The butcher block countertop has long been a popular choice for supplemental and perimeter countertops.

With butcher block, you can wield that meat cleaver in true Chopped style.  Unleash your inner Julia Child!  You can finally chop, slice, and dice vegetables and meat with abandon. 

Plus, when the countertop is a cutting board, there is no need to pull out a separate cutting board; just start chopping.

Freestanding or Built-In?  Think Electrical.

First, decide if you want a freestanding or a built-in island. This debate involves more than just a mere matter of casters or legs, mobile or immobile.

With the freestanding kitchen island, you are not required by electrical code to install electric outlets. When you have a built-in island, you have the obligation to install electric outlets, a problem when you consider that this is the center of the room:

Where are you going to find power?  Can you bring it through the crawlspace and up?  If you have a concrete slab foundation, are you prepared to cut into the concrete?  All of this involves bringing in an electrician.

Yet one advantage of a built-in kitchen island is that you can install a sink. Since you are bringing up power through the floor, you can also go the extra mile and have a plumber install supply and drain lines for your island sank.

Dimensions, Wood, and The Perils Of Cheap Butcher Block

Butcher block counters come in a range of sizes, from as small as 18” on each side to as big as 60” long and 35” wide.

Cheap butcher blocks are cheap because the wood is thin.  Eventually, the surface will become pitted and scored by continuous use from the chef.

Worse, the individual slices of wood that are laminated to create a single unit may eventually de-laminate.  Unlike other cutting boards, which you can toss with little regret when they are no longer usable, it is not an option to toss your expensive butcher block.

Look for a surface 3 inches thick or more and made of hardwood such as maple, cherry, oak, walnut, or birch. Avoid pine or other soft woods as they will not stand up to hard use. Thick butcher block will allow you to occasionally sand down the surface so that you can have again a smooth, flawless, and sanitary surface.

Where To Buy

When you're looking for butcher block for your built-in kitchen island, look for manufacturers who sell the detached countertop surfaces. Then, have the remodeling contractor build a conventional kitchen island, but top it with the special-order butcher block material.

John Boos & Co. (linked below) is the best supplier of stand-alone butcher block counters that I have found.  They are even one of the few suppliers of "real" butcher blocks, those massively heavy squares of wood that get passed down from generation to generation.

Freestanding butcher block islands are easily found online at relatively low prices. They usually are delivered flat, IKEA-style, but assembly can be completed with basic hand tools. More serious butcher blocks, such as John Boos & Co.'s Grazzi Work Table, of 2 1/4" rock maple, and measuring 28" wide by 60" long, run in the $2,000 to $3,000 range.

Buy Direct - Freestanding Butcher Block Kitchen Islands

The Case Against Free-Standing Islands

Many homeowners report that they buy a freestanding island with the idea of later replacing it with a built-in island; or they think that they are later going to detach the countertop surface and attach it to a built in island.

The best advice is to buy the type of kitchen island that you like in the first place, and just bite the bullet. This is not to denigrate freestanding islands, because they have great utility (as well as the advantage of avoiding the cost of installation by contractors).

Purchase what you want the first time around, instead of looking at the free-standing island as a stopgap before building a fixed-in-place island.  Too often, the stop-gap solution becomes the permanent solution.