What about a piece of granite that has a lot of movement, and some burgundy tones in it? Honed finish, not polished. I know nothing about granites, but I looked under "burgundy granite" and found several that seemed interesting. Lambada was one, Maracana was another. Another alternative would be some kind of mosaic in a matte finish. Or, you could do a wood countertop. I am a big fan of zebrawood, so I could see something like that as a great accent on your pantry cabinet. Matte finish, very hard wood. Plus that is considered sustainable wood for harvesting, so eco-friendly. zebrawood counter

essdana, I put some olive oil on a paper towel last night and dabbed it on a couple of cornes of the sink cutout I experiment on. It didn't soak in, just sort of sat there. I let it sit there over night and this morning, I wiped it up. Because it didn't soak in, I ended up just sort of smearing it over about half of the top. Then that half actually looked better! Kind of like when I put the wood polish on only half the dining room table, the second half looks sort of "dry," if you know what I mean. This morning, I wiped down the whole surface when I did some leftover dishes-- knives and utensils with wooden handles that don't go in the D/W. It looks pretty much the same now. If you want to do your own experiments, you can get one of those small black cutting boards made by Epicurean. They are literally the same material-- the thinner thickness, I think they are scraps from the Skatelite product they make skateboard ramps from, but the same material. That way, you could test with products more likely to be abused in a bathroom, esp. of a B&B.

ugh.... we are just at this point now and realized that our new counter/breakfast bar is 12' with the sink cutout dead center. My wife is stuck on an undermount and we really wanted granite... we will, of course, be getting a few fabricators to bid it. But is it feasible to do the seam with a cutout at the seam? The front edge of the sink seems a bit vulnerable to me. Also the current layout has the dishwasher adjacent to the sink and I guess we'd need to get the cabinet built with a support at the seam. If we can seam at the sink it would be small, just the length of the front setback (breakfast bar transitions to countertop there)... how well does the bullnose normally line up on a seam? Do they polish it on-site? Are we better off getting used to NOT granite? The 12' counter is not negotiable in our design.

It does not look like soapstone. Not the color, not the pattern, but with a photo and that lighting, who knows. It may be a slate, perhaps @Karen MT can chime in. Regardless, the way you care for it is to clean it with a bit of uncolored liquid dishsoap like Seventh Generation on a damp Dobie pad, wipe dry with towel or paper towel. If you want to seal it, check first (A) whether there is sealant on there already, and (B) whether it should even have sealant. Sometimes it is the sealant itself which causes streaks and haze that I see on the photo. That is because the stone may be a type that did not need sealant in the first place, but the sealant was applied anyway but shouldn't have been. Note that sealant protects against stains, but does not protect against etching. Use a tiny bit of acetone on a small section and see what it uncovers. If that section looks better, then you'd need to strip the entire surface of the existing sealant with the acetone. You must have the windows open while doing this, and a little goes a long way.