Hello Woodnotrust and Pricklypearcactus, Last week, in a final fit of doubt, I called around to all the stone warehouses I had visited to see if anyone had received any new 3cm slabs, which might save us the whole debate of a built-up edge. One stone supplier was kind enough to send photos of 3cm calacatta slabs sitting in a Montreal warehouse. But in the end, we decided we still preferred the marble we'd tagged and so I made the down payment on the slab in anticipation of our shceduled cabinet installation this week. But now our cabinetmaker needs a little more time, and that, coupled with a business trip on our end means everything is postponed until early March. Now that we have ample to time to second guess our decision, we especially appreciate your support of our choice. At this point we have decided to use the eased square-edge with set back ogee underneath. The marble will be honed by our fabricator. Pricklypearcactus, we did consider your idea of reversing the profile for the lower part of the counter, but decided that cleaning the square edge will be easier, and the extra counterspace still desirable, so we are going to keep the two edges the same. I don't know if you saw our other thread about whether stainless or soapstone would be the better surface for our perimeter counters, but on the weekend we visited two soapstone importers and were won over. It will be a higher contrast scheme than we'd been planning, but we are finding ourselves quite excited about the prospect. We may even decide to paint the island cabinetry quite dark. I have my eye on Farrow & Ball's off black, but that will be a debate for March. N especially seemed to have a very visceral affinity to the soapstone. Its tactile qualities are not to be ignored. Stainless can look good, and is certainly functional, but it doesn't really invite touch. The soapstone will have an eased square edge to differentiate it completely from the island. Three window sills, also in soapstone (we debated using marble, but decided it might look too contrived), will rest on the perimeter counter and if they don't encroach too much onto the counter, we may have an ogee edge put on the sills--as an echo of our original wood sills. The soapstone we've chosen has astonishing caramel coloured veining which looks great with the limed wood trim and picks up some of the warmer tones in the marble. I'll post a thread when we have more progress to report.

Ok the corner by the unfished soon to be bakeing center, is unfortunatly a doorway. im tired of the peachy orangy pink color thats on the black hutch wall. im thinking more neutral with a glaze only because i have all that beautiful texture already there. The thing is my mom is an interior decorator( I know Why am i asking for help)her taste and mine are totally different, this kitchen is all her, i want some more light and airiness, id love to paint and glaze my cabinets, after i finsh my baking cabinet im hoping to wow my hubby into saying go for it!! I want to be able to say that I put on my big girl panties and see i can do it!!! So far my 12 yr old daughter and i have done all the work lugging the cabinet up from basement moving hutch from the living room, and rearraning the silly kitchen stuff like 5 times!! i also have a bakers rack ill post a pic of. so basically i need help with my glazing project how the heck do i pick glazing color and do you guys like that color on the wall and unfinished cabinet) what to do with backsplash tile antiquing unfinished cabinet furniture arrangement! im thinking creams and id love to maybe do a blueish color on my tile if that would not be dumb looking. Geeze i guess i need confidence too!!! pic of moved table! sorry bakers rack is a mess im trying to keep kitchen clear to help my creative juices flow this is the living room view of kitchen thanks for teaching me about pics its so handy, ill try and narrow down some inspirations and post them as well

Some of the things I like about the French style as presented in the photo link: 1. Open shelving instead of total upper cabinets. 2. Rustic tables, not afraid to show their materials. 3. Rolling hefty appliance carts. 4. Fabric covers for lower storage instead of doors. 5. Raised panel cabinet doors, sort of whitewashed. 6. Baskets used for storage in upper and lower cabs instead of doors. 7. Curtains Sheers used in glass fronts of cabinets to maybe hide storage, but also to soften the look. 8. Not intent on matchy-matchy stuff 9. Hanging pot racks with really nice pots Upper shelves with hefty braces holding them up quite sturdy. Tables have benches to push under out of way to use table as a prep surface. Probably for baking? TIMELESS QUALITY. Range hoods confine the stove to make exhausting the heat easier? And also provide convenient location for items used AT THE COOKING SPOT. What else do you guys note as a common theme?

We looked into Ikea butcher block but we thinks it's too much wood. I tend to agree. Ergo, I love this idea that has been used by a few GWers previously: buy an Ikea wood countertop and stain it with India ink. The result looks almost like a stone, but has the nice properties of wood. See link below. Are you interested in DIY? You could install soapstone. If you buy one of the varieties on M. Teix.'s super-duper sale, you could get by for about $25/sq. ft. http://www.soapstones.com/soapstone_sale.html Why did you mention the ethnicity of the owners of the stores at which you shopped? I find that very odd. Here is a link that might be useful: India Ink countertops