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I am having my kitchen cabinets refaced in February to an off-white color. All along I've been thinking that I would put soapstone counters in at some point down the road after the cabinets are done. But now I'm second guessing myself and am not so sure. Since the cabinets will be more of an ivory/parchment color, I'm not sure if the gray-black-greenish tone of soapstone will be quite what I want. And then I'm thinking, do I really want to deal with the porous nature of soapstone? Today I am thinking, maybe I can find a quartz or granite that looks like marble. I LOVE Carerra marble, but would not want the maintenance and worry (and, not to mention, expensive) of having marble in my kitchen. Maybe there is a quartz or granite style that would have a similar look? I think color-wise it would go very well with the off-white cabinets.
Anyway, maybe I'm over-thinking things, but would love to hear others' experiences with the various materials and color combinations.
Caesarstone Quartz is amongst the best IMO, especially for a convincing marble substitute. Especially the Statuario Nuvo, Calacatta Nuvo or the Frosty Carina.
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-I'm not sure if that would give you much contrast with the Ivory color cabinets though, but there are several other color choices that may work for you.
While both soapstone and marble are beautiful and can work as a countertop surface they both definitely require much more maintenance and care than Quartz.
Usually I tell people
Dark counters light tops
Light counters dark tops
Dark/dark or light/light combos don't look as good. Need some contrast. And it actually brings out both the counters and tops. It actually visually separates the two.
I have a friend with cream colored cabinets and soapstone countertops. Beautiful.
I love quartz for the color selection and very low maintenance.
Dekton will blow your socks off for looks like marble but wears like quartz.
We have Silestone, a quartz product for the last 8 years. We love it. Absolutely no maintenance, no wear and tear and looks just as good as the first day it was installed.
If you want granite that looks like Carrara marble look for "Casa Bianca". There are others, but this particular granite is the most consistent with Carrara.
Would I put it with that color cabinet- maybe. Just depends on all your other "colors"- floor, backsplash, wall, hardware, etc.
Would I do overlay on cabinets- Hell No! It's got to be one of the worse gimmicks since the Pet Rock!
We have tropic brown granite on hickory cabinets. I love it. No maintenance. Dont have to worry about damaging it. I use hot pads under anything right out of the oven due to the risk of thermal shock. The only problem with this granite is that its easy to lose chocolate chips on it! They blend right in!
Soapstone is not porous. It is extremely NON porous. It's very low maintenance. It doesn't stain. It doesn't need to be sealed or resealed. It tolerates extreme heat.
However, it does scratch easily - and also the scratches somehow "go away" easily as well. What it does is it develops a patina over time. It is great for industrial, or farmhouse, or rustic kitchens. Not so great a choice for a polished, formal look.
We recently redid our kitchen from top to bottom. We were able to save some of the cabinets but we painted all of them (and added more). We painted our cabinets a soft moss gray (darker on the bottom, lighter on the top). But I'll let the pictures tell the story.
By the way, you can get lighter or darker, or more or less obviously veined soapstone. However, all soapstone will be some shade of gray. You can easily darken it by oiling it with mineral oil, which also buffs out the scratches somehow, but none of that is required or necessary.
I've intentionally added pictures of the "patina" or the scratches. Let me tell you - I don't cut things directly on the counter tops (though I could). I use a cutting board. But as for other little scratches, they're strange - they go away after a few days - don't ask me how.
Soapstone feels extremely velvety due to the talc content. People who walk into our kitchen invariably gasp and say "I LOVE your counter tops" and then start feeling of them. It's common to notice that they tend to stand around and just caress those counter tops - a lot like we did for months after they were installed!
Last edited by KathrynAragon; 02-07-2020 at 07:16 AM..
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