While we were renovating our 1890's farm house, I saved lots of rough cut lumber. There are boards of all width, thickness and length and also some thicker lumber that we saved from the walls. This project re-uses the thicker lumber and turns it into a rustic counter for our new bathroom.

First thing was to remove our "temporary" counter setup. I got this sink/counter combo 4+ years ago from Craigslist for $15. I put it in with the plan to change it within a few months. 2 kids later, it's finally time to make the change.

Once that has been removed I measure the space and get started on finding the best lumber for the job. This lumber has lots of character including nails, knots and saw marks. I have to take my time and make sure there are no nails in the area that I will be cutting. I use a hand held metal detector to find them all and then cut around them.

Once the wood has been cut to length, I use the table saw to cut them all to 2" thick. Again, this took extra time because I had to triple check for nails.

Now, I use a heavy coat of wood glue to start holding the whole thing together. I used two scraps of flat steel to screw the pieces together from the bottom. I also added a strip of wood to one side of the counter using glue and nails to hide the cut edge.

Next, I use epoxy to seal the top of the counter. I bought a epoxy kit from Lowe's and it worked great. After the two ingredients were mixed together I spread them evenly over the counter. Because the wood was un-treated bubbles immediately began to form. Using a torch, I was able to remove the bubbles. I ended up having to put 3 coats of epoxy on to even out the high/low spots.

Next, I used the old counter as a template to mark and cut out the hole in the new counter. Of course, I hit a nail during this process. Nothing a hack saw blade couldn't fix. At this point the counter was ready to be put in place and the sink was attached with adhesive.

The last step was to use a salvaged piece of lumber to create the back splash. I had to cut a few notches in it to fit around the lumber in the corner of the room and then it was attached using adhesive and tack nails. The whole thing was finished up with caulk around the sink and the back splash.

Thanks for watching!

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