How to design a cutting board

Quick start (5 minutes)

1. Pick a style. Edge grain is the easiest first board. Open Style →
2. Set the size. Try 16″ × 11″ × 1½″ — a good everyday board. Open Size →
3. Choose two or three woods with strong contrast, like hard maple, walnut and cherry. Open Woods →
4. Generate a layout with one click, then tweak strips or click them in the preview to repaint. Open Layout →
5. Add details — rounded corners, a roundover, maybe a juice groove — then open the Cut List for your materials and step-by-step build plan. Open Cut List →

Getting around the screen

• The wizard (left) walks you through six steps. Click any step number at the top to jump straight to it — you can go back and forth as often as you like.
• The live preview (right, or on top on a phone) redraws on every change with realistic wood colours and grain.
• The header has the board name, Catalog, undo/redo, new board, open/save design files and copy share link.
• Everything autosaves in your browser, so you can close the tab and pick up where you left off.

Step 1 — Style

The style decides which way the wood grain faces up, how the board is built and how it treats your knives.

Step 2 — Size

• Units: switch between inches and millimetres at any time. In inches you can type fractions like 1 1/2 or 3/4.
• Nudge values with ↑ / ↓ (⅛″ or 1 mm) — hold Shift for bigger steps.
• Presets fill in common sizes: bar board, everyday, large, butcher block and serving board.
• Length runs along the grain; target width is what the strip generator aims for (the real width is the sum of your strips); thickness is the finished thickness.
• End grain only — slice row height: the thickness of the first glue-up panel. Because the board is built from whole slices, its length snaps to a multiple of this height.

Shop allowances

Open Shop allowances to tell the cut list how much extra to leave: length trim (cut off after glue-up), flattening (planed or sanded away), saw kerf (lost in each cut) and a waste factor for the board-foot estimate.

Step 3 — Woods

Tap species to add them to your palette; tap again (or the × on a palette chip) to remove them. Each card shows the Janka hardness and a short note.

• Contrast is everything. Pair a light wood (maple, holly, ash) with a dark one (walnut, wenge, ebony), and add a colour (cherry, padauk, purpleheart, yellowheart).
• Watch the warnings. Red oak’s open pores trap moisture; wenge is splintery and can irritate skin.
• Custom woods: type a name, pick a colour and click Add to use any species not listed.

Step 4 — Layout

This is where the pattern comes together. The cards shown depend on your style.

Quick generate

Builds strips from your palette in one click: Alternate, Mirror (symmetrical), Gradient (light to dark), Accent lines (wide strips split by thin ones) or Random. Set the strip width, turn on Varied widths for a looser look, and press the dice to reshuffle.

The strip list

• Change each strip’s wood and width; move strips up and down, duplicate or delete them.
• Fit to width scales every strip so the total matches your target width.
• Reverse flips the order; Mirror appends a mirror image for symmetry.
• Paint in the preview: pick a wood under “Click strips in the preview to paint with”, then click strips on the board.

Splits — strips made of smaller pieces

Click the split icon on a strip. Across width glues narrow pieces edge to edge (a 1½″ strip could be ¾″ maple + ¾″ walnut). On end grain, Layers laminates pieces face to face so every square in that strip is split. Use the presets (2, 3 or 4 equal, centre line, ⅔ + ⅓), set each piece’s wood and size, and try Apply to all or Apply alternating — alternating ¾″ layers turn two woods into a fine checkerboard.

End grain: slice arrangement

• Straight — every slice the same (end-grain stripes).
• Checker — every other slice shifted by the shift amount (1 strip makes a classic checkerboard, ½ strip a brick pattern).
• Flip — every other slice spun 180°; best with non-symmetrical strips.
• Staircase — each slice shifted a little more, making diagonals.
• Chaos — random shifts for the popular chaos board.

End grain: second panel, slice editor and accent rows

• Second panel: Add panel B to glue up a second, different panel. Choose which slices come from it — every other, every Nth, centre, both ends, or tap slice numbers. Edit each panel with the Panel A / Panel B tabs. Panel B must be the same width as panel A.
• Slice editor: pick a slice to turn it 180°, give it its own shift, switch its panel or change individual cell woods. Set the preview to This slice only to paint single cells. Slices with changed woods become custom slices with their own small glue-up.
• Accent rows: solid end-grain rows between slices — use the presets or set each row’s wood, position and thickness. They add to the board’s length.

Angled patterns

• Chevron / Herringbone / Diagonal: your strips form a striped panel that is cut into angled slices. Set the stripe angle (45° is classic), the slice width, the herringbone offset and whether slices run across or along the board.
• Tumbling blocks: set the cube size and the woods for the top, left and right faces — light on top, medium and dark on the sides gives the best 3D effect.
• Parquet herringbone: separate rectangular blocks at 45°. Set block length and width, colour by block direction (classic two-tone), zigzag rows or random, and choose end grain (recommended) or long grain.
• Honeycomb: hexagonal end-grain cells. Set the cell size, colour with 3-colour (no neighbours match), rows or random, and add thin contrasting walls.

Step 5 — Details

• Corner radius — from sharp to fully rounded.
• Edge profile — square, chamfer or roundover, with its size.
• Juice groove — set its distance from the edge and its width.
• Handles — finger recesses are pockets cut into the board’s edges (ends, long sides or all four) with adjustable length, depth, height and corner radius; a through slot cuts a handle hole near one end.
• Rubber feet — shown on the underside in the 3D view.
• Finish preview — raw or mineral oil, which deepens and warms the colours.

Step 6 — Cut list & build plan

• Cut list — every piece to cut, grouped by wood and size, with rough sizes that include your shop allowances. The Piece # column tells you where each piece goes: 3 = strip 3, 3a = piece a of split strip 3, A2 / B2 = panel A or B, C1-3 = custom panel 1, strip 3.
• Material estimate — board feet per species, including your waste factor, and the finished weight.
• Build steps — the full process for your design. Every step has an illustrated diagram drawn from your board: click Show diagram (or Show all diagrams), then click a diagram to open it full size and step through with ← →.
• Export — download a picture of the board, print the plan (diagrams included), save a design file or copy a share link.

Preview tools

• Top / 3D — switch views. In 3D, drag to rotate; drag down to tip the board over, or use See underside to look at the bottom.
• Raw / Oiled — preview the finish.
• Dimensions — show or hide the measurements in the top view.
• Hover any piece to see its wood and size; in the Layout step, click to paint it.
• Image button — download a picture of the board with its name and woods.

The pattern catalog

Open Catalog in the header to browse ready-made designs across edge, face, end grain, advanced end grain and angled styles. Filter by category, search by name, wood or technique (try “padauk” or “accent rows”), hover a card to see it in 3D and click Use this design. Every design is built with the planner’s own options, so you can change anything — and undo brings back your previous board.

Saving & sharing

• Autosave keeps your current design in this browser on this device.
• Save design file downloads a small .board.json file; Open loads it again on any device.
• Copy share link puts the whole design in a link — anyone who opens it sees your board.
• New board starts over (and can be undone).

Worked examples

1 · A classic edge-grain stripe board

1. Style: Edge grain. Size: Everyday preset.
2. Woods: hard maple and walnut.
3. Layout: Quick generate → Mirror, strip width 1″. Click a couple of strips in the preview to paint one cherry for a centre accent.
4. Details: ½″ corners, ¼″ roundover, juice groove on.
5. Cut List: print the plan and head to the shop.

2 · An end-grain checkerboard with a walnut frame

1. Style: End grain. Woods: hard maple and walnut. Size: 16″ long, 1½″ slice row height.
2. Layout: Quick generate → Alternate with ¾″ strips.
3. On strip 1, click the split icon → Layers (row height) → 2 equal (maple + walnut), then Apply alternating. Every square becomes a ¾″ checker from a single panel.
4. Set the slice arrangement to Straight.
5. Add a 1″ walnut strip at the top and bottom of the strip list (remove the split on those two).
6. Accent rows → Both ends, then set their wood to walnut and thickness to 1″ — the frame is closed on all four sides.

3 · A honeycomb board with thin walls

1. Style: Angled. Layout → Honeycomb.
2. Set the cell size to 1″, colour by 3-colour and choose three woods.
3. Set cell walls to ⅛″ in walnut or wenge.
4. Cut List: open the diagrams — they show how to wrap and re-trim the hex sticks so the walls meet without gaps.

Design & build tips

• Thickness: about 1½″ for edge grain, 1¾″–2″ for end grain, ¾″–1″ for serving boards.
• Hardness: hard maple, walnut, cherry, beech and white oak are proven choices. Very hard exotics dull knives and blades faster.
• Glue: use a waterproof wood glue such as Titebond III, and give each glue-up a full day.
• End grain: flatten with a router sled or drum sander — never a thickness planer.
• Buy extra: the waste factor covers defects and mistakes; a little spare stock saves a second trip.
• Test first: make a test cut on scrap before every critical setup, especially angled ones.

Keyboard shortcuts

Troubleshooting & FAQ

My board is narrower or wider than the target width.

The real width is the sum of your strips. Use Fit to width in the strip list, or adjust strip widths.

The end-grain length isn’t what I typed.

End-grain boards are built from whole slices, so the length snaps to a multiple of the slice row height (plus any accent rows).

Panel B shows a width warning.

Both panels must be the same width so their slices line up. Click Fit panel B.

Why does my cut list have “custom” panels?

Slices whose cell woods you changed in the slice editor can’t come from the main panels, so each unique one gets its own short glue-up.

Can I sell boards I design here?

Yes — boards you build are yours. See the Terms of use for details.

My saved design disappeared.

Autosave lives in your browser and is lost if browser data is cleared. Keep design files or share links for anything important.