I've done them with a project for work. They are gorgeous, but they have some challenges. Firstly, (and this is from my own experience, so there might be other products out there I'm not familiar with), they are stabilized with rebar or other metal mesh so they are quite heavy and unless you have them custom built, you can't just cut out the sink holes, etc. They are also often not completely level or square and they are thicker than typical counters, so you have to compensate for this. I used it in a commercial office application, so I don't know how they hold up to staining, etc.

A KD I was trying out told me they are also really expensive. I think she said 30% more than granite.

I think they are too boring for my tastes. If you need a countertop without much movement, they might be OK. I totally prefer granite.

We looked at them too (Icestone, Enviroslab, etc.), but the pricing got to us ($100-$150 a square foor).

We also felt like we'd have to do a lot of legwork to actually get them, have them fabricated and so on. We just don't have time for that now with all that is going on with the remodel plus normal life.

Has anyone actually had one (most particularly Icestone) installed in their kitchen? They look beautiful online, and from reviews in other places they seem better for the environment than granite.

I am getting Icestone countertops in my 10x10 kitchen remodel this summer. I got a preliminary estimate of $3800, including shipping and a SS sink. I live 30 mins. from a dealer that carries ecofriendly remodeling products.
I'm getting the BreatheEasy cabinets also.

We originally designed our kitchen around an Icestone countertop. We had it all planned out, were ready to splurge on it, as well as driving over 2 hours each way to pick the slab up (the dealer was on the way to my parents' house). We decided we really should get a real life sample, and I am so glad we did! It was just boring. If I moved into the house and was here, I would have been fine with it, but it was not something to design a kitchen around. On top of that, it failed every test we tried- everything stained it, it etched, it chipped when tapped (I know DH, he will stand next to the counter and drum a fork on it without thinking). I wanted so badly to love the stuff, and every "well, maybe it will be ok with this" just ended badly. I didn't try cutting on it, because I just don't cut on the counters. I should add I think the quote we got last summer was $31sf, and we had to buy the whole slab, without fabrication.

We did get a sample of Shetkastone, and we loved it. It did scratch once, but I was trying to scratch it with a fork. It did not scratch when I skipped it across the really old concrete driveway (I was trying to hurt it at that point!). It has not scratched since, and the cat knocks it across and off the coffee table about once a week. I will definitely use it in my next house, but we're remodeling for resale here, and we went cheap with really pretty marble tile.

I have 2 samples of Icestone and they both say on the back that the sample is NOT sealed which may explain the staining and chipping.

I recently saw IceStone countertops in a beautiful kitchen with pale bamboo cabinetry. All of the counters were white IceStone & the island was "pistachio". It looked great!

But, like granite, it does need to be sealed.

There's a lot of info on the IceStone website.

Has anyone looked at the Vetrazzo company for recycled glass counters? I'm done with my remodel but was curious as one of the mom's in my son's class mentioned recently getting recycled glass countertops. She loves hers. Vetrazzo's color palette looks more interesting to me than Icestone's.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vetrazzo

Yikes...I am going with Icestone, too. I don't care for granite at all and hope the sealing with be enough to keep the staining to a minimum. I was more worried about etching...

Squak Mountain Stone has a great recycled countertop made up of recycled paper, recycled glass, coal fly-ash and cement. It looks a bit like soapstone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Counter culture - Countertop made of glass, paper, coal, and concrete

I went looking for Paperstone and when I found it, decided it was just too plain to me. I found the Squak Mountain stone at the same place and was drawn in. It's pretty cool stuff but had a monthly maintenance that involved applying sealer every month with steel wool and buffing (maybe I'm not remembering that exactly right) but that was enough to know it also wouldn't work for me. Of course I'm doing my darndest to get soapstone in my kitchen so we'll see how much maintenance I end up with!!

applying the sealer every month?

On the website it says:
Slabs are sealed with a water-based sealer that provides stain resistance to grease, oil, food and other common household chemicals for approximately 24 hours. The sealer provides limited resistance to acid-etching from products, such as vinegar and citrus juices. To maintain the surface, the manufacturer recommends a food-grade countertop wax.