This was another Christmas build to replace our broken marble cookbook stand from C&B. I had an idea in the back of my head for a herringbone pattern of different wood species and I figured it would be interesting to do it on something other than a cutting board.

I cut a bunch of 1/2-inch Alder, Cherry, Maple, and White Oak into 1-1/8 inch wide strips. Then I put them in a semi-random pattern and glued them together at something close to a 45-degree angle offset. I had to do this in 4 batches of 7 strips and then glue the 4 batches together. I sent it through the planer to smooth everything out, and then cut it into four 2-inch strips at a 45 degree angle. I flipped two of the strips to create the herringbone pattern and then glued them back together, and cut everything to shape. Since most of the pattern would be covered up, I wanted to take a bit of it for the front of the cookbook holder portion as well. The stand in the back is a piece of solid white oak.

Usually I like a natural finish on everything, but I thought it was a little too bold and brown when I tested it. So instead I went with a “White 5” Rubio Monocoat which has a nice muted finish.