Sometimes a drip edge is installed below a farm sink and looks good as well as being practical. That would work for your half inch below the sink, the sides could be filled in with an overlay panel like Food shows. Google for images. Most farm sinks without an overlay panel look fine but your sink is significantly less wide than your cabinet, that is why it is more noticeable.

Not to discourage you, but it literally took my contractor 3 days to install my farmhouse sink. They were really nervous about it because they had never done it before, but luckily it came out well. Here's what they did: 1) They made a template based on the shape of the front of the sink. First they made a template out of cardboard, tested it to make sure it fit well with no gaps (they went through several iterations) and then once they got a good cardboard template they transferred it onto a piece of plywood. 2) Then they used the plywood template to cut out the front of the sink cabinet -- this was the scary part 3) Then they installed little 'shelves' (about 2" wide, running the the length of both sides of the sink cabinet) for the sink to sit on 4) The sink was 'loose' (meaning it was just sitting on the side support shelves not glued in our anything) until the counters were installed. When the counters where templated, they marked the sink in pencil (traced the outline of the sink along the cabinet edge) to show how far out it was supposed to be so that it would be in the same spot when the counters were installed. Here's how it looked in the end: My recommendation would be to find someone who has done this before... Another thing you need to decide before the counters are templated is what kind of reveal you want (positive, negative, or neutral) -- check out the atticmag.com sink gallery below for examples. I literally showed the Momto4Kids example to the templaters and told them to copy it. Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen sink gallery

My carpenter made a simple frame for mine out of a 2x4 that stretches from side to side across the back, is screwed to the sides; the front of the sink rests on the front of the cab, with a wooden support beneath it that's attached to the sides and back of the front wall and reinforces it. We used silicone to seal the sink to the 2x4s when we dropped it in. Seems pretty straightforward, and works great as far as I can tell. :)

There is a Canadian soapstone company that had a lot of Youtube videos that I watched before choosing to install our counters DIY. I ordered from Dorado, the lengths I needed. I had a local stone fabricator cut the sink hole when I found that the stone in the sink location was too hard. I used a diamond bit circular saw to cut the lengths and backs to exact size. I think I did a great job. Check out the Canadian SS site for pointers and find their Youtube videos online for installation. This is a youtube video from Canadian Soapstone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxwSYOJEORo&feature=related check it out, and he has others that will help a lot in understanding soapstone. Here is a link that might be useful: Canadian Soapstone site