I am in CT and about to order from Central New England Soapstone from Mass. They have a very pretty light gray called Minas, from Dorado. There are lots of pictures on the Dorado website, comparing oiled and not.

thanks so much! I'm going to check them out. did you have to go all the way up to Mass to see it? How come you didn't order directly from dorado? Also, how much per sqft was it?

You do not have to oil soapstone.

Ice Flower is a variety that is on the grey end of the spectrum. We got Original PA (not installed yet). That is grey as well, but becomes very dark when you oil it. Ice Flower seems to keep more of its grey-ness even when it is oiled.

thanks so much; I will go look.

Go look at the M. Texeira website (URL below) if you want to see pictures of a wide range of soapstone types. M Tex ships nationwide if you're interested. Also there's a location of Dorado Soapstone in Austin. When we bought our soapstone from them last summer they carried two varieties: Beleza (which we used) and Minas. Dorado may have pictures on its website as well. Google Dorado Soapstone.

Here is a link that might be useful: M Texiera Soapstone

Can't recommend any soapstone places in Fairfield County to you but I do know that Garden State is the northeast representative for Dorado. IOW, when you're calling Garden State you are, in effect, also calling Dorado. So, yes, he has Minas. Btw, Jay installed my soapstone countertops, is a great guy and I highly recommend him. And, yes, he will travel to Connecticut.

I think the place with the most types I've seen is M. Texeira. They also fabricate, but you need to check if you job meets their size and range requirements. (My project did not.)

They'll sell and fabricate all over though. Their site has lots of pictures and is pretty thorough.

But you only need to find one you like. And most soapstone is gray. So your choices tend to be gray, black, blacker, grayer, gray green, gray with gray-green ...

I'm sort of kidding, but in the end, it all comes down to the individual slab, I think.

I think Central Ne. and the Mass. Dorado are interrelated companies. Most of the people who work for both them have the same last name. They will e-mail you a photo of representative slabs, oiled and unoiled if you tell them what you're looking for. You can choose to go up or not.

They offer several solid choices on their Web site, and come very highly recommended here.