A good friend of ours has done many concrete countertops and they look amazing. We seriously considered it for our remodel. The staining/etching is what turned us off. To be perfectly frank I'm a slob in the kitchen. A countertop that would be damaged by red wine or lemon left on it overnight is just not feasible. Instead we went with soapstone. If it can hold up to legions of teenage chemistry students I feel it can hold up to me. :D If you do decide to go with concrete have you seen the books by Fu-Tung Cheng? They're excellent. Soapstone can be a lot more affordable as a DIY project. The quarry we bought from has DIY kits for about $25/sq ft or you could make it even cheaper by using tiles. Soapstone seams incredibly well.

Thynes! Thanks so much for giving me the exact name and number for your tile. I had seen your expanded kitchen post and couldn't find the exact tile. You have such a lovely kitchen, so warm and welcoming and the tile really makes a statement. I also see they only have one USA distributor. Your tile in your kitchen looks totally different than on the website..were you able to get a sample or see the tile in a store? I've sent Saltillo an email as well..so we shall see. Thanks again for the information. This post was edited by harleysbud on Sun, Mar 31, 13 at 15:25

have finished the 4th remodel (wow 2 yrs since earlier post on this thread!). Used all white (no patterns speckles or veining) in MasterBath, Butlers Pantry Wet Bar, and as BACKSPLASH in Kitchen whose counters are Stainless Steel. (the rest of kitchen is all white cabinetry with brushed metal pulls). No qu that the white is stunning, crisp, pleasant. MasterBath is fine. Butlers Pantry: the white counter is unforgiving and shows everything. So on a second bathroom we chose white with a little gray veining and that has been excellent / easier. Kitchen all white backsplash with white cabs above below has been great and VERY easy clean (we cook a lot and use spices that stain too). But the all white in kitchen would have been intolerable as a counter for us. Stainless steel is not for everyone but 3 kitchen renos later, (2 remain actively in use) we love its cleanliness and the patina and very, very low maintenance. It looks surprisingly good with Cesarstone / Quartzite type stone products

Melrose, I did NOT end up getting the Ariel. It was very frustrating that Cosentino was telling me it was available and that Lowe's should be carrying it, yet every Lowe's said they never heard of it. (This was back in 2015.) Finally, I realized Blanco Orion had the exact same bright white background and same color grey veining, but that it was just much busier. That's what we ended up with and I'm happy with them, but I think I would have preferred the "quieter" pattern of Ariel. Here's a picture that shows my samples laid on top of our actual Blanco Orion counter. Upper left is Lagoon, upper right is Helix, lower left is Lyra, and lower right is Ariel. See how exact the colors are to the Blanco Orion in background? But subtler veining. If you can get Ariel now, I'd go for it.