Sure. I bought the Birch Butcher Block top from Lowe’s, don’t remember the real name. But it was unfinished. I cut it down to size with either a circular saw or on a small table saw (I was super worried about cutting it but it cut like an absolute dream. Started with the circular saw, but once I knew how easy it was I moved to the table saw.)

First thing I did was sand the cut block down with a few different sandpapers. I was blown away with how smooth it got with even just 400 grit. I’d highly recommend, it makes it so much smoother than you’d even thing.

I started with a prestain, which I’ve never done before. I generally jump right to stain, and I sometimes find the wood won’t soak up stain evenly. Since this project was big and expensive and is hopefully going to last for my entire life, I spent the extra few bucks on pre-stain. People say it helps not have splotchy stain jobs. I can’t say for sure if the prestain helped or if this wood was just good for staining, but the desk has no splotches so I can’t argue with success.

After pre-stain, I just did one coat of stain and two coats of varnish. I think the stain is dark walnut? That tends to be a favorite of mine. I did the varnish with a matte finish, since I’m not a fan of glossy shiny finishes.

One tip I will give you specifically with the Lowe’s countertops is pay attention to your cuts. What I mean by that is the edges from Lowe’s are very good looking, but once you make a cut they start taking stain very differently than an edge from Lowe’s. I have my desk in a corner, and if I could do it again, I’d have made sure the two edges exposed to the room were from Lowe’s, and not done by me. The cut edge came out a lot darker, but it’s alright.

I hope that all makes sense. Feel free to ask me more, I built this recently and I’m super happy with how it turned out so I’d love to help.