I just had to post here...OMG...the lady that wrote Laminate and luxurious in the same sentence.."NO". I hope I never have to meet someone like you in my lifetime. What a bunch of snobby, snarky..people! I am sorry..I think you can have a beautiful, luxurious kitchen without paying for granite, quartz, soapstone...etc. My goodness. I am building a house now and get to hear from our subs about all of the snooty women that they have to deal with...literally walking out of a house because the closets aren't big enough... What kind of country have we become? I say..if you want to buy high end appliances...beautiful cabinets..and put it all in a laminate kitchen. I think it can be stunning! Don't listen to all of these snooty fruities.....do what YOU want..and the people that matter...won't walk into your kitchen and take a mental note of your laminate..I would think it was beautiful! And for those of you who think that I must be some low life...my husband is a doctor! There....rant over! :-)

I would advise you avoid doing business with AZ tile and Dean Jessup specifically. We had a horrible experience with them. Don't expect them to act with integrity or stand behind their product. We used a fabricator that was a personal referral from him. When we had discoloration and fingerprints that wouldn't come off of our Della Terra quartz he informed me I must have "scarred" it by cleaning with a paper towel. ( I called him within an hour of the fabricator leaving). We paid beyond stone to buff it with a cleaner at their recommendation. It mostly resolved the issue although as a result of the buffing the gloss and sheen no longer match our perimeter counters. Best we can figure out the fabricator applied turtle wax or something similar to disguise striations around the sink cutout. Which is why fingerprints couldn't be cleaned off. We still have some smudges. Bottom line rather than try to help us resolve the issue he was hostile and accusatory. He said the fabricator (a friend of his apparently) said it was fine so we must have done something. Do business with them at your own risk.

Thanks Lily Spider :) My inspiration photos all have marble counters lol!!! butI think I'm back on track again - I love classic and I wanted real stone so I think thats why I went the black granite route (though I guess this seems strange after considering marble!)… I've always liked honed black granite and I need to be somewhat practical re the kids - one of the reasons for the kitchen reno (besides the fact that we moved here a year ago and the current kitchen is awful) is to provide space for the kids to be able to 'eat in kitchen' at the peninsula during the younger years while they are still messy (i.e. dropping food everywhere) and to provide a place for them to color/hang out etc while I'm cooking…I don't want to be on top of them the whole time which is why I ruled out the stones that etched/stained/scratched - I think the black granite is a good compromise for me and usability for them and will work in well with the other components of the kitchen…thanks for getting me back on track Lily Spider (my husband almost had a heart attack when I said I was second guessing lol)

Hi rhthomas224, ill be interested in MHgirl’s reply, as I’ve just installed soapstone counter tops and had intended on leaving them in their medium gray state. I love them, but if what you want is marble, have you looked into Azerocare treated marble? It is a process done in Italy, supposedly seals against stains, and is being called “a game changer”. It won’t stop scratches or chips from occurring tho. Soapstone will chip or scratch too, but sands easily, unlike marble. The problem with SS is that although nothing penetrates it (including water, for cripes sake - that guy is dead ignorant) oil clings to it. Grease splatters will show up as dark dots and aren’t easy to remove with dish soap and a rag. A spritz of simple green and a gentle rub with the rough side of a green sponge will do the trick, but that’s a bit of maintenance for someone with kids. ...I think what most people do is use mineral oil on their counters once or twice to darken them a bit, and then let the oil evaporate or wear away. All this is going in the wrong direction for you if you really want light counters :(. If you decide on soapstone ( it is gorgeous and has some real pluses) know that the lighter the gray, the softer the stone. There are some ss varieties that are really resistant to scratching and chipping, but I went with the prettiest medium gray for me (Black Venata) instead of the darkest stone. It was a compromise. I recommend ordering samples from M. Teixeira and doing some real life fields tests to see how they hold up. Also, only go with a fabricator with a lot of experience with soapstone. It needs to be worked with differently than granite, for instance. If you want to see pictures of mine i posted recently, subject tags Black Venata soapstone, Schuler Cabinets.