My dining table has a tung oil finish, so I just wipe it down with a soapy sponge and dry it with a dish towel. If you use a store bought cleaning product, choose one without ammonia. Ammonia, even the fumes, can cause wood to darken, and you'll never get it back to the original color. Some woodworkers intentionally put wood in an enclosed space next to an open container of ammonia to make the wood darker without staining it. Here is a link that might be useful: fuming with ammonia

No idea whether it's la Barge or not. There are no markings or signature on it. But definitely solid brass, i.e. not magnetic, and the glass top is super heavy. The lion's heads look just like the ones, very intricate, as on these La Barge arm chairs.

Thanks for the kind words and kitchen love, everyone! oakparker22 We used Amish Custom Kitchens. Very happy with them! nosoccermom I'm sorry but I'm not at home this week, so I can't answer any dimension questions at the moment. But in terms of layout, I wouldn't change a thing. Thought maybe it would be annoying to have the fridge a little farther away from the work area, but it's not an issue at all. katieleabrown86 The black is not hard to keep clean. Sometimes crumbs do show a little more, but that's easy enough to fix. Because of the leathered finish, streaks don't show at all.

@earthlyepicure, I used an over mount stainless steel sink, because I knew I'd probably ding the soapstone up. My kitchen is a bit on the rustic side, so a few dings don't matter to me, but I would matter if I dinged it up with an undermount sink. My kitchen is now about 12 years old. I still love it. There are scratches and a few dings. If this is an issue for you, why don't you try honed black granite. I used soapstone so I could do the counters myself, to save some money. I have also done a sink and counters for the bathroom and and office. The bathroom and office is in remnent pieces that I paid $5/sqft or got for free. It is a softer stone then the kitchen and scratches easily. To deal with that, I have it sanded to a very rough surface at about 60 to 80 grit. No oil and it is beautiful. Picture of counter in the somewhat harder (but still soft) soapstone in the kitchen. fairly smooth sanded at around 120 grit IIFC. This stone I ordered online. It has a very hard section that is at the sink. The softer portion is at the counter I've pictured. the bright white spots are dings. enlarge the picture and you might see them and scratches : Much softer stone in the bathroom and sanded to a 60 or 80 grit IIRC. this is what I built out of remnents in 2012. No oil added. You can see the seam where I glued the backsplash to the sink: Here is a close up of the corner of the counter at the sink front. It should sand out If I took the time to finish these surfaces again. But I don't bother: The other counter in the bathroom that is 2 glued pieces along the long side, that you can't see. The dark corner is from hands resting on that edge to work with the tub. Its been years and I am still loving this bathroom!!! ETA: I got my kitchen inspiration years ago when a restaurant opened in a town near me in 2001. they still have their cherry walls, tables, cabinets, and the soapstone counters at all the counter surfaces and bar.