How To Make a Wood Fence Board Countertop.

Or as we like to call it, “The great laminate cover-up”! If you’ve got a old laminate counter somewhere that needs a good cover up, this idea might work for you! We love the rustic, casual cottage-farmhouse feel, and the new material is perfect for this non-food related laminate counter makeover. 

One day, my hubby and I got the wild idea to install some re-purposed wood counter tops on the bar in our sun room [click here for the reveal]. We wanted to cover up the dated counter that was there with some cool old fence boards we had been hanging on to!

I promised to show you how we did it, so…

This Is How We Did It

See — So UGLY. Vanilla, Laminate & Boring.

We gathered the *fence boards and decided which ones we wanted to use. We gave them a good cleaning! We dry scrubbed a ton with a stiff brush, then blew them off with the air compressor. The we dry fit them to figure out what fit best where.

DRY FITTING: checking for placement and making adjustments before adhering in place.

*These boards are really rough, but we don’t eat at this counter so it works for us. It holds home decor only. When I want to use it as a buffet during events, I simply cover it with plastic tablecloths, then layer my pretty ones on top!

If you wanted to duplicate this but use it to prepare food on, you would want to use boards that are smoother, and with tighter joints for cleaning purposes. Then you would want to seal them with a few good coats of poly, or maybe a marine sealer (water proof). You might even go so far as to fill the joints/spaces between the boards.

But back to the project… after the dry fitting step, and making sure everything was right where we wanted it, we nailed the boards right into the laminate. Bam. Done.

As you can see we used a nail gun. If you don’t have one, you could pre-drill, then nail and finish with a nail set if you wanted the nails just a pinch below the surface of your wood.

We have an outlet down below the counter, so I had Jim drill out a hole through the wood and laminate so I could plug in a lamp or little white lights at Christmas. Again, we were not concerned with the original counter. If and when we tire of the fence board look, we’ll replace it with something new… or tear it out altogether! Who knows?

We drilled a pilot hole, then used a 1.5 inch Spade Drill Bit to make this hole. Perfect fit!

The backside of the counter is visible when you go up or down the stairs, so Jim finished the backside and the underside of the countertop with a thin stripe that pops up under the face.

Sweet. He’s hired!!

Now, this is not perfect… but it’s not meant to be.

Though it feels perfect to us.

After we added the counter, we decided to use the space under the counter too and added a double set of shelves [click here]. They hold so much! I’m so glad we took advantage of this dead space.

I still haven’t made the curtains to cover them. I am so fired! hahaha.

I’ll get to them before my nieces shower though. I have too..

I sure enjoyed getting to show you how to make a wood fence board countertop!

It’s so fun repurposing and upcycling for thrifty solutions for our home.

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UPDATED: The “new” counter, ready for the Bridal Shower [click here]

For a tiny peek at how our countertop looks now [click here]

Another “Fence Board” Project – Our Planked Wall [click here]

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