Granite Grannies The matte finish granites are called Honed, Leathered, Brushed, or Antiqued.

Shannon Ggem ASID- Ggem Design Co LLC If you can embrace patina, you will love soapstone. Get a good sized sample and experiment with oiling, waxing, scratching sanding, etc. I love the material.

nanjeanne We have had our soapstone counters for just 3 months so can't speak to long-time use. However, we have had no scratches at all. We did take some samples and found that the Anastacia was much less likely to scratch easily than one of the others that we liked a lot - Santa Rita Venata. However, even if we had gone with that, we believe we probably wouldn't have noticed little scratches and yes, you can sand if you need to remove them completely.

I like a kitchen that looks like a kitchen so I love the "realness" of soapstone. Plus it's so cool to the touch. I oiled every 2 days for the first week or so - now I oil much less frequently. I keep a rag that I use for oiling in a plastic bag and if I see a water mark or something I don't like - I grab the rag and wipe it out. It's gone completely - I don't do the entire counter. Maybe I've oiled every 10 days or so after the first week - but it's really not time-consuming at all. And I love doing it so it's not a chore. It probably takes about 10-15 minutes. I can already see that I don't need to do it as often any more.

I don't find it high maintenance at all. Just the opposite.

thomps This is wide eastern white pine flooring. It's very soft but has the original country house look.

bepsf Appears to be soapstone.

azholtzman i would love to find a soapstone this like...does this color have a name that you know of?