Have you considered slate? There are a couple of GW'ers that have been happy with theirs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sheldon Slate

If M. Teix does your seams, you won't have to worry about seeing seams on your island. However, if your fabricator is not a soapstone expert, you may have slightly visible seams.

How experienced with soapstone is your installer?

FYI we have soapstone and are very pleased.

Hi, I had a very similar experience. M. Tex's Cobra was my love, but the smallish slabs would have meant a seam in my island. I would have had a local fabricator do the seams and I was worried about it being noticeable. It would have bothered me and ended up feeling like an expensive mistake.

I ended up going with Minas from Dorado. It is also a very dark stone, blackish grey. The only greenish tint is on the seams IMO. Mine might take on the green tint because I have ming green marble as my backsplash.

I don't think my soapstone reads as green at all. I'll have to ask people coming in whether they see black (which is what I see) or green.

Here is a photo:

{{!gwi}}

and a closeup:

{{!gwi}}

In the end Dorado shipped my slabs to a local fabricator who was very experienced with soapstone and they did a great job. My seam is well done as seams go, but I wouldn't have wanted it in my island...

Anita

Dorado Soapstone recently opened up a distributorship in Shrewsbury, MA. I was there the other day looking at their soapstone and will be back there again as they are getting in another shipment of the Minas stone I am looking at. They are really wonderful people. So helpful and so low pressure.

I was there for several hours oiling different stones and comparing them. Here's what I can tell you about their stones. The Beleza has some green in it unoiled, but when oiled goes black. When unoiled there is a ton of movement going on in the stone but no veining. When oiled there is very little movement, some green, but mostly black.

The very green stones even when oiled are Porte Alegre, Sao Luis and Iguazu. Porte Alegre is a very soft stone and scratches easily. It has a ton of wide white/green veining. Sao Luis has no veining and a consistent green pattern to it. Oiling seemed to bring out the green. It is a very hard stone. The Iguazu is another very hard stone. It is gray when unoiled , but when oiled very green with some black and white veining. If you like green it is very pretty, but you would have to want green. Jucca is a light gray stone that turns darker gray/charcoal when oiled. It has hardly any veining. The Minas is gray unoiled, no sign of green. When oiled it is black with white veining and a slight hint of green in some parts of some stones. I oiled one slab of Minas and it was pitch black with only one white 4 ft. thin vein running across it. It was a very quiet stone. The slabs I am waiting for have more veining.

All of the slabs were very large for soapstone and would never need a seam in an island (unless you had one huge island) except the Iguazu. Those slabs were on the smaller side. I personally would never want my island to have a seam, but I know several people on GW who have seamed soapstone islands and you would never know if they didn't tell you.

You might want to see if you can get a quiet Minas slab shipped to you. They are a nice size stone with either very quiet veining or a medium amount of veining and a dark black color. Good luck.

pluckymama,

Thank you SO much for all the great info. That was amazingly helpful. :o)

The folks at Dorado are shipping me out three samples, including Beleza, Minas (I think) and a new one that isn't on their site and I didn't see you mention it. I can't remember the name, but it was "something" verde.

Unless we just can't stand the samples we get, I think we're leaning toward going with Dorado. With them, we get finished tops (rather than just slabs) for a bit less than the slab price for the Mumbai Grey with M Tex. And on top of that, I have been absolutely floored by their customer service. I've had several phone calls and emails from them, including from their fabricator, and have gotten timely answers to all of my questions. That matters a lot to me.

Thanks again for all the details!

Worldmom,

For what it is worth, I was as impressed as you are with Dorado's customer service through my entire remodel process. Jim Avery in Denver called me daily to update me while waiting for shipments, notified me when the slabs were loaded on the truck, when the truck left Denver, etc.

I called him in a panic when my installed slabs had some weird marks on them and sent him pictures, and he talked me through what they were and what to do about them (they were created in fabrication and were fixed immediately and perfectly by the fabricator).

He has also contacted me several times after installation to make sure I'm happy with the product now that it is installed.

I would highly recommend the company generally and Jim specifically. It is so rare anymore to get such great service, and boy was it nice!

Anita

Worldmom,

Don't know if you have seen these kitchens with Beleza soapstone but here are 2 links:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0816275110403.html

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1114392817977.html

Nomorebluekitchen showed you pics of her Minas soapstone. Here are 2 more links to kitchens with Minas soapstone:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1113313931335.html

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1100221429721.html

Hope this helps.

Wow, plucky - thanks! It certainly doesn't hurt that all of those kitchens are gorgeous! It really helps to be able to see the stones in place. Thank you!

We had Beleza from Dorado (in Austin, Texas) installed about 5 months ago. I absolutely agree about the great customer service from Dorado, by the way.

Our stone -- which we have never oiled -- reads dark gray to black but in certain light (mainly direct sunlight but also directly under our fluorescent undercabinet lights) some green does show up. We have green backsplash tile so that accentuates the green a bit (which is what we wanted). But the green is more of a subtext to the stone, not the main story, if that makes any sense.

In terms of movement there definitely is some. (The Minas we saw at Dorado was much quieter.) But the Beleza's movement is not big prominent veins. The variation is more in shades of gray and silver with some narrow white veins.

We have one seam and, although I think they did a fairly good job, it's noticeable and I wouldn't want it on an island. Our slab, which Dorado said was large, was about 10 feet by 5 feet, I think.

I could post some pictures tomorrow if you're interested.