The cabs in Martha Stewart's kitchen are grey, so expect to see grey become more popular. I have a client who painted her cabs a light taupe and installed brownish-black granite. Beautiful! My SIL painted her cherry cabs a dijon color. I thought she was crazy to paint the cherry but it did look good. Now she is itching to paint them black, which is another look I love. I don't think you need a large kitchen to have black cabs, but you do need a lot of light, either natural or artificial. A friend in Chicago just put in a custom kitchen in sunny yellow. Myself, I yearn for red cabinets. Now, what were you saying about white??? Nicole

I can address a few of your points: -Last year there was a bit of discussion about a "green soapstone" which was not typical looking- and many said that it was really a serpentine. This might be what you've seen. -On busy soapstone: We were finding soapstones that were too busy or too dull. What worked for us was to find out when NEW shipments were expected, then make calls to track the progress. Our perfect stone arrived on my birthday last year. If you know when it's arriving, you can be the first to choose the best slabs. -On splatter marks: Our soapstone is a fairly dark one, and has really not required a lot of oil/wax treatments. It went dark pretty much right away. There are no issues with splatter marks next to my range. I never see spots of any kind. -On substitutes: We were all set to go with antiqued Virginia Mist granite as a backup plan. This is a very pretty dark grey granite. It has many soapstone-like characteristics. There is a gorgeous kitchen in the finished kitchens blog that shows it off- check out those photos. In our area it is so popular that we could have had it for the cost of how many sq feet were used, as opposed to the price of full slabs. It would have been much much less $$ than our soapstone. It is a gorgeous stone. Don't know why there is not more buzz about it. The Antique finish is a tiny bit rougher than "honed" and adds to the "soapstone look" and makes for better maintenance. Dark honed granite can be a nightmare for showing marks, crumbs etc. I have friends with polished black granite and they are very unhappy. Another pretty stone is Pietra Cardoza, which has variable reports on maintenance. I understand that the counters at Restoration Hardware are made of this stone (although often they report it to be soapstone). To me, the Pietra is very similar to the Virginia Mist. For sink: we used Silgranit in biscuit. The matte finish works very well with the understated look of the soapstone. It's a rectangular super-single sink, and is fully under-mounted. It works out perfectly. best wishes- hope you find what you want!

I've never seen the Black Stellaris so can't comment on that. But the absolute black (honed) that we just had installed definitely looks black in our kitchen, against white cabinets. From a distance it might look like a soft black but I wouldn't describe it as grey. It is not as jet black as a polished black granite might look. I've also read that you can use a color enhancing sealer that darkens it even more. Have you looked at Jet Mist ( aka Virginia Mist)? It also has a soapstone look.

I think you need to bring the cabinets to the ceiling. They look squatty and undercuts the bold look that doing a dark kitchen brings. I also think the countertops are too busy. In your second post the first photo feels way too cool and is lacking in warmer elements. I keep gravitating towards the first photo in your original post. Was that your inspo pic? It is stunning. Notice how The dark wood still adds warmth as does the gold veining in the countertops. However everything is still very muted and understated. I think a dark kitchen is a very bold design choice (I am a huge fan) but you may need to hire a pro designer on this. Houzz is a good start, but in-person expertise would be more than worth it.