Absolutely gorgeous! No wonder you are thrilled.

Oh, that IS beautiful!

Beautiful!

Gorgeous! And I love the contrast of the soapstone with your cabinets and the chunky butcher block island (love the butcher block!). All the colors and textures look great together.

Gorgeous!!! It makes me smile that you look at it and it makes you so happy (that's the way I feel about my granite!!) Looks like you got the Franke sink as I did!!Enjoy!!!

Congrats...looks great!

That's really beautiful.

The veining is just gorgeous!

WOW! Your soapstone is gorgeous!

Your soapstone is beautiful. I love looking at everyone's kitchen pictures so thanks for showing. I know what you mean about looking at your stone and loving it. My husband thinks it kinda wierd how I can be so fascinated about little chips of this or that. Your green color is so pretty and has such a richness, a depth to it in the pictures. Better in person I know. Amazing what colors the earth has to offer. Show more pics when it is decorated. It's great now.

The green soapstone with the cherry cabinets is beautiful. What is the name of your soapstone and what company did you use? Is it a blueish grey when unwaxed or is that just my monitor? Can you go from waxing it back to the greyish color if you choose to do so? Both looks are beautiful. I love the green soapstone/cherry combination; you made a great selection! Congratulations on the install!

Beautiful! I love the combination of red and green. It is my favorite even though it just won't do in my house. The detail in the stone is wonderful. Good luck with the rest of the job. So soon you will have your kitchen back!

Suz

That is really beautiful. Don't let Mr. Bee see it, he will start thinking things....

Congrats on such a fab stone!

So, so pretty! I love "hearing" the excitement in your voice - great to read when someone is really happy with their choices. I love those counters!

Love the drama of the counters! That stovetop pass through is neat. Really good choices all around.

Gorgeous! And they did a beautiful job fabricating it too! Congratulations - you'll stare at it endlessly.

Beautiful! Before I chose quartzite, I was in hot pursuit for green soapstone because I had dreams of countertops like yours. :)

What is the name of your soapstone? It looks great, btw!

Love it waxed, and love seeing the difference of waxed vs. nonwaxed! Wow, what beautiful counters! And, to have that much counterspace - nice!

WOWWWW--stunning! Works beautifully with your cabs. I also love your butcher block island top. The soapstone goes great with the butcher block IMO. It looks like they did a great job on the seam at the turn of the penninsula--love the way they matched the 2 big veins there. What is the name of your soapstone?
Why did you choose to wax your soapstone instead of using mineral oil? (Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I don't know much about soapstone.)
Thanks for sharing and I can't wait to see the pics of your finished kitchen--you're in the home stretch!

I love the dramatic veining too! Very nice!

Tatter, Wow! That is truly beautiful!! Could you please share with us the name of your soapstone and where you found it! I have been searching for green soapstone with veining. Love your cabinets and butcher block island also...Great combination! Cheers!

Thanks everyone :) It's great affirmation to see that I'm not the only one who thinks the combination of colors/textures is beautiful. I've been without a kitchen since JANUARY 1ST! But it's taken so long because I've been so very picky about everything, and I'm so very glad I was.

The stone is called Green Porto and is from Soapstone Werks in Escondido, CA. I live in Seattle and couldn't find the kind of veiny green stone I wanted here. The Soapstone Werks people were fantastic to deal with. They have a real eye for the artisan quality of soapstone, which I appreciate.

I chose to use the Dorado wax because it lasts longer (don't have to do it as much.. or so I've heard), and I also like how it leaves the surface with a nice touch. How to describe it? Not oily or greasy feeling.. kind of like the feel of fine wax-polished wood furniture, except it's stone. It just somehow feels warm to the touch. Inviting. Makes you want to constantly rub your hand over it :)

When I was playing around with soapstone samples I remember I was able to remove the mineral oil finish and get the stone back to an unoiled state, but now I can't remember what I used to remove it with! hmmm... I think it might have been rubbing alcohol, come to think of it. But I prefer the darker color of the waxed stone so don't plan to do this.

And yes, the stone was a chalky bluish grey before I waxed it. But not too blue. More like a forest-greenish-blue, if that helps :)

Tatter - your soapstone is truly incredible. Congrats on a beautiful kitchen.

I have a question about the dry wax. I see M.Tex sells dry wax for $25 (incl shipping) while Dorado sells the same size dry wax for $40 + $7 shipping...almost double. Have you looked into the M.Tex dry wax before you bought the Dorado one?

Love your soapstone! And the kitchen is just fabulous looking.

Every time I start questioning the soapstone decision, someone like you comes along and reafirms it is perfect. Yours is beautiful with all that gorgeous veining.
Congratulations!!!

That will make a soapstone fan out of anyone! Simply gorgeous! Thank you for the great pictures and showing it waxed and unwaxed. I could almost feel my hand run over that unwaxed soapstone! And some beautiful cabinetry too! All this from a girl with her heart set on creamy white cabs and calacutta marble!

Just beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing!

That is indeed gorgeous...how fun for you!!!

Simply stunning! The veining & color are so interesting and the cabinets are so rich looking ;)
Love it all!

Love the veining. "Makes you want to constantly rub your hand over it :) " - I say that about my soapstone, too! Your whole kitchen is gorgeous!

GORGEOUS!

Eliz

Swwooooonnnnn....gorgeous. I love the veining. Enjoy it!

Cj

LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!!!

Tatter, I am going to start looking for soapstone in the Seattle area very soon...can you tell me where I might find the best choices? I want a dark grey/black with veining. Did you find any like that in our area? Did you go down to California to pick your slabs? Thanks....

gharborwa-We are on the east side of the mountains but wanted a grayish/blue (when not oiled) soapstone. Around here the best we could come up with was all on the greenish side so we came to Seattle and picked 2 slabs from Meta Marble & Granite. They had a great selection at that time (April) and were really easy to work with. We chose the slabs and had them sent over here to the place we were working with to get it fabricated. After all this time (the soapstone was almost the very first thing we chose) we are getting the countertops installed on Monday! I'm SO excited.
Our ss is called smoke and is dark black with white-ish/vanilla-ish veins when oiled.
HTH

Gorgeous stone!!!

Tatter,

That is the most gorgeous soapstone I have ever seen.
I mean it, I have been on GW for a year and half and
I love your soapstone the best. You must pat yourself
on the back for waiting and finding such a treasure.
It looks brilliant with wax or without. I love
the deep green, the veining, the subtle movement and the
soft layers of color. Remarkable.

Now, tell me the actual name of your soapstone.
And who did it? With all this talk of people having
issues with their installers it is so nice to see a
job of perfection. Your fabricators/installers must be
amazing artists to creat such a work of art. The edges
against the walls are perfect. Truly perfect.
The curved corners around the cook top and sinks, the
placement of the faucets... all meticulas. This is a
true genius who created these counters out of the stone.
Tell the name so others in your part of the world can
have counters so pretty.

Enjoy it.
~boxerpups

Well I am blown away! Soapstone would NEVER have been my choice, and now I am a huge fan! How absolutely gorgeous! Very, very nice!

Gorgeoso! The veins and the inclusions are amazing. I also love your butcherblock...Just the bright spot to help show off the other materials. Very nice.

Beautiful !

What is going behind the cooktop?

Again, thanks all :)

Gharborwa -- I'll second what someone else said on this. Meta Marble has (or had, when I was looking a few months ago) some nice soapstone. Crocodile Rocks had a good grey-with-veins soapstone, too, as I recall. Pental had a large selection, too, though I can't remember if any had good veining (they might have some now).

I didn't travel to CA to pick out the slabs. I had been looking for so long and collected so many samples I felt pretty confident about what I could expect. Plus the company I bought my slabs from (Soapstone Werks) sent several great photos. Also, I have to admit that working with Wendy at Soapstone Werks increased my confidence that this was, indeed, a special and beautiful stone. After dealing with so many male stone professionals (and don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are men in the business who also have a sense of aesthetics in addition to the business side of things) it was really refreshing to deal with Wendy. Talking with her on the phone about the stone and about what I was looking for just really gave me a lot of confidence that she knew what I wanted and understood my aesthetic concerns.

Boxerpups (great name -- now I want to see those boxer pups!) -- Thanks for your comments. It was tough to wait so long for a nice stone to pop up, but I'm glad I did. You hit the nail on the head :)

The name of my soapstone is "Green Porto". I bought it from Soapstone Werks who (I think) gets their stone from Dorado. Interestingly, I was also working with the Dorado people to find a nice stone but they didn't send me any pictures of anything like the slabs at Soapstone Werks. I don't know if they just didn't have any more in stock, or if I dealt with a dud of a salesman. In fact, the Dorado guy told me they only had one greenish soapstone in stock and the photos he sent me were so bad you could hardly see what the stone looked like! Not professional, at all. To top it off, after he sent me a couple photos he told me that half of those were of slabs that had been sold a few months ago. How helpful is THAT? *not*

Regarding fabricators -- I went with Venetian Stoneworks out of Woodinville. I chose them because they have state-of-the-art equipment for templating and cutting stone (laser templating so every odd angle and corner would be EXACT, and a computer-guided water-jet cutting machine that cut the stone to the exact dimensions of the template). The other thing I liked about them that made a difference in the aesthetics of the installed stone -- they took high-res photos of my slabs. These were loaded into a computer program and I got to see EXACTLY how the stones could be cut and how the veining would line up. It was really cool. There on the computer screen were my actual slabs and I could watch how the pieces would lay out as they tried different configurations for how the various pieces could be cut from the stone. I had final say on how the slabs would be ultimately be cut. That was important to me.

All this being said, though (and I can't stress this enough) I DID MY HOMEWORK! I did not sit back and rely on this fabricator's mostly-granite experience. I knew how I wanted my stone to be finished, I made a big fuss over how I did *not* want any sealer, over what grit I wanted the final finish to be, over how I wanted the seams done and what kind of glue I wanted them to use. Honestly, I think I was a real pain-in-the-a$$ in a lot of ways (though always with a smile on my face!). In fact, I know I was. But I wanted to make sure this stone was done RIGHT. In the end, they learned a lot about working with soapstone (I think my project was only the second soapstone they'd ever done, and the first one they did they had finished like a regular granite project, with sealer and all).

But yes, Venetian Stoneworks was great. They listened to my concerns (and fussing). They were professional through it all. They very definitely fabricated the stone according to my preferences. After it was all said and done we were both very pleased with the project and thankful it worked out like it did.

Brescianlute -- What's going on behind the cooktop? Well, I still haven't put up the backsplash yet. My plan is to do some sort of artsy mosaic with glass tile (nothing gawdy, but more subtle-design oriented). But in the photos here all you're seeing is the studs of the half wall. Give me a few more months and I'll post pics of the backsplash :)

tatter and leela, thanks so much for the info. I will check them out. Tatter, do you mind sharing the info you learned on how to fabricate, the grit choices, seams, glue etc? where can I find info on all of this? Thanks again for helping out. Your stone is the most beautiful.....

Gorgeous! The care and attention that you took in picking your stone and fabricators shows.

That is the prettiest Soapstone counters I ever saw and the fabrication if of perfection. Thanks for sharing the process and your joy.

Totally incredible, magnificent!!!!
Great to hear about the fabricators. That is something that I've been concerned about from reading on the forum here. Countertops are going to be awhile for me, we're still in planning phase. I live just north of Woodinville a few miles so I am so happy to read great feedback on a fabricator close to home!

thank you so much for those wonderful pictures.
I am having severe soapstone envy
i love my granite and am more thrilled every-time I see it but if i had seen this first it would have been my choice.
Enjoy it as we all know you will

Oh my, AMAZING Soapstone, never Imagined such Mica in Soapstone, wish we all could see this and touch it! Do you know the origin of your stone? You should be a designer, anyone would like to have you looking out for their best interest! And this Soapstone with the Cherry Wood, lovely...may we ask what is your floor, sink and faucet, hardware, and where did you find the Cherry Cabinets? Thank You so much for sharing. roseofblue

Absolutely amazing. I think I have soapstone envy.

Tatter: I am in the middle of my remodel- Cherry cabinets will be installed this Thursday, followed by slate floors- I want soapstone so very badly. Some Questions: Did you cabinet installers have to make your cabinets perfectly level? Our fabricator told us that we must have the cabinets very level or we would see gaps between the soapstone and the cabinets- We are concerned because we have a few dips in our corners (old house) Did you find that to be true? Did you use 3cm or (2cm w/ a mitered edge.) Your kitchen is just wonderful!! Is it now down? pic's would be lovely!