Hey guys and girls, in this post I'm going to show you how to turn a piece of live edge olive wood into a stylish serving board. This is a fun project I did recently and took me only a few hours.

So here's everything I used in the project. A slab of live edge olive wood that I purchased from a local mill, some left over wine from a dinner party, and 2 rose gold handles I bought from Lowes.

The first thing I did was cut 3 sides of the board. I wanted to keep the front edges original character so I left that unchanged, but I wanted the other 3 sides of the serving board to be square with one another. I used a large framing square and a pencil to mark out the lines and then cut them with a circular saw.

There were some small cracks in the board I used so I filled them with wood filler. Once the wood filler dried I used my random orbital sander with 80 grit sand paper to sand off the excess wood filler.

Now it’s time to rub in some red wine! I generously applied the red wine to a rag and wiped it down onto the board. I repeated this step about 3 times. Each time I let the slab of wood dry fully before reapplying.

If I’m completely honest, I was expecting a deeper red stain, but I still really like how it turned out. There’s a light pink hue to what is already a very deep and interesting grain pattern. Here’s what the slab looked like right after I applied the 3rd coat of wine.

Next it was time to layout the handles. I played around with the positioning of the handles for a bit and ended up settling on this arrangement. The handles are inset from the edge 1". This provides a nice stable and comfortable way to hold the serving board.

Next it was time to layout the handles. I played around with the positioning of the handles for a bit and ended up settling on this arrangement. The handles are inset from the edge 1". This provides a nice stable and comfortable way to hold the serving board. This photo is a good example of how the board looked after the wine completely dried.

My girlfriend picked out these rose gold handles and given the overall pink hue of the serving board I think they fit it perfectly. Best of all they were only 5 dollars including the hardware. Not bad at all.

With the handles positioned on the slab I marked the center line of each handles arms. I then drilled a small hole the same diameter as the machine screw supplied with handle into the wood. I was careful to make sure I drilled the holes straight down. If you drill your holes at an angle the screws may not thread properly into the drawer handles.

After drilling the holes its important to flip the board over and counter sink the holes on the other side. This allows the head of the screws to sit below the surface of the board. If I skipped this step the screw heads would protrude past the surface of the board and be the first thing that makes contact with any surface the board is resting on and potentially lead to scratches or dents.

After the holes were drilled I gave the whole board one final sand and then rubbed it down with raw linseed oil. Raw linseed oil is natural sealant that will protect the wood and help seal it against moisture in the future. If you’re following along at home make sure you use RAW linseed oil. Raw linseed oil is perfectly safe if ingested, however, boiled linseed oil can be quite toxic to humans. Make sure you know which you have before using it to seal a surface that you’re going to use to serve food!

Linseed oil takes a while to dry, up to a few days. My first coat dried after a few hours, but the second coat took 48 hours. Take your time and don’t rush things. If you do you’ll end up with a blotchy finish.

After the linseed oil finally dried, it was time to re-attach the handles. Here’s the final product in all of its glory. I’m so happy with how this project turned out and I know we’re going to get a lot of use out of it.

Hope you enjoyed the project and are able to follow along at home. Feel free to leave any feedback or ask any questions!

For more info on this build feel free to checkout my site at:

https://zacbuilds.com/2017/10/31/wine-stained-live-edge-serving-board/