Have you looked into or considered soapstone? I think that would look pretty too.

Your kitchen gets a lot of light, and your floors are light too, I think a soapstone would look marvelous. If that is too costly, how about a black honed granite?

Iroll, Our sink failed due to clips and bad installation..We have a divided sink with steel which flexed and causes leaking.There is a constant thick layer black/brown mold around our sink.
Sink cabinet base has some wet rot to flange area.
Only way to fix it is to remove sink,install proper harness straps to cabinet sides,disconnect plumbing,lots of clean etc etc…
Unfortunately no way all this can be done with countertop intact

I think that would look nice. I’m putting cherry cabinets in my new kitchen with white marble-look quartz counters. This is my ”mood board”, even if others dont like it, all that matters is if you do. Maybe it looks a little fake up close but its much less maintenence.

Thanks everyone for all the great advice! I do love real stone and tried to find my granite (Persia Avorio) no one has it near me.Fabricators tell me even if I did find it I would need to replace my adjoining peninsula too.They are worried the new slab probably won’t match my old granite too.
I’m not a huge fan of my granite anyway(I don’t care for granites with splotches)I went to all stone yards mostly sell quartzite,quartz and marble.They have small granite slabs but really dark and ugly.After having dark granite in previous house I will never install again.It always looked dirty.Not a fan of dark countertops.I fear it would my kitchen look very dark,especially with all that wood going on?

Loobab it’s a north facing room and it tends to get pretty dark.I really love soapstone but I have all that midtone wood.I would love to brighten up my kitchen.

If you come back around to considering soapstone, darbuka has some great insight and tips on the material.

Aimee Hall,wow that’ll be gorgeous!I hope you share a pic once it’s done!Curious what sink you’re getting?

Thanks everyone after looking at kitchen with soapstone I’m in love.I never thought I’d go for a black counter again lol.
I fear it’s too high maintenance and expensive?Won’t it make my kitchen even darker though?DH would absolutely love it(not the price though Ha)
Here’s some of my inspiration pics

I really like the idea of something classic that most likely will never go out of style!

I found this link in a discussion I saved re countertops-there are different varieties of soapstone, to include color, veining, maintenance and hardness. Beth H referenced this link and darbuka said it is an excellent resource, fyi:

https://www.soapstones.com/classic-soapstones/

Ruling out honed granite,too high maintenance.I like the Stormy Black Soapstone so I’ll look into that.

@jtkaybean Thanks! I got a stainless undermount. I considered enamel but I have 4 homeschooled kids and the sink gets ABUSED lol. I also like soapstone with cherry, if you paint the walls a light color and have lots of natural light. It WILL gets scratched up but over time will make a patina and lots of people like that look.

Aimee,hmmmm I need to read more about the soapstone.I don’t like the idea of it getting scratched up and understand I need to oil it too?Sounds too high maintenance.
I love stainless sinks.I just ordered mine from Costco https://www.costco.com/kraus-undermount-single-bowl-stainless-steel-kitchen-sink.product.100509250.html
I’m so excited to finally get my single bowl

Jill, get a hard variety like I have, Belvedere, and scratching will not be an issue. Our soapstone and wood kitchen, is now 7 years old. You won’t find any scratches, and ours is a hard working kitchen.

Do your due diligence, and test any soapstone slabs for hardness. Reject any slabs you can scratch with a fingernail, or coin. Get samples to test at home.

Here are our Belvedere counters, purchased from M. Teixeira, the largest soapstone dealer-fabricator in the US.

M. Teixeira has a blog that has some very good information for your research:

https://www.soapstones.com/blog/

darabuka wow your kitchen is amazing!What wood are your cabinets?I had a beautiful custom kitchen with Alder cabinets (miss them so much)in my precious house.Your cabinets look so similar.
Guessing soapstone is more expensive than Quartzite?I worry about staining,I need to read up on it.

Previous home,not precious lol

Thanks, Jill. 😊 The cabs are birch.

I have no idea about the price differential between soapstone and quartz, as quartz was never a consideration for us. We didn’t want shiny counters, and we wanted a materiel that will stand up to heat…which quartz won’t, as it contains 33 1/2% plastic resins.

Most of all, we were drawn to soapstone’s impervious qualities. Soapstone is so dense, nothing can stain or etch it. Any patina that forms (from cooking oils, for instance), sits on top of the stone, and can be easily removed.

Our variety, Belvedere, is very hard, and thus very difficult to scratch. They’re now 7 years old. DH and I still say, the soapstone is the best choice we made.

Btw, quartz is far from bulletproof. Threads abound on this site, of certain spices staining white quartz, and lids from hot pot and pans melting the plastic resins, leaving scorch marks. Neither will ever happen with soapstone.

The tile is from Subway Ceramics, from their line of crackle tile. They make outlet covers and switchplates from the same tile. We ordered samples (for a nominal shipping fee), and chose Celadon Green, from This page.

By the way, the actual outlets and switches, are by Lutron. They come in many colors, that closely match just about any cover. Lutron also has their own matching covers.

Thanks darbuka after calling around on pricing soapstone, clearly not in our budget 😳I guess it’s back to quartz.

You may go hwith this color.

There few idea..

You may go qithwith them or comment me back if you need visualize first.

I have soapstone countertops and love them. They are so easy to care for- close to zero maintenance required. I don’t oil or wax mine, just clean them with a damp cloth, and perhaps a touch of Dawn. Obviously it will vary greatly, but FWIW I have close friends who remodeled their kitchen at the same time as I did, in 2021, and my soapstone was approximately half what their Caesarstone cost, per square foot.

There are some beautiful black granites, as well as quartz that mimics soapstone. i love your cabinets!

Sadly all stone yards near me had slim pickins in the soapstone.I don’t understand why it’s not more popular?

I found Taj Mahl quartzite,so beautiful.I think I read all the posts on here from Karin,all posters with staining,water marks,some are marble etc.If I’m correct,Taj & Perla is the more stain resistant (more expensive tho) but TM does require sealing?

Here is my wood next to it,I love it

I guess I need to address the elephant in the room a commercial espresso machine & DH’s coffee bean roaster with all the messy stuff that goes with it (burr grinder etc)I worry DH might set down a hot portafilter when he’s half asleep in the morning 😟I know quartz won’t stand up to that.
The coffee grinds will probably stain the quartzite.I guess I could put a ugly heat resistant mat down .

Do you have samples of each? I am actually now considering Taj Mahal along with quartz and brought home samples of both. Ive left anything my family uses that can stain on them and any stains on the samples buffed out with toothpaste. I also put a 400 degree pan from the oven on both of them, for about 5 minutes and nothing on either. Get some samples amd test them! To me they seemed really similar. In my area the quartzite is a lot more than the quartz though.

@Aimee yes I will definitely have them break off a piece so I can test Taj quartzite It’s very expensive here too,almost double cost of quartz.DH not a fan of the quartz so leaning more towards the quartzite.

It will be stunning in your kitchen.

I read posts on here some of the Taj slabs have more filler than others.Make sure to get up close to it and look for that!

You know, I actually like what you have in there already…it looks very nice..have you thought about just updating the backsplash and leaving the countertops?

@Project Mode my undermount sink was incorrectly installed,huge gap between granite and sink flange.We have chronic leaks that are damaging the sink basin cabinet and plywood.Only way to fix is rip out sink,strap and install correctly.Impossible to do with granite intact 😩I tried to find a remanant of my granite,persa avorio,no one carries it. Fabricator is worried even if I did find it new granite piece would not match the old..Also, I would need to replace ajoining pennisula too (because of seam)

I saw a few quartzs I liked and surprised I found a granite too.
Quartz was Calacatta Lincoln and granite was Monalisa.

@jtkaybean Im not sure what brands you are looking at but I have Cambria samples at my house and I cannot seem to get the samples to burn. I might have mentioned I put a 400 degree pan on mine for about 5 minutes. i just held my curling iron up against it to see how long it took to burn, but it never did before i became impatient. I heard other people would get burn marks just from taking things out of the dishwasher on “made in China” quartz! I think different brands are more durable than others.

@Aimee looking at reputable Quartz brands-Silestone,Cambria etc.The Stone place I’m using has one of the best reputations where I live,not cheap though.They will let me see my actual quartz slab(a must for me).

That’s really good info about the heat!

I recently had Silestone quartz installed in my bathrooms.I love it.I’m just not sure about having quartz in my kitchen.For now DH & I are considering the Taj Mahl.

We need to do all the home tests on it of course.

Please share what you end up with. It’s going to be beautiful!

Here is one of the slabs I might go with

Oh thats terrible! How very frustrating…was it an undermount sink?

The mona lisa is very pretty as well as the taj. If you end up doing quartzite, please let us know how you like it. I have about 2 months left to decide and I’m still so unsure about what I want. I have granite currently, and I’m going to miss what a workhorse it is, I’m afraid, if I go with something else..its darn near indestructible.

I have used 8.5 slabs of Taj Mahal in 2 houses (2 kitchens, fireplace surround and outdoor kitchen). No issues with any of them. No maintenance other than standard cleaning.

I still would not place hot pans on any natural or man-made counters. Your samples might not have reacted to heat, but all it takes is placing that hot pan on that one weak area of the counter, like a small fissure, and then you are stuck with an ugly looking stain/crack that can't be fixed. It really isn't hard to use trivets!

I have plain colored quartz in my bathrooms, mudroom and laundry and happy with those too.

@chispa thank you,that is great to hear! I found some stainless mats for our espresso station and hot pans always go on top of stove.We use trivets.I would love to see your kitchen,any pics?What backsplash did you use?

@Project Mode yep, undermount sink fail. The Taj is top of our list.I do like a lot of quartz I saw but DH is a little nervous about it.

Tbh,it has been over 10 years so it is nice getting a little update. I hate my double sink so much,excited for a single basin.(got talked into the double regretted it ever since)

I’m not in love with my granite either,competes too much with my Cherry cabinets.The mosiac tile is very outdated so happy to get rid of that!I’ll put something classic like creamy subway tiles.What countertops are you considering?

How awful… I didn’t know undermounts could have that issue.

I think we may end up going with quartzite... I like mont blanc but I’m not 100% sure yet. I can’t find a quartz I like and marble is too soft I’m afraid.

Just wanted to say that as a huge fan of cherry cabinets, I love your kitchen and I think Taj Mahal would be gorgeous.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting @pricklypearcactus @Project Mode @chispa @loobab I @Aimee I bought 2 slabs of Taj Mahl today.The stone yard moved the slabs outside for to me to view.

I got the lightest ones.Thanks for all your advice

Great choice!! Taj M is so beautiful and even more so in person…We purchased quartzite as well!…5 slabs worth. 😅 Not sure where to go with the backsplash now.

I’m amazed how much brighter my kitchen is with new counters.The granite made it a little darker

That is lovely-enjoy your “new” kitchen!!

I love that! It’s perfect in your kitchen! Thank you for sharing!

It looks great! The Taj is perfect!

It’s beautiful!! Have you picked a backsplash? Our cabinets were delivered and hopefully it all comes together as lovely as yours did!

@Project Mode yes MarketCollection,Asbury ceramic 3x9 subway tiles color is creamy-off white (called Fleece) in crackle finish.We looked at so many neutral,off-white,light beiges.I ended up going with first one the stone salesperson told me was perfect for my Taj Mahl lol.

Did you go with the Mont Blanc quartzite?

The tile next to it on right,Crema,was way too yellow in my kitchen.I thought it clashed a little with the Taj.

Oh I like that with it as well! I agree that the crema looks yellow next to it. I love mont blanc, but for as many slabs as we need and at $80 a sqft. it very quickly exceeded the budget. We are going with a quartzite called Aravalli.

Project Mode…how do you like your Aravalli? I’d love to see pictures!