

I generally use a stencil from our Cricut to stencil on a design or letters.  Then I get out my wood burning tool and hand burn the wood.  Sometimes I like to use a little natural stain to darken the wood.  My favorite method is to just use coffee grounds.  I dump that mornings grounds onto the board and scrub it into the wood with my fingers.  It's amazing what a nice rich color this can give to the wood.   Afterwards it got another good scrubbing and then oiled with coconut oil.  Finally, I added a piece of twine to the hole so I can hang it in the kitchen. 

I made this board especially for my friend Dolly from Dolly's Designs in gratitude for the beautiful aprons she makes for me.  She is also an avid cook and you should check out her cooking blog as well.

Your cutting board is totally usable, but if you don't feel comfortable using a garage sale item,  you can just display it in your kitchen. One word of advice - hand wash it, don't put it in the dishwasher. I had a  board crack apart after I stuck it in the dishwasher.

I am in love with this pig cutting board.  Wouldn't a group of them look adorable hanging in the kitchen?

Oink, oink!!

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