Sharing all the details of How Easy it is to Install Wood Countertops yourself to a Farmhouse Bathroom Vanity with DIY instructions including finishing tips, the cost of wood countertops, what farmhouse sink & faucet we chose to go with it & pictures.
Table of Contents
DIY Wood Countertops for the Farmhouse Bathroom
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Farmhouse Bathroom Before
So far we have peeled wallpaper, painted & painted again, made a window covering & now we have new wood countertops, farmhouse sink & faucet.
Notice the red laminate countertop & the brass faucet?
Not really that farmhousie is it?
In a perfect world without a budget I would add a Carrara marble countertop & a vintage apron sink…
Unfortunately we still have three other bathrooms, a kitchen & some bedrooms along with some other things.
Good thing we like to remodel!
Farmhouse Sink for DIY Wood Countertops
I found a sink at Ikea for $55 in the As Is room (my favorite room in Ikea).
We went to Home Depot & picked out some select pine wood boards to make the wood countertops for this bathroom vanity cabinet.
Cost of DIY Wood Countertops
The wood pine boards cost about $35-40. However, in total, the wood countertops, farmhouse sink & new faucet cost us less than $250.
Jason first took out the old laminate countertop & sink & cut the wood for the countertops.
Cutting the Wood Pine Boards, Sanding & Adding a Ledge
Jason cut the boards, sanded them & build a ledge for the back of the wood countertops but it wasn’t what I had envisioned.
Nothing about it said old farmhouse either & at first I wasn’t sure what was wrong.
My conclusion, the wood stain didn’t make the wood countertops look old & the wood back splash didn’t either.
Adding Shellac to our DIY Wood Countertops
Jason sanded down the counter & we used shellac instead from the Shellac Shack.
A shellac finish looks great & has a nice warm glow to it that gives it a similar look to the old pumpkin pine look that everyone loves.
You can actually get cans of shellac at home depot & lowes but shellac naturally has wax in it.
If you are going with a wax finish you can certainly purchase this type and use it.
But places like Shellac Shack sell dewaxed shellac flakes which means that the wax is removed from the shellac.
If you use dewaxed shellac you can topcoat it with any type of durable finish you want.
You mix the shellac flakes with denatured alcohol & let the flakes dissolve (usually within 24-48 hours).
4 Reasons Why We Chose Shellac instead of Stain for our DIY Wood Countertops
1) Its completely food safe & nontoxic.
The hard shell on a lot of candies is made from shellac.
Just don’t go googling where shellac comes from…you might not buy candy anymore. 🙂
2) It dries super fast.
This actually makes it difficult to work with on large surfaces…you just want to work fast enough to keep a wet edge so you don’t have dry lines in your work.
But the great thing about this is that you can add another coat a half hour later.
3) Shellac allows you to really control how dark you want to go.
With each coat the finish gets a little darker.
So you can take your time & just stop putting coats on when you like the color.
There are a different shades of shellac flakes.
We use the garnet colored flakes & Jason put on 5 coats of shellac to get the color shown.
How Many Coats of Polyurethane to Add to Your DIY Wood Countertops
Jason then put on four coats of polyurethane.
He painted out the ledge white & added the new farmhouse sink & faucet.
We bought a chrome one to match the chrome finishes in the sink.
Powder Room Faucet for the Farmhouse Sink
We tried to match the powder room faucet with the new kitchen one.
Here is the link to the faucet we bought & for less than $100 it’s a great deal.
Premier 120347LF Charlestown Lead-Free Single-Handle Bar Faucet, Chrome
The other great thing about the faucet being tall is its easier to fill my water can for my front porch flowers.
I love the new look of our new DIY wood countertops, farmhouse sink & faucet.
I also painted the oval mirror AGAIN to match the oil rubbed bronze knobs & hooks.
This is the first bathroom finally finished in our new house & I feel like we are finally making progress.
I am thankful that we started with the powder room because it’s literally the first room everyone sees after walking into our foyer & the bathroom that gets the most use.
Update – 6 months later and we still love the bathroom & the wood countertops are holding up great.
For less than $250 I think we did a pretty good job & I hope this inspires you & answers all your questions for how to DIY wood Countertops for your home!.
by Tara Lehman
Don’t Forget to Save & Pin our Powder Room Reveal DIY Wood Countertops or follow along on Pinterest!
Farmhouse Fixer Upper Home Tour
Some More DIY Ideas You Might Enjoy
What a lovely new powder room. You were so wise to keep on until you had the color you wanted on the wood and it looks great.
Nancy, thanks so much for your sweet comments about our powder room! It was hard to make the decision to change the counter after all the hard work that we had done but we are so much happier with the result!!! Have a great weekend and take care!, Tara
Your powder room looks so pretty!! Love seeing rooms redone by just making a few changes that make such a huge difference. BTW, your entire house is beautiful. It’s my dream to own a farmhouse type home someday. Love following all the changes you are making.
Jackie thank you so much for your incredibly sweet comments about my home!!! Best wishes on finding your dream farmhouse someday:). Thank you so much for following along! Have a great weekend and take care!
LOOKS GREAT TARA – BESS
P.S. WHAT’S MY “URL” ????
Hi Bess! Thanks so much for following along! When it asks for your URL it’s asking if you have a website that you want to link back to. (it’s optional:)
super job Tara, our powder room is on my list as well!!!! I really love the counters!!
Thanks so much Christine! Can’t wait to see what you do with your powder room when you get to it:).
LOVE your powder room….and I see you have “made friends” with the red from outside! The valance in the bath ties in so nicely as you walk into the foyer. A touch of red here and there goes a long way! BTW. Love the counter top…the change is so warm and homey! The first floor bath is always the most used bath in the house. There’s a lot to say about your ideas for the room, most importantly…IT LOOKS GREAT!
Hi Karen! Ha yes I have been “making friends” with it. Would you believe I have been checking Craigslist for a red rug for the living room:)? I have a feeling that there will be even more red here in the future. Thanks so much for your sweet comments about my counter tops and our powder room. I appreciate your following along so much. Have a great weekend and take care!
Tara – Your new powder room looks beautiful! Your countertops were the perfect choice!
Cat
Thanks Cat! I appreciate your sweet comments so much:)
Your powder room looks great and I love the sink and countertop.
Darielle, thank you so much for stopping by to see our new powder room and for your sweet comments! Have a great week and take care!
Hi Tara…..your powder room is adorable. I love that little window. Nice job on everything, the wooden counter top looks great with the sink.
Hi bonbon, thanks so much for stopping by to see my powder room and for your sweet comments! Have a great week and take care!
How water repellent is this surface? Did you caulk around the sink to keep water from seeping under it? The counter looks lovely by the way….
Hi Jennifer! Thank you so much for your sweet comments about our powder room. We are only a few weeks in to our new wood counter tops but I have already come in to the counter top splashed with water more than a few times (we have 4 kids:) and the water wipes right off with no problems. We did put 4 coats of polyurethane on it 4 times so it is similar to splashing water on hardwood floors. We also used clear chalk around the sink and where the back splash meets the counter tops. Hope this answered your questions and thank you for taking the time to stop by and comment! Have a great holiday weekend and take care!
Thanks for the info! I have a large family so with sons, daughter, and visiting sons, daughters-in-laws, and grandsons, water flies everywhere! 🙂
Ha Jennifer! You are welcome:) Hope if you decide to try the wood counter tops they will work out for you!
Another wonderful transformation! You guys do such a great job! 🙂
Hi Deb! Thanks so much for your sweet comments about our powder room! I hope you have a nice week:).
The bathroom is great! Where did you purchase the sink and faucet? Thanks!
Thanks so much for stopping by and for your sweet comments about our bathroom Kristin! We bought the sink at Ikea and we bought the faucet on Amazon. I have a link in this post to the exact faucet we bought from Amazon. Take care, Tara