I had trouble finding someone in upstate NY, where they used to extract it. Sheldon can set a buyer up with a fabricator, since they have a national network. What happened to me was that the recommended guy was more than I wanted to spend. I learned later that I could have gotten it fabricated from Sheldon, with the guy who did my soapstone installing. It's not all that popular period - the NE stuff can be pricey and you have to like patina. So the chance of finding someone who knows it's not the flaky stuff that Lowes sells for flooring isn't huge. I'd give it a shot - but it might take a few tries to find someone willing. You kind of make my point with siles/soap stone. And unlike soapstone I don't get the sense that it's all that DYI friendly, especially if you're looking at a sink cutout or such.

Vermont slate is not the be all and end all. Upstate NY is big slate country. Back when we were planning our kitchen, we thoroughly investigated slate countertops. Discovering online, the Sheldon Slate Company, we took a 5 or 6 hour drive to visit the fabrication showroom. The people were patient, friendly and ever so helpful. We had a tour of the site. Very impressive. The slate was gorgeous. We went home with a spiral book, with actual samples attached. Yes, the book was a bit heavy. Lol. Upon returning home, I tested the samples for several days. Ketchup, oil, mustard, vinegar, butter, hot sauce...you name it. The only sample that showed some porosity, was the black. The other colors, grey, green (just gorgeous), red, purple and mottled purple (both surprisingly very pretty), showed absolutely no staining or etching. Slate is incredibly dense and strong. The owner’s son, a very large guy, hopped onto a slate overhang on one of the counters, to no ill effect. Here’s the link to Sheldon Slate. They ship everywhere! https://www.sheldonslate.com/specifications/index.php In the end, we chose to go with soapstone from M.Teixeira, their NJ/NY location. We got a very hard variety, Belvedere, which has held up beautifully. We didn’t have to oil, but chose to do so for the first 6 weeks. At first, everyday, then once a week. Haven’t oiled them for several years now. To answer your question, grease splatters no longer change the appearance of the stone. Many people on this site, have chosen not to oil. They just let the stone do it’s thing. Soapstone is non porous. It neither stains or etches. Rather it naturally darkens by oxidation. As another poster said, if you want to keep the natural light grey color, a little soap and scrubby will achieve that.

If you are going to use a white subway tile, what might give it a more modern edge would be change it up a bit from the plain old opaque white rectangular ones- here are some options: 1. to use glass tiles instead of opaque ones 2. to use square tiles instead of rectangular tiles 3. to set them in a way that is different glass subway tile square tile square tile https://www.fireclaytile.com/blog/full/design-trends-fall-in-love-with-square-tile

We have the original 110-year-old gray Monson slate countertops in our 1909 kitchen, and they're great under fairly hard use -- heat-resistant, virtually no chips or cracks. Definitely non-porous. They are a much finer/silkier surface than any granite I've ever had, and I appreciate that about them. One drawback is that the matte chalky-gray surface of our slate shows every drop, water circle, smudge, etc, and they only look truly "clean" right after you've really scrubbed them and wiped them down. It's a living surface; choose accordingly.