If you’re looking to give your kitchen a spruce up this spring, interior design experts have shared a list of items which are back in fashion. Whether you’re heading to Ikea, rummaging through a local market or charity store, you’re more often than not going to find some unique items.
One such item that’s making a resurgence is the chopping board, specifically wooden chopping boards. While their main purpose is used for food preparation, they can also be used as decorative features and serving platters. They’re incredibly versatile and interior designers love them.
Meridith Baer, a home stager, told Good Housekeeping: “Vintage cutting boards are all the rage these days.
“I’m always drawn to ones that show real patina and wear. Whether styled on a kitchen counter or layered on open shelves, they add texture and depth to any space.”
Serious Eats shared that it believes wooden chopping boards to be the best material to use for food preparation.
It wrote: “It’s durable, yet easy on knives; smooth but not slippery; and firm while still managing to absorb shocks.”
Wooden chopping boards can last for years, and even if you find that there are scratches in the surface, this can be easily rectified by sanding them down.
If you’re looking for a wooden board that is gentle on your knives, Serious Eats recommended finding a board made from maple or walnut.
If you’re worried about how sanitary wooden chopping boards are, All Recipes explained that research found wood cutting boards are actually just as safe – if not safer – than plastic chopping boards.
Former UC Davis food researcher Dean O. Cliver, Ph.D, explained: “Although the bacteria that have disappeared from the wood surfaces are found alive inside the wood for some time … they … can be detected only by splitting or gouging the wood or by forcing water completely through from one surface to the other.”
Hardwoods are better at resisting bacteria, while soft woods could pose a greater food safety risk.