How about Basalt Slate laminate? You can get it in a matte finish and do a self edge. Otherwise a honed granite would look good as well as soapstone - I know several people here have them with kids etc and do not have issues.

Here is a link that might be useful: Basalt Slate

Well, we chose soapstone, which you nixed, and I totally understand why, but I had to reply because I use shaker cabs and Motowi tiles! (yup, BIG hit, lol).

I investigated honed granite, but really was immediately turned off by the smudging issue. I know soapstone gets nicked, and mine already is, but the benefits of sanding out my own scratches, non-sealed, non-staining, and the pretty veins won me over.

You should check out brushed granite, which I used a tiny bit for a fireplace hearth, or "flamed" granite which are good alternatives if you don't mind the texture. I think the texture works great w/ Arts & Crafts looks.

Here is a link to some pix;

If you're up to metal maintenance, copper or zinc would be lovely and period appropriate

I put Shaker and Motawi in my '29 kitchen and used stainless as a counter--I wanted something retro (inspired by the 20s kitchen in Edsel Ford's house) without the maintenance of zinc or Edsel's "German silver" counter. SS can be pretty old-timey looking with the right patina and is quite understated when done right. Brightens up a room, too.

First thought of soapstone, but then of satin, brushed, or 'antiqued' dark granite. I think they do engineered stone in more of a honed finish, but I also think it might have the maintenance issues of honed dark granite.

All of that said, does it really matter if your KD looks askance at your preference? It's your kitchen. :-) I will have laminate in major portions of my kitchen and am perfectly fine with that choice...I'm paying the bill and using the counter, so it's my opinion that counts!

Gwent, my GW email doesn't work....but anyway, we left that house last year and I'll have to dig up some pictures. The only ones I have handy have no backsplash--we took over a year to pick that out. We had natural stained red oak floors to match the rest of the house (pretty light) and medium cherry cabinets in a reddish tone. We only used Motawis for highlights (Ladybell I think in greens)--a 6x6 over the cooktop and 3x3s at the ends of the counter runs. I think we used 4x4s. I should remember this--we installed ourselves. But it's early here. We used a glossy white handmade subway for the field tiles and a grey grout, sort of SS color but what I was trying for was that old concrete-looking stuff you'd find in old tile jobs.

Have you considered tile for a counter? If I didn't break things so often, that'd always be my first choice (except it's too hard to pick out). I would want a machine made tile for the countertop so it would be very FLAT, of course

Laminate might work out very well, and even dark colors. Just use more lights! People seem to find soapstone easy to care for and it would be pretty appropriate in your part of the country (even if you did end up with something imported). Whatever you get, the tiles will pop on their own. That's how they hooked you!

I wanted to use Motawi's Sweet Pea line in it entirety on my new kitchen but they discontinued it. That was my favorite border pattern...it would have looked weird in THIS house anyway, but I was willing to overlook that.

Anyway, if you haven't communicated with the people at the pottery, they are very nice and may have some ideas. We drove over there many times dragging a baby while we made up our minds and the staff were helpful. Now that we've relocated, I've emailed them a few times and they really are awfully nice.

Not all honed black granite attracts fingerprints.

You can also try Caesarstone which comes in some honed finishes and looks really great.

Lpolk: Love your kitchen! I have never heard of Motowi tiles until now - they are fabulous! Are all the tiles Motowi including the plain yellow/mustard colored ones? The birds are especially nice. Do you live in Michigan or did you go to a distributor in your area? I was wondering how shipping was if you are outside Michigan. Thanks!

I'm curious to hear what's finicky about soapstone. You can heat it to many hundreds of degrees, you can spill battery acid on it and let it sit all week, it is more or less forgiving of crumbs and fingermarks (depends on the veininess, I think), you don't have to seal it and you can use whatever cleaning product you want to on it, without restriction. Where is the finicky part? (You can't drop cast iron pots on it, but I don't think I'd do that to marble or granite or wood or stainless, either.)

When you say you want A&C but omit any consideration of soapstone, you're throwing out what I personally consider your best option.

Kulagal: thanks! I live in Mass. so the tiles were shipped, have no idea how much that shipping cost, and please don't make me look it up, I don't want to know, lol. My KD worked w/ them and gave me a couple samples as an option and I was hooked, they have a lovely texture to them. They are HEAVY, so beware there are installation considerations (hard to mix w/ other tiles, special care in installing), and I suppose that means they cost more to ship too. I used them for all the tilework so yes, the birds, range, field tiles and fireplace were all from motowi. You can get them also from Tile Showcase stores.

vjrnts: soapstone scratches VERY easily, so I totally understand not wanting it. I agree that you wouldn't abuse granite, either, but I most definitely have scratches in my counters that I did not have on granite. The good news is that I can sand them out myself, then oil them back into the patina, but I understand people who don't want to do that. It is not for everyone. I love the variation in the stone and the feel of it, myself. I hated the weird feeling of the sealant on granite, and yes, it stained!

I know soapstone scratches; I have it myself. But so does granite! And when your granite scratches, I don't know what you can do about it besides look at it, while, as you say, soapstone just oils out.

I do not know how soapstone got this reputation for finickiness. It's the easiest thing in the world.

Would lighter colored soapstone show scratches? Gwent needs more of a grey color I think. (You can get it in grey can't you?)

The main issue I had mixing Motawi with another brand of tile was that they were slightly smaller so inserting them into field tile was a little tricky. The Motawis were also fatter but since I was using them as accents and they sort of pillow up, it wasn't bad with careful grouting. I wouldn't want to try it with a thin machine-made tile though--not as a DIY job at least!

gwent, I just did an Arts & Crafts inspired kitchen (sorry no pictures yet, the electrician is still finishing up). We tiled up all the walls behind open shelving. We used 3 different colors - green, blue and grey, all in the same tone - of 4 x 4 Bob Timberlake tile by Epro.

For the counters, we used 3 different materials:

- On the cooking side of the galley we used cherry butcher block. I also agree that your should do what you want, and ignore your KD if you have strong feelings about something.
- On the sink side we used a mottled grey-green corian (Prairie). The corian is surprisingly consistent in the space, because almost all of the surfaces are matte - the cabinets, the tile, the counters.
- There are 2 spots where I put in a bit of green granite. It's a little splashy but it's a beautiful stone and there's just a little of it.

I also think a grey soapstone would work beautifully, depending on the color of your tile.

My KD, I should ex KD (long story, got my money back)
anyway she "encouraged" me to use laminate to help keep costs down. So if cost is one of your issues it might work out best to go laminate and it can look really great just don't set a hot pot on it like I did to my last newly installed laminate.
Nice bubble front and center.