I like. But then, I love lots of deep, rich color. Only one thing - on my monitor that green reads like pool table felt green.

Can you get a sample to test it out? That'd be your best bet.

Yah--I second the 'get a sample' suggestion. I love the color I'm seeing on my monitor...deep green w/ blackish splotches. Not a 'grass' (lighter) green that the name suggests.

richlite also has a nice green color. more or less the same product, although paperstone contains more post-consumer recycled material. also it's more expensive.

I just saw an installation of a richlite countertop in a deep blue indigo a couple days ago that blew me away. it was amidst all these granites and engineered stones, and it had such a soft, velvety texture and look to it. really a nice alternative to stone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Available Richlite Colors

My only comment is this: I've seen Paperstone installed and it does have that soft, velvety texture that edlakin refers to with regard to Richlite. But the crummy little $5 sample that I got had none of this; instead it just looked like a black piece of plastic. I was irritated and disappointed. But my point is that it would be better to go someplace where you can see a larger sample that's been handled and aged, even if it's not an installation.

We installed the green Richlite two years ago (called sage, but darker than the Richlite website now shows--like the 'grass' sample photo)--we almost chose to wait two extra weeks to get the green paperstone (brand new then), but would have needed to order without a sample. We have it with warm white cabinets, "natural corn" marmoleum floor, stainless appliances, some "rain" glass which looks greenish, so it's the 'dark' in our kitchen (other than the usual NW cloudcover ;). It feels like warm granite, soft leathery texture, even without reoiling (I'm a year overdue) it has stayed gorgeous and minimally scratched (patina-ed, right?)...it has aged toward an oranger/browner tone, as they said it would, and I love it more every time I look at it. Get a sample and go for it if you like it.

I would love to see a pic of it installed in your room- or actually installed in any real room. It so intrigues me, but I have not been able to see an actual piece of it and keep waiting for it to become more available.

have you gone to their website and looked up the fabricator in your area?

when we were considering it (we've since ruled it out) we contacted a local fabricator and they invited us into see slabs and installations.

stillalmostdone - please post pics! It sounds beautiful!!

Hi, bumping this, and especially wondering if anyone who has it has had any trouble with water damage? What do you think of the scratching issue? The large black countertop in paperstone at our ecobuilding store has a LOT of scratches and it doesn't look too good, but it seems like they also have a lot of rough stuff happening on it. Do you cut on it or use a cutting board?

Thanks for any comments. We are thinking about using the indigo.

I was just about to mention the scratches issue when I scrolled down to susurradeluz's message. I have two friends with richelite (my understanding is it's very similar to paperstone) and there are tons of scratches on their counters. Now, I don't know how they are with their counters, maybe they cut right on them and don't mind the scratches. I also don't know whether you can buff them out regularly, but it would definitely bug me to live with my counters looking like that and I know I'd hate to have to maintain them.

I do like the look and feel of them new though, they are beautiful.

the indigo color (richlite) was the one i saw in person, installed in a kitchen vignette in a local appliance store, and it was gorgeous. like blue velvet. really striking amidst all the cold-seeming granites and marbles.

oh, and you can purchase cutting boards made of richlite, so for anyone seriously considering buying it and cutting on it, you should get yourself a board and give it a workout.

We got a richlite cutting board to test at home and found that it does scratch, but only if you TRY to scratch it. I also found that at least with the black richlite, I could not stain or damage it with anything. I tried bleach, wine, tomato sauce, vinegar, petroleum-based cleaners, lemon juice, comet, oils, other citrus or berry juices, milk products, alchohol, dishwasher soap, salt, every cleaning product in the house including oven cleaner, you name it. In every case I left the substance on the richlite sample overnight, at least, but nothing seemed to affect the texture or color. I've heard that prolonged sun exposure can affect some of the lighter colors but I only tested the black so I can't say. Our sample has been exposed in a sunny kitchen for over 6 months and I haven't noticed any fading.

prolonged sun exposure (and to a lesser extent, exposure to any light source) actually *darkens* the lighter colors rather than fades them.

this is commonly known and the richlite website discusses it at length (if i recall correctly) and also any fabricator/installer would make you well aware of this before you committed.

the darker colors aren't affected the same way. it's got something to do with the resins they use to bind the paper substance.