Bumping this because I'd be very interested too - love soapstone but tiles would be much more do-able for us than a solid counter.

Sounds to me like an idea whose time has come.

I'm positive I've read a detailed post here at gardenweb that included photos of this very project ... diy soapstone tiles put together with epoxy. Naturally, I can't find it now, but I'm sure it's here somewhere. It was someone who had experience with marine-use epoxies, so wasn't intimidated by the process.

I'll keep looking. In the meantime, the link below isn't what you're looking for, but I did find a post of a diy soapstone kitchen using slabs. Maybe there's something useful there.

And maybe someone can find the other thread???

Here is a link that might be useful: DIY soapstone w/slabs

Found the instructions I was thinking of over at ikeafans.com, link below. Lots of detail and some pics. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikeafans: DIY soapstone tile countertops

Thanks a lot for that link - bookmarked!

I bookmarked it too and I have not plan of redoing my countertop. Just good info.

I have some soapstone tiles that I got off the sale page from M. Teixera. They are lovely and *very* heavy. I use them as pizza stones with great success.

Not using tiles, but maybe this info will help:

We'll be having a soapstone counter, backsplash, and farmhouse-style sink installed in about a week. I obviously don't have any direct experience yet, but I initially saw soapstone counters during a real estate "open house" tour of high-end houses and thought they were stunning. We subsequently went to the Bucks County Soapstone Company, which happens to be nearby, to see samples of their work.

If you go to their web site you will find pages with many images of their work, many provided by customers. It's quite possible you'll see examples of tiled counters.

One thing I will say is that part of the attraction of the material is the beautiful veining that runs through it. I suppose it would be possible to achieve the same effect with tiles, but, while I don't know for sure, I wonder whether it might be very difficult to do. Bucks County Soapstone does offer tiles in several sizes, but we didn't look too closely at them, as we quickly rejected the idea of using them for the whole backsplash area. (Cost reasons and would have made the area too dark.)

Another issue is, as the previous poster has mentioned, the weight of the material. Soapstone is heavy! In fact, it will be necessary to add supports to our under-sink cabinets to support the weight of the new sink. Obviously, you'll want to know ahead of time that your tiles will be supported properly.

You asked about grout lines. We're not doing the installation ourselves, nor are we involved in determining dimensions of the pieces. That will be Bucks County Soapstone's job. We like the idea that their processes template and manufacture to within 1/16" inch. Obviously, grout lines will be narrow, and that's what we wanted.

I should mention that our current countertop, installed probably during the '80s, is ceramic tile. I hate it. I hate the busy look (not to mention the hideous sickly yellow color), and I hate the now greasy, dirty grout lines. But then I'm talking an old tile job, not brand new soapstone tiles.

The Ikeafans DIY link answers the question about veining and tiles. Apparently they bought more tiles than they needed and laid them out on the floor, basically putting them together like a puzzle to find a way to lay them that would have continuous veins running across the tiles. Then they traced the outline of their counter and laid it across the tiles so they could see where each tile had to be cut in order to create the "puzzle" of soapstone counter pieces. Complicated but it looks great.