We love the look of it (the green from Vermont is amazing) and we saw it installed in one of our KDs homes and the family there loved it and was doing it in their new home, but all of the GCs who gave us estimates for our remodel really argued against it, saying that its layers can slough off if a hot pot is put on it and that that kind of repair is very hard to do. That said, it turned out to be out of our price range and DH made our concrete countertops (a lovely green) for a fraction of the price (but with tons of work on his part).

I would consider whether your kitchen is open to other rooms in your decision. Is this a new build, major remodel? You'll want these elements to blend. I must say that my island happened by accident. It was originally marble. That's a long story on another thread. Several problems came up during my remodel starting with the floor. My large sample did not have the light and dark variations, so I was quite dismayed when it was delivered. I could not take looking for another product and waiting for delivery and acclimation so I decided to keep it. It made finding countertops difficult. In my case, walnut was a low cost choice to pull in the colors in my wood floor and my brown/black island cabinets. It ends up that the floor gets the most attention, until their eyes move to the island. I think you are wise to think this out now. I would choose the White Macabaus on all surfaces if you go with the charcoal. If you decide on the walnut, I would do a rustic finish so the dents and scratches blend. We grew up up with many fine wood pieces in my parents home, all of which had the surfaces ruined by a household of kids. We did homework on our large dining table, but it had protector pads. You might do a shout out to those that have a Waterlox Satin finish to see how the finish is holding up, especially for scratches. A furniture finish like mine will require lots of maintenance to deal with scratches. I plan to experiment with the recent scratches that happened when family was visiting last week. My nephew dragged a serving platter to get it closer to his plate. The finish does seem to level out over time. I had deep scratches from bathing my puppy last summer that are hardly noticeable now. Another thing to note is that Waterlox has a long cure time.

I'm with Linelle (uber hot things on top of the cooktop, or SS surround). Still, we haven't babied our Cambria Quartzite at all (including the occasional cutting by certain people directly on top of it - no names, ahem) and it's held up very well. Love it as a prep surface. As a baker, have you considered/are you able to consider deeper countertops (and uppers)? Just pull out the lower cabinets by 6" (for more cost effective solution). If uppers are deeper by the same amount, it works perfectly. 30" countertops: (in hindsight, I would have ordered deeper lower cabinets). I can roll out a pie dough and not move the canisters. Here's my old baking (prep, cleanup, baking) area; as you can see, the deeper countertops (regardless of surface) are so helpful. The deeper uppers above this area allow me to store my serving bowls vertically: Best of luck!

It is just fine unoiled. I have soapstone that is oiled in my kitchen and after the first couple of oilings, 4 years ago it is still dark. But in the bathroom it just stays this lighter color. It is a different variety and naturally lighter stone than in the kitchen. Both are soft as I can scratch with my finger nail. On the hardness scale that would be about a 2. There are harder stones, but I don't have stone tools so I stick with the softer varieties and fabricate my own stuff. The bathroom stone just gets wiped down and has stayed fairly consistent since installation 3 years ago. I have a remnant piece on hold for my DH's office I just put in. I used IKEA cabinets along one wall. I hope to pick it up in the next week. There is a ding in this remnant, but you can take ground up stone and make a slurry of stone and epoxy and fill the ding. Once dry you just sand it down and you can't really see the repair. Cookncarpenter really says it best when they stated ..." the nature of soapstone is a living surface"...