I haven't seen either of these in person. I am giving the guy at the stone place names of stones that I'm interested in. It's a very weird process. None of their slabs are priced, so I can't tell the $/sq ft to compare stone A to stone B. And quite frankly the inventory that they had onsite was not so great. So, I'm looking at different suppliers to get ideas of some stones for him to price for me. I guess this time around what is easier is I know I like a lighter stone, with movement, tend to lean towards the grays, taupes, whites rather than the golden or dark colors. So at least I can look at photos to get an idea, and this allows me to give him names of stones to price out for my builder. I think I'm driving them crazy. They probably have no idea where a regular human being is pulling these photos from...geez, another person to pull into the 21st century. And I thought it was just the KD that I was dragging in. fks3, these pictures are from PMI International, a stone importer. The fabricator for my current kitchen pulls inventory from them. I'm hoping my future fabricator can develop a relationship with them. Or at least find me slabs to look at. Here is a link that might be useful: PMI

Hmm Lisa...I am guessing SSwiddows has very good sealer. My slabs are honed, not leathered. I chose these because I really like soapstone but did not want the maintenance. I may as well have bought that with the maintenance I have with the silver grey. I put a crockpot on it with a towel underneath. It took over a week for the dark spot to go away. Again, I will be spraying on a sealer and hope that will make a difference. Will have to look in the search for "good sealer" and hope to find some suggestions.

You can probably poultice the contaminated stone to match the stone protected by the mat. You've got a porous stone. On second thought, it's probably UV light degradation of the resin on the exposed stone. Leave the mat off for several months and see if the light area catches up.

So funny - I currently have the same black countertops! I installed them to replace the 1996 TEAL laminate countertops!!! I really thought that quartzite was going to be the answer for me - the whole reason I saw your post was because I was looking at some quartzite threads where people were having issues with their countertops turning green in spots! I thought quartzite was going to be answer. I really want this marble slab I found: It looks whiter in person - the lights in the warehouse reflect oddly off the stone. It’s beautiful. But it’s not practical. But quartzite has some issues also. I also really like soapstone - but not sure about using that either after doing some research. My daughter is looking for countertops - they just purchased their first home. Sent her this photo - she’s like “I WANT THAT!!” Thanks for posting this!