Refreshing an old cutting board is easy with a little food-safe oil, but why not add an interesting new design feature while your at it? Here’s how.
My favorite cutting board was looking a little worse for the wear. There were deep cuts and food stains. And it was starting to feel very dried out. It was clean, but it wasn’t looking good.
First I soaked bleach on a few of the stains, like the dark stain on the bottom, to lighten them. Then I sanded. And sanded. I started with 80 grit to lessen some of the worst gouges. Then I moved on to 150 grit. I used my hand sander when I could, but some parts just had to be done by hand.
I’ve seen so many cute bread boards with designs on them online that inspired me. I decided this would be a great time to add some fun decoration. I found a beautiful painting of basil leaves, my favorite herb, that I downloaded from Shutterstock and printed out.
To turn it into a stencil, I covered a piece of wax paper with painters tape and stapled the basil picture on top. I cut out the basil leaf shape through all three layers with a razor. We used this same method for the bat symbol on our Little Tikes Batmobile, so you can see more detail pictures of the process in that post.
I peeled the wax paper off the tape and stuck it onto the cutting board, pressing down firmly. I wiped ebony stain over the whole back of the cutting board and around the top and sides. I left the actual cutting surface on the front bare. Then I peeled off the tape and added a little more stain on some of the leaves to give them some dimension.
I know that my cutting board is going to get a lot of wear, so I added a little wear to the stained wood with some sandpaper. Hopefully this will make the real wear look intentional later on. I sanded the whole thing with 120 grit sandpaper.
I bought a new wooden spoon and wanted to try adding a design with stain on that too.
After sanding, a little too much of the stain had come off in some places, so I went back with a q-tip and added some more ebony stain to darken those parts again.
I let the stain cure for more than a week, then rubbed the whole thing with some food safe wood oil. The next day, I applied more wood oil to make sure the wood had soaked up as much as it could. 
The oil will protect the wood from stains and grease and will keep it from drying out.
Now my favorite cutting board is cleaned, oiled, and ready to be used again, plus it has a more finished look.
My cutting board hangs on the side of my cabinets near the sink with a command hook (those cabinets are soon to be replaced).
And the wooden spoon I stained at the same time turned out pretty well too.
The basil stencil makes the cutting board look almost like artwork, so it’s pretty and functional. Perfect for a working kitchen.
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This post was shared at some of my favorite link parties.