No pics but I've always preferred the type I grew up with that my Dad made. It's a wall mounted block that holds 12-14 knives. It's just a block about 1-3/4" to 2" thick, around 14-16" wide and about 12-14" tall. It's just simple stopped saw kerfs in the block for the blades.
These are not knife blocks, but they may give you some ideas for something that matches your cutting boards:
Although I didn't make these (they were a gift from LOML before I got back into woodworking a few years ago), they would be real easy to make. Just a few layers of contrasting wood glued up with a magnet bar inset into it.
Vaughn and Doug---Thanks for responding. Vaughn, those look cool, but I'm thinking more along the line of something more traditional like the one above, but laminated maple and purpleheart, with some nice figure on the sides. My cousin is into wood, so he will apreciate the figure.