Have you considered antiqued Nordic Black granite? If you really like the look of soapstone, I think NB is the best substitute looks-wise. Below, I've linked a thread to jen4268's gorgeous kitchen, which displays antiqued Nordic Black with cream shaker cabinets and oak floors. Although Virginia Mist is very pretty in its own right, I can't understand why it has earned the reputation that it "looks just like soapstone" (which I've heard from several granite people). The two installations I've seen in person look nothing like any soapstone I've ever seen. Again, beautiful on its own, but soapstone-like at all. Here is a link that might be useful: Update Pics of cream traditional kitchen

I have been following Susanka's work for more than a decade. She uses very light wood in her house because she practices out of Minnesota, which is far north lattitude. I live in Seattle, WA and we are at 48th parallel. We have about 5 to 6 hours of grey daylight during Dec and Jan. It is terrible. We have to really pay attention to how we use natural light and materials around us, and houses with lighter wood feel better in this climate and location. Think Scandinavian furniture and colors and why they work in that environment. Having said that, Scandinavian sentiment of everything painted white/grey/light brey blue will work really well in that house. I would make sure that the cabinet style and trim style you pick is not too traditional with too many rounded or fluted ornamentation. The house really calls for crisp corners on all the wood work. You really need to pick finishing materials with modern esthetic in this house. If you end up picking white modern feeling kitchen, it will not work with black painted wood work. It will look too much like yo-yo, where you could not make up your mind. If you use light blue greys, then they will not work too well with orange/red/green colors as you already know. However, if you paint the woodwork in creamy yellowish/tan/brownish color, then you can keep the orange, red colors for accent. Black kitchen without too much uppers and light counter top would work quite well with your black woodwork. If you eliminate much of upper cabinets, then it will not feel too dark even with larger over hangs. I would paint the walls very light/bright. One of my architect friend designed her house that has that similar sentiment with Susanka's house with peaked high pitched roof. She used black slab doors and marble counter top with minimal uppers. it does not feel dark at all. Do you like painted white kitchens that have modern esthetic? You need to ask yourself if you are attracted to more traditional feel of white kitchens or if is the color of white in the kitchens you see. If you prefer the traditional look of white kitchens, you will not be very happy in this modern feeling "house". You need to accept that you want more traditional type of finished in your house. This will be difficult to pull off in this house because the rooflines are so non-traditional. You don't want that feeling that the kitchen looks out of place in the house.... Modern houses have a very different feel to the entire house. I live in a home with three walls are mostly windows and with no walls between LR/DR/kitchen. The wood cabinets do not feel "cheap" in these homes if you make sure the cabinets go with the house. If you put in the wrong type of cabinets, then they feel like builder grade cheap wood cabinets that do not belong in the house. Some of the ways to get less cheap looking wood cabinets it to look at custom made veneer cabinets. I would explore (look at lots of images) more modern looking kitchens using either dark or light wood and see how you like them. Even if you paint the kitchen a light color, the kitchen has to feel modern in that house. Are you okay with that? If you still are attracted to more traditional feel of "white" kitchens, then I think you need to really ask yourself if you want this house. Go look at some books that publish Susanka's work. They all have very similar vernacular in what she uses; maple or other light wood (beech is very commonly used Scandinavian wood) cabinets with shaker style or slab doors and simple mouldings/trim. I am asking a very obvious question but you have to really accept the architectural scheme and the decorating scheme of the house that you are committing to. Not everyone wants a modern house. You may be much happier in a traditional type of home. This is not too late to get what you really want! Often, people here see kitchens as a stand alone from the house. Your house is not like that. The entire house is viewed from one perspective as most modern houses are since there are no walls separating the rooms. The entire decorating scheme has to fit together in one quick "look". The more you steer away from that one quick look fitting in, the less pulled together your house will feel. Even if you don't love the light wood kitchen, if it works in the house and you LOVE the house, I would bite the bullet and go with it. I disagree with the comment that the painted walls last less than the kitchens. You will spend easily $5000 to $10,000 to have the living area repainted, if it is as big as you say it is. My living area costs about $3000 to $5000 to have it painted everytime. I don't change colors on a whim. I also pick paint color based on what is already there. Often, there are not many possible choices because I am limited by the wood tone, colors of furniture, flooring etc. Painting is NOT a cheap investment, unless you do it yourself. Even then, you are committing many many weekends to doing nothing but painting. Look at how many walls you have to paint. Each wall takes primer plus two coats of paint, minimum. I doubt that you will paint walls yourself since you have 5 kids.... When you put the entire house together, you will end up loving the entire house or not. If you love the house, even if there are elements that were not your first pick, you end up appreciating why you have to make those choices and accept them and will learn to love how the entire house pulled together. Good luck.

Mrs.Hanson--We are doing the opposite from your color scheme--our island & hood will be dark stain and the perimeter cabinets will be the off white. Like you, I really liked the marble, but with all boys in the house, I just don't think it's practical. So after hours and hours in the heat for 2 days in the granite yard lugging around our cabinet door samples, we came up with a compromise. We chose River Valley granite for the island to go with the dark cabintery--it's quite white with gray veining and just a bare hint of cranberry mixed in with the veining. For the perimeter, we went with San Gabriel Black to go with the off white cabinets. The guys at the granite yard were great--they pulled out the River Valley slab and carted it over to all the darker granite slabs section by section so we could compare the 2 different granites with coordinating cabinet doors side by side! You may want to take a look at the River Valley and see if it would work for you (I ran a google image search for it, but all the photos had way more movement in them than ours did.) Definitely take your cabinet doors down to the granite yard & make sure you're good with your combinations. Can't wait to see your finished kitchen!

I saw Silestone Lagoon paired with real marble in a kitchen on a recent remodeled home tour. The Silestone was on the island (with cook top) and the marble was on the perimeter counters. It took me a moment to realize that they weren't the same material. Obviously, the chose the marble slab carefully. But I was impressed with how well Lagoon blended with the real stuff. It could so easily have gone wrong and looked close but no cigar. It took me a bit but I found a photo of the kitchenon-line (they don't allow photos on the tour, unfortunately). Rather hard to see but maybe it will help you. IMO, which marble mimic you prefer will depend on the style of marble you like; subtle or heavily veined? Kompy (I think The Kitchen Place is her new screen name) has Lagoon in her kitchen and loves it. Here's her kitchen thread, Kompy UPDATE: My Plain & Fancy Kitchen in Progress