Discuss NUMERÄR vs PRONOMEN and my kitchen... on IKEAFANS.com. We're Personalizing the IKEA Experience. NUMERÄR vs PRONOMEN and my kitchen... - Need help with planning your remodel? Want a kitchen planner to review your ideas? This is the happenin' spot!.
Ok, i am ready to take the next step in my kitchen overhaul. Let me start with a little history. We purchased a foreclosed house that was poorly taken care of, the kitchen cabinets were pretty bad, no matter how hard we tried to clean them they would not come clean. So we decide to paint them white, and they look amazing, we added some Ikea handles and new stainless hinges and they look great, but now the counter tops look even worse! hahah. Since we are on a tight budget i will be doing the work myself, and i am pretty good with most things and am not afraid to do things, and working with wood is even better because most of the time you can fix your mistakes (i learned that real fast in shop class in high school). So we are looking at either the Numerar or the Pronomen at Ikea since they are reasonably priced. The soon to be wife wants granite, but if i am going to spend that kind of money i am getting new cabinets as well! I have also thought about corian but she does not really like it, what ever. So i am back to a butcher block counter top. We have a U shaped kitchen, one side is a peninsula connected to the bottom of the U where the sink is in front of a window and other other side the middle of that leg the rang is. its ~27 square feet if i can add and measure correctly (that is always a problem). Anyways what is my best options with these counter tops? I see that i can by slabs of the Pronomen and i am assuming cut to my need, is that going to be the best option, or what do you guys think? Here is a link to pictures of the house before we have done anything: Picasa Web Albums - Alex - Houses Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
In our store Pronomen is kept in stock and Numerar had to be ordered and picked up further away or you could pay for shipping. We didn't like those choices so we got the Pronomen, even though it was thinner. After we got it we were glad it was thinner since it weighs less and is a bit easier to cut. We love ours! For easy care, I'd recommend Waterlox sealer and finish. Take the time right from the start to treat all sides, especially the cut edges. Takes 12-24 hours for each coat to dry but it's worth the wait to do it right. Personally I think it looks fabulous with white.
In our store Pronomen is kept in stock and Numerar had to be ordered and picked up further away or you could pay for shipping. We didn't like those choices so we got the Pronomen, even though it was thinner. After we got it we were glad it was thinner since it weighs less and is a bit easier to cut. We love ours! For easy care, I'd recommend Waterlox sealer and finish. Take the time right from the start to treat all sides, especially the cut edges. Takes 12-24 hours for each coat to dry but it's worth the wait to do it right. Personally I think it looks fabulous with white.
Thank you for the advice, i have been lurking around here for a little while reading all i could about the wood counter tops, and it seems to be a favorite to use the waterlox. Also i have one other question, is it possible to put in one of those under the counter sinks in, or would that not be advisable?
As you said, wood is certainly easy enough for the DIYer to deal with.
Aside from wood species, the difference between the two tops is thickness...NUMERAR is 1 1/2", whereas PRONOMEN is 1 1/8".
Personally, I much prefer the look of the thicker NUMERAR and would choose it for that reason. I also prefer the look/durability of the oak which is only available in NUMERAR.
I have the NUMERAR in a bathroom, not a kitchen, but it seems like the folks here who have used either of the butcherblock options for kitchen tops are happy with them.
You have to be willing to commit to a certain level of finish maintenance with wood tops and there are decisions to be made regarding what kind of finish you'd use...either just an oiled surface or a 'permanent' coating like urethane or acrylic...
As you said, wood is certainly easy enough for the DIYer to deal with.
Aside from wood species, the difference between the two tops is thickness...NUMERAR is 1 1/2", whereas PRONOMEN is 1 1/8".
Personally, I much prefer the look of the thicker NUMERAR and would choose it for that reason. I also prefer the look/durability of the oak which is only available in NUMERAR.
I have the NUMERAR in a bathroom, not a kitchen, but it seems like the folks here who have used either of the butcherblock options for kitchen tops are happy with them.
You have to be willing to commit to a certain level of finish maintenance with wood tops and there are decisions to be made regarding what kind of finish you'd use...either just an oiled surface or a 'permanent' coating like urethane or acrylic...
I have thought about that a little bit, and have decided that i hate it when people use the butcher block for a cutting board, i know i know. So i think that something with like a polyurethane finish would be advisable. I am by no means against maintaining something to keep it up, i oil my favorite cutting board almost weekly haha. But again, thank you for the advice.
She's still happy with it. Note there's been some discussion that Marine Waterlox (which she used) may not be officially food safe, but it sure seems to work and look fabulous!
If you don't intend on using them as a cutting surface, then yes, I agree that a coating type finish would be ideal and require less maintenance.
I do not have any personal experience with the Waterlox product, but I absolutely recommend using an oil based product over a water based one.
I have never met a water based sealer that will hold up to repeated, prolonged exposure to moisture. OTOH, I have a large wood tabletop that I sealed with Minwax Spar Urethane that has water puddles sit on it on pretty much a daily basis without any effect what so ever.
I think with multiple coats and a careful application, using an undermount sink with butcherblock would be fine. I would ALWAYS be keeping my eye on the finish for signs of breakdown, however.
If you don't intend on using them as a cutting surface, then yes, I agree that a coating type finish would be ideal and require less maintenance.
I do not have any personal experience with the Waterlox product, but I absolutely recommend using an oil based product over a water based one.
I have never met a water based sealer that will hold up to repeated, prolonged exposure to moisture. OTOH, I have a large wood tabletop that I sealed with Minwax Spar Urethane that has water puddles sit on it on pretty much a daily basis without any effect what so ever.
I think with multiple coats and a careful application, using an undermount sink with butcherblock would be fine. I would ALWAYS be keeping my eye on the finish for signs of breakdown, however.
True, i am not completely sold on the under counter sink yet, i don't think i have the right equipment to do it, but that gives me a reason to purchase some new toys! I guess it will all come down to how much the price difference is between the sinks. Before i we would use the sink for washing dishes, but now that i purchased a new dishwasher we hardly use the sink anymore. I guess the next step will be to determine what size pieces i need, and what type of wood, i really like the birch finish, we have a lot of birch finished furniture and it would go well with them i think.
I prefer the thicker, numerar, wood counters. Love those!
Re Waterlox -- I have over 2000 sq ft of wood flooring finished in Waterlox in my house. It is NOT higher maintenenance than polyurethane -- to the contrary, polyurethane, if it gets scratched or seriously dinged, would require stripping and refinishing the whole floor. With waterlox, (1) dings are less likely because the oil/resin actualy penetrates the wood, strengthens it from within, and is not brittle like polyurethane; and (2) any ding can be spot-repaired very, very easily by just applying a dab on the boo boo spot and rubbing it in. Honestly, I cannot imagine using polyurethane on countertops. I think it would last maybe an hour before looking like h*ll.
It is a very easy product to apply and is very forgiving. It is smelly (very smelly) when wet, but when it cures it is odorless. The original formula, at least, is supposedly foodsafe once cured (curing time takes a few weeks; you will know it is cured when there is no more odor, though it will be dry long before that).
In terms of sheen, the original formula is quite shiny -- I would consider it tobe glossy, though they market it as semi-gloss. However, if you want a more matte finish they have another formula that you apply as a 3rd coat over the regular one, so in either event you would have a chance to see if you like the original formula or not.
I did not use the marine version in my house, but did use a tung-based marine spar varnish (McCloskey's Man O'War) to finish the entirety of the interior of my barn (stalls inside and out) and it is amazing stuff. I am not famiiar with the waterlox version, but it might be worth trying a bit on a sample piece of wood.
Note that waterlox is different from other oil finish because of the resins it contains.
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