Beautiful kitchen - agree remove the cabinets above the peninsula! will make a world of difference. Soapstone will be gorgeous.

following cant wait to see what you choose

OP Here. Full disclosure: this process is going to take a while!

Today's experiment: Simulated Soapstone counters (cardboard, black tape and chalk) with a brick backsplash (brick wallpaper).

My wife is NOT a fan, but it is definitely interesting to experiment!

A couple more shots

And an actual piece of soapstone (half natural, half waxed/oiled)...(sorry for the multiple posts, Houzz was choking on multiple pics in one post)...Stormy Black from M. Teixeira

I like it, but I can see that your wife might find it too dark.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><md>For your trivia question, I see something in the fireplace but can’t make it out. The cover looks so flat it makes me think it’s a TV or stereo in there..? FWIW our house is honest to God early Colonial (1758) and we use the beehive oven in the keeping room as a liquor cabinet...

I am glad to see you back CAB

I like the soapstone. Not the brick backsplash

I think soapstone would look fantastic in your kitchen--very authentic.

And I happen to love your brick backsplash!

following ...

I love soapstone hope I get some in my kitchen!

Love your kitchen and another vote for soapstone! We have a harder variety of it and have no dents or issues--my favorite thing in my kitchen!

Mary Glickman - I had to look up beehive oven - love it! Here's a close-up of the fireplace (note: we've never used the grill you see, but he prior owners did...excuse the ugly black piece of cardboard to the left on the wall...it covers the drafty vent that had to be put there as a code-required "vent" for the "cooking" surface!).

I really like the soapstone in your kitchen. But then I might be a bit biased as I have it in my own kitchen along with wood cabinets. I enjoy it but it does scratch. Where the 2 year old has his meals it looks especially bad. But it's oiled so you have to really look to see it. The great thing is when he's a bit older I can buff it out and reapply oil. We used mineral oil for the first year off and on. Now 5 years later it's naturally dark across most of the counters. We used our remnants for our bathrooms and those are still light grey. Cleaning the bathroom seems to strip them every time.

We got our soapstone from M.Teixeira in Denver. We were visiting family close by and stopped and picked out slabs. They held them for a year until we were ready for them. They cut them to the approximate sizes we needed and then shipped them to North Dakota. We then imported them into Canada ourselves. My husband then installed them himself, making all of the final cuts and joints. We went this route as it allowed us to have a solid surface countertop we could afford and we had built the rest of the house ourselves so installing countertops was just one more thing.

Hey the grill in your fireplace is pretty cool! We lost power for a week in a hurricane a few years back and had to heat water for tea, soup, etc on the soapstone wood stove - that took a verrrry long time!

A quick pic of our keeping room fireplace - it’s hard to see but the old cooking arm sits just behind the pellet stove with a cast iron pot. And I cracked the door to the oven so you can see the current usage lol. The oven goes way back and has curved brick, hard to get any pics because it’s very dark! 1758 New England Cape built by Elijah Martin.

Oh and I really like the soapstone. We are doing granite and have a brick backsplash/walls that I don’t care for but are mitigated with a little whitewashing (kitchen is in an addition so I’m not altering historic brickwork).

One thing I hate on forums...is when the original poster (me in this case) never "comes back" to tell everyone how it all worked out! Well, good news and bad news. The good news is "I'm back"...the bad news is WE HAVEN'T MADE ANY PROGRESS. Work got insane, we had a pandemic, um....yeah, we'll go with those excuses for now.

ANYWAY, we experimented quite a bit with soapstone and even went so far as to have M. Teixeira create a small nightstand top for us in their stormy black soapstone. Unfortunately, when we apply that idea to our kitchen...well, it just becomes a sea of black. We don't have any material windows letting in a bunch of light and its just too much (as much as it pained me to come to that realization).

Soooo, our most recent foray has been to try and simulate lighter colored counter options. We are focused on the island as it is the primary focal point in the kitchen. Whatever we decide must work there...and then the rest will likely follow. The wallpaper under the cabinets would be replaced by a backsplash of some kind.

Anyway, below are some of our mockups (done with "granite/marble look wallpapers") to try and see what lighter colors would look like. Right now, options we are considering include colonial cream granite, colonial gold granite, or Taj Mahal quatzite. In EACH of these cases we would have to look for a slab with more "creams/browns/golds" than grays and this is proving to be TOUGH!!! We could also do a leathered finish to "tone down" any fanciness in these stones. If I had to pick one now, it would be Taj Mahal with a light, creamy veining (leathered is my preference)...but man, so many of them are gray these days.

Anyway, a few pics of the experiments (note: the primary goal here was to see various COLORS/SHADES - the patterns are what they are in these wallpaper samples):

(click photos for larger images)..

A somewhat generic, tight pattern brown (not our favorite):

Note: in photo below the 3 sample stones are on the left are taj mahal; the one under the plate is colonial white and the two to the right are colonial gold (top) and colonial cream (bottom).

A gold:

(note: sorry for all the "stuff" - we wanted to see what our things looked like on it!)

A taupe/beige/??

Note: the three sample stones on the left in the pic below are taj mahal

This is exhausting!

The one with dish on it Or left of it. What about a black/white pattern?

happyleg - that one (under the dish) is colonial white. We are finding it reads pretty gray (in our warm kitchen) per this example slab...may be too stark (note: am trying to find a simulated wallpaper though):

I posted my idea book before and my kitchen is in it - but here is my kitchen with similar cabinets:

https://www.houzz.com/hznb/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~110720042

https://www.houzz.com/hznb/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~109854029

https://www.houzz.com/hznb/photos/my-pics-work-in-progress-phvw-vp~120929431

There are a few in the LG Viatera line of quartz that read enough warm to go with warm wood tones. Mine is Viatera White Pearl. One with a more subtle look is Soprano - which I think is very pretty. There is a thread on it with many examples - https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4536417/has-anyone-used-viatera-soprano-for-their-kitchen-countertops

Use the color from your other countertop

I love the soapstone on your cabinets and with the brick.

I think Taj Mahal would look great

How about more cream color than yellow? Like the color of your dishes. And maybe aim for as little contrast as possible within your stone.

In your case I don't think light countertops will look good with black appliances. I think the soap stone countertops with white veining would look great. but I do love the green and your wallpaper. i hate the faux brick wallpaper. i would paint those areas green to bring that back in.

Here are some pics.. my favorite is the soapstone with white veining on outer counter and wood/butcher block on the island.. the last one i can’t see what counter but it has the green backsplash which is really pretty and different

I'd love to see a mockup of a dark paper to emulate the soapstone. I know you didn't like it, but i'm not loving the other options either. Anything that reads gray is not the correct choice for your kitchen. Oddly, I like your green counters best, it helps to tone down the orange / yellow of your cabinets (at least that's how I'm reading it on my computer screen).

Have you looked at Corian or do you want a natural stone?

A counter change would be an improvement but the rest looks good to me. Love the brick, the tin lights, AND the wallpaper too.

One website I do like is msi surfaces, Their visualizer does as decent a job as you are likely to get from a simulation...

Current

Taj Mahal

(generic oak white tile backsplash...just to put something there besides the wallpaper)

Colonial Gold

I love polished granite because it is so easy to keep clean. (I don’t put anything hot directly on it, but I wouldn’t do that with any counter.) It also helps reflect light around the room, which helps in a kitchen with little (make that NO) natural light, like in our house. You have under-cabinet lighting which helps. I use the same granite for the backsplash. If you do a tile backsplash, I would try to match a light color in the counter. Granite comes in a lot of good color combinations. The mainly white granite with some gold and gray would be good in your kitchen...the gold bits refer to the pine floors, the white will help reflect light. The whole effect is light and bright. You may have a different thought if you keep the cooktop in the island...major contrast between cooktop and light-colored counter. Is that brick real or faux? Are you keeping it? It may fight with your chosen counter material. This may be a time when painting brick is a good idea. The wallpaper is also quite dark. The floors and cabinets look to be in very good condition. That’s a great country table.
Welcome to Houzz...it can become addictive.

Granite takes the heat.

Costa Esmeralda granite looks great with natural wood cabinets!

Closeup:

Or a light soapstone, as was done here:

That last photo of the lighter colored soapstone that Diana posted is my favorite. IMO soapstone.

I am biased though since I have soapstone. And, I do have a question about whether that soapstone will actually stay that light. We have never oiled our soapstone, and it has darkened considerably.

Just came upon this thread and love the pine cabinetry! Of course, I am biased since I lived in Williamsburg for several years, worked in the historic area for a time, and had several friends employed by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Too bad the soapstone didn't work out but you REALLY gave it a try. Kudos for that. And for trying the mockups. It's surprising more people don't do that!

My two cents' worth -- stay away from any granite (or man-made counter) with a dramatic pattern, such as the Colonial Gold. It will always be "fighting" with your woodgrain, and that could drive you nuts. Since you lived happily with the green counters for so long, how about a mellow green stone counter in a honed or leather finish, which might approximate some of the characteristics that drew you to soapstone, but would not be so dark?

My other two cents is about the backsplash....so glad to hear that you decided against brick -- so hard to clean! And this is an opportunity to use ceramic tiles made in a manner sympathetic to those used in the Virginia colonies in the early 18th century, so why miss that.

For some food for thought, you can view ceramics in the collection of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation here: https://emuseum.history.org/groups/ceramics Just looking at the piece on the first page is inspiring me!

If this were my project, I'd probably contact someone on the staff at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to see what ideas they might have (sending photos of course). Here is a link for a staff list: https://www.vamuseums.org/members/colonial-williamsburg-foundation. (Sounds like they are all working remotely now.) Two other museums in Williamsburg that might be possible resources are the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the Dewitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Great advice Karenmo!

Take a look at Caesar’s stone rugged concrete- I think it’s an option that might work for you. You can get large samples.

Butcher block or soap stone.

A good deal of what is making your kitchen look like a “sea of black” with the soapstone counter mock-up, are the black appliances. It would be a pity if you let those old appliances dictate the counter material...because soapstone is what your kitchen is screaming for.

We’ve got wood cabs (stained birch), and Belvedere soapstone, from M. Teixeira. Belvedere is one of the hardest soapstones. 5 years in, and there’s not a scratch on it.

one of the nice things about soapstone is, if you want to get your stone to return to its original color...or close to it...with a little Bon Ami, or Comet, and a wet blue scrubby sponge, you can strip most of the oil off. My husband did this two years ago, and we’ve just left it that way. Actually, we haven’t oiled in 4 years.

This was taken the day of installation, first oiling (by Teixeira installers). No backsplash up yet.

This is what I use on our soapstone counters. It is an all natural product, so it is absorbed by the soapstone. It can be reapplied as often as you like. I usually do 2x a year. Our soapstone fabricator was so impressed, he switched to this product. I've also used on wood counters in the pantry and powder room.

@Allison0704 FYI for those new to soapstone, the waxes such as pictured above work best on the softer soapstones, and the oils work better on the harder ones. Wax tends to lift in the presence of moisture on the harder stones.

Personally - I prefer the lighter counter options such as taj mahal or collonial white. i hear thay dark countertops are hard to keep clean. You amy want to use a german schmear to lighten the brick and mimic it in the backsplash. Love your house!

Are you planning on painting the brick peninsula? It clashes violently with the pine. Dark counter, light counter…wallpaper or not, should be part of the plan. All of the pine looks good in the photos, and I would urge you to make your other decisions before you start anything.

A stark white anything might not work with your kitchen. The green soapstone or a light gray would be great. Are you leaving the brick backsplash?

Just to note that the last time the OP posted was last year. They probably have decided by now, but it would be great to see what they did!

If only that were true Diana!

Oh no, @CAB, no decision yet?

CAB. You are not alone. I have been dithering on a backsplash for the last 5 years. My husband has given his blessing on any tile on want, as long as he never has to go in another tile shop, ever

Well no wonder he has said "enough" ! LOL