Congratulations! Our granite and Ticor sink were installed today too! Isn't it amazing how it seems to tie everything together?? Your stone is beautiful!

Oh, that's purty.

Here are a couple more pictures: I still don't think the photos are doing the stone the justice it deserves. It's quite beautiful and not as sort of splotchy as the pictures make it look. I guess all that matters is that we love it but I want everyone to be as astonished by its beauty as I am!!

Cambro5 -- Congrats on your installation today, too. I have to agree that now it's starting to look like a kitchen and not just a bunch of boxes with doors. Any pictures of your new granite and sink?

Anyway, here are a couple of close-ups.

One more:

That soapstone look great! What kind of soapstone is it? I am going to look for some this weekend (in metro detroit) and want something with some green

It is Beleza honed from Dorado Soapstone. I know they have locations all over. I'm not sure about Detroit.

It's a bit different looking from most of the soapstone I've seen on GW and it was the only soapstone we looked at. I'm sure there must be other sources of soapstone available in Austin but this all came together so serendipitously and for such a great price that we never went and looked at anything else and just went for it. And now we can't stop going in and running our hands over it and marveling at how much we love it.

Your soapstone is fantastic. Lovely veining and I like the color of your shaker cabinets with it. I was in the same shoes with my sink reveal. Turned out like yours, and I'm also happy. Big Yay for us both.

Fantastic!! Love it. It just gets better and better with use.

Looks great! Are those Tidaholm cabinets? And is that the S112 sink?

Striking stone!

They are indeed Tidaholm cabinets from IKEA and the Ticor S112 sink. We saved more than enough on the cabinets (not to mention the sink!) to pay for the soapstone and even though I was a bit worried about the cabs I'm really liking them. The soapstone did upgrade the whole look, though, I have to say.

Tomorrow the sink will be plumbed and the dishwasher installed. We're hooking up the new range too, even though we'll have to move it out in a few weeks when the floor refinishers can finally come and do our longleaf pine floors.

That is absolutely beautiful!! Very very neat, that Beleza is really striking, I remember seeing it at Dorado when I went down to look for soapstone. Your kitchen and mine will enjoy some very nice commonalities --- both in Austin, both with Dorado soapstone, and both with Ticor sinks!

I debated long and hard about the Beleza, but ultimately wanted a more "typical"-looking soapstone, so I waited over 3 months for Dorado to finally receive the Minas soapstone shipment from Brazil. My soapstone was just installed yesterday, one day before yours! I will post pics on a separate thread so we can compare/contrast the Minas with the Beleza.

Your Ticor sink looks wonderful too. I see you opted for the single bowl. I thought long and hard about that, and in some cases wish I had gone with it --- but in the end went with the double-bowl S105-8 from Ticor, which is a 17-34/" left bowl and 13" right bowl. I think your large single bowl is beautiful, and very practical too because you can always put in a basket or strainer or etc. to create a 'second sink' if you want to, but still have the flexibility of that large single bowl to handle huge pots/pans and cookie sheets, etc.

You must be so excited, I know I am! What kind of house did that soapstone go into -- is it a newer more modern home, or an older more traditional one? Love the faucet you chose too!

Supra92

Fantastic! Congralutaions, it's very lovely. Seems that the clean sharp lines of the cabinets go very nicely with the soft lines in the stone.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'm astonished to have a thing of such beauty in my house. We lived with truly beyond hideous laminate counters for so long (so long that I didn't even notice them anymore until someone new walked into our kitchen) that this seems unbelievable every time I walk into the kitchen.

Supra92 -- That's so cool that you're putting soapstone in an Austin kitchen just as we are. We probably would have gone with the Minas but it worked out that we would need two slabs of Minas and would have had quite a bit left over (which we would have paid for) but one large slab of the Beleza just covered everything.

We pondered the sink bowl question for a long time too. I think we'll like the single bowl. We had a sink with two equal bowls before and neither was big enough for even a large skillet. I'm looking forward to washing something tomorrow!

We're in a 1940s house just south of downtown. Limestone outside, longleaf pine floors throughout, 9 foot ceilings. We've been here 15 years and are finally redoing the kitchen we said needed to be done when we moved in. Better late than never, I guess. What about you?

Oh and thanks for the mention of the faucet. It's not one I've seen anyone mention here (it's the Kohler Essex). We're going for a sort of industrial-ish look and I thought it looked a bit like a a laboratory faucet. We'll see.

What beautiful stone! Unbelieveable. That has to be some of the prettiest soapstone I have ever seen! Gorgeous! Congrats. Absolutely beautiful!

Very cool soapstone...there are such more interesting kinds of it being sold now, vs. 2004. How hard is it? Have you oiled it or a part of it?

I'm way up on the north side, smack in downtown Round Rock -- literally one block north of Main St. I looked for almost a year for an historic house in Hyde Park or similar in Austin, but the prices drove me away as did the long commute to Dell. This one is a 2-story Southern Colonial built in 1904, and has been SUCH a huge project. Have lived in it 5 years and sometimes it feels like I've made no progress on it at all. :-)

I know the feeling, when you talk about having that nasty laminate yet acclimating to it so thoroughly. It's amazing what one can adjust to given enough time. Believe it or not, I took a sledgehammer to my kitchen in August of 2005, and have not had running water or counters ever since. Yikes. But the original counters were an absolutely atrocious white square tile, almost like you'd find in a bathroom.

Sometimes it feels weird to tell people I've lived without a kitchen for almost 3 years... they just stare at me in either horror, astonishment, or some mixture of both. But the key is to finally reach the finish line, which you and I both have :-)

Isn't soapstone wonderful? I have yet to oil mine -- have been so busy with work this week that I want to wait until Saturday when it's daylight and I have time to really enjoy that "first oiling." :-) I'll also get pics of mine up then, too.

I love the green in your Beleza, you'll have to post additional pics once you put on the first oiling, if you decide to go that route. The pictures you posted, however, are beautiful in their own right. That's the beauty of soapstone -- someone just said this on another thread, but it's like having two counters in one --- a lighter one and a darker one, each with its own unique characteristics. And the feel..... the FEEL of soapstone!!! :-)

Supra92

Hey Supra, that was me on the other thread -- about the two counters in one! We've only been without our kitchen for seven weeks; I can't imagine three years (we do have two teenagers so that ups the difficulty factor a bit although my son likes being able to get something out of the fridge without leaving the couch!).

I saw the closeup of your edge profile on another thread and now I really want to see more of your stone. I'm curious about the difference between the Minas and the Beleza. We didn't spend too much time looking at the Minas since it was going to cost so much more. Did you find places in Austin, other than Dorado, that had soapstone for sale?

My husband and I were just talking about whether to oil or not. I wish we had some small pieces to experiment with; I have a call in to the fabricator who was supposed to give us the sink cutout. I'll post pics if we do oil it -- and more pics of the kitchen once its finished.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your stone and your kitchen; the house sounds wonderful.

I don't have soapstone but I keep coming back to this post to look at yours. Gosh, it's beautiful!

Jodi-

Flyleft -- Sorry, I just noticed your questions.

I think the Beleza is quite hard, although I don't have anything to compare it too, since it was really the only soapstone we looked at (other than the Minas that Dorado Soapstone also carried in Austin). I couldn't scratch the sample with a fingernail or with just a knife or pot dragged across it but, using a lot of force, I did put a slight scratch in it with a fork (not something I'm going to try on the installed slabs). That scratch was easily covered by oiling.

We haven't oiled any of the installed slabs yet (they only went in yesterday and we're still admiring them too much to do anything to them yet). We saw a slab from the same block oiled at Dorado and it went very black, with much less variation in color. My husband likes that look but I'm drawn to the natural state. We're trying to get a large scrap piece of our stone from our fabricator to experiment on.

Thanks again, everybody for your kind words.

Hi sw_in_austin,

Ah, so that WAS you that made the comment about the two-stones-in-one :) That's exactly it... and I'm doing the same thing you are -- holding off on oiling the stone until I'm done admiring and staring at the raw stone that's currently in place. It sounds like I'm slightly aligned a bit more towards your husband's take on the oiling -- I really really like the deep, dark, matte "near-black" charcoal colour, but with the prominent light veining. Definitely did not want a "solid black" countertop, which helped rule out some of those black granites that I have to be careful not to refer to as "soapstone-wannabes". There is definitely nothing wrong with the black granites like Nordic Antique or Labrador, etc... they are great in their own way.

But to anyone else reading this thread, I can now say this much -- get black granite because you like *black granite*. Don't get it as a "replacement for soapstone"... because that just isn't possible :) There's absolutely no possible way to duplicate the texture, the feel, the warmth, the veining of real soapstone.

Dorado was the only place in Austin I could find that had soapstone -- there might be other smaller places that "can get" soapstone, but they were hard to come by and I wasn't impressed with the folks I spoke to at those places. Dorado has a national presence, and they were very helpful and knowledgeable and patient with my questions, so going with them was a no-brainer.

I got a bit frustrated waiting for the Minas -- it was originally supposed to arrive from Brazil in late December... then they said 3rd wk of January, then it was going to be "around Valentine's Day", and it went on and on. I think it actually finally arrived sometime in late April or so.

When I went down to finally see the Minas, I got a chance to compare it firsthand with the Beleza. One thing I noted was that the Beleza changes a lot more with oiling -- the Beleza struck me as very "striking" and "active" with its patterning and veining when raw... but once oiled it "settled down" in a big way, becoming far less 'wild' and far more uniform in its deep charcoal beauty. The Minas deepened in colour just as much as the Beleza did, but it didn't "settle down" as much --- the whitish veining stayed very prominent, while the dark parts turned a deep charcoal.

Those were the slabs I saw though -- every slab is different, so our mileage with our own countertops may vary. Like Jodi, I keep coming back to this thread to see your Beleza -- in particular, the 2nd and 3rd pictures are just amazing --- almost like storm clouds and lightning. I'm a huge fan of the oiled-soapstone look, but I can easily see why you're considering both options.

Your plan to oil the sink cutout is a fantastic one -- I just emailed my fabricator and asked them to save the sink cutout for me, so I can try oiling that. Plus, it may be large enough to cover a wine refrigerator or some other small appliance or cabinet -- you never know! :)

I will definitely post pictures tonight or tomorrow on another thread -- I am at a COMPLETE loss as to what to do for a backsplash with the kitchen being yellow walls, white cabinets, soapstone counters, and heart of pine wood floors. I'm hoping somebody will look at my kitchen pictures with the soapstone and go "wow, *THIS* is what you really ought to get for a backsplash tile!" :-)

Cheers,
Supra92

Supra92 -- I just got an email from our fabricator (we used Alpha Granite, btw, and they did a great job -- we only had one seam but it's really well done) and they found a piece 24 x 48" that they're keeping for us -- they're even going to finish the edges so we could use it as a table top or something like that. We'll try oiling it when I get it next week and I'll post some pics.

Now if I could just get my dishwasher and new range operational. The plumber showed today but not the electrician so we're still on hold with that til Monday. Is your kitchen actually finished and up and running now? If so, I envy you.

And where, may I ask, are the pictures of your stone (and your kitchen)? I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd like to see it.

Very, very nice! (from a granite fan so you know it's sincere) I like the veining.

You could use test tubes for a spice rack as shown on the storing a large collection of spices thread :)

Hey Bluekitchen -- That is high praise from you (and not even a hint of blue in the stone at all!).

And I like the test tube spice rack idea. I was eyeing some laboratory glass-like canisters a few weeks ago but I think I may be going overboard with this lab thing. I think I'll hold off til I see it with the hardware in place before I start adding more accessories.

I've really enjoyed looking at your pics- gorgeous! I'm planning on doing the new dark Tidaholm cabinets with a light countertop. Your photos make me wish their was a light version of soapstone. I love the feel!

Morton5 -- I'm looking forward to seeing pics of a dark Tidaholm kitchen -- hopefully yours in a few months. IKEA announced that the darker color was coming out after we'd already moved forward with the lighter but I'm thinking it's going to look great -- but I wouldn't want to give up my soapstone!!

Wow, it looks really terrific. Is that a 30 or 36 in. sink base?

It's a 36-inch base. They had to cut out a bit of the front and back crosspieces to make the sink fit but it was fine side to side. I wanted them to make the piece of stone in front of the sink a bit narrower, 3 1/2" instead of 4", but they made it 4" and I wasn't going to argue when everything else worked so well.

Thanks. I'd seen a couple of posts over at ikeafans implying that you could get that sink into a 30", but I couldn't see how.

I'd love to see more pics of the stone with the cabinets. I'm leaning towards IKEA and still trying to figure out what styles will work well with soapstone.

Wow, what beautiful stone! I agree about not oiling it (I have not oiled mine, either) and enjoying the variation in its natural state. It will darken naturally, as mine has. But somehow, I think it retains its individuality if you let it do its own thing. Enjoy it!