I have soapstone on my perimeter counters and I absolutely love it. I can't stop looking at it or touching it. My husband didn't want it either until he saw it in person. I oiled mine a few times and decided to let it darken on its own.

I haven't had any problems with dings or scratches, but I've only had it for a couple of months. There is enough patterning and color in mine that I think it will blend right in.

I love quartz …..but for your kitchen I think the soapstone is the way to go. I don’t care for granite at all. We had granite before and I couldn’t wait to get rid of it. I think it’s so heavy looking IMO

I have had soapstone on my perimeter cabinets for over 5 years. It looks amazing, but there can be chips, scratches, marks and water or oil rings. When they start to bug me, I just oil or wax, and they are good as new for the most part. You do need to embrace the imperfections!

Have you considered Virginia mist granite?

I had my kitchen renovated s few years ago and chose Silestone quartz, color soapstone. I love it. It has very subtle grey veining. It looks as good today as the day of installation. No chipping, no scratches, no staining, no issues. Clean up with dishsoap and water.

We had soapstone in our last house, and we are putting it in the new one. Zero maintenance, put hot things down anywhere, what’s not to like? Seriously, you can oil/wax it if you want to, but it’s really not necessary - it’ll darken on its own in a couple of years. We used Feed and Wax on ours a few times, then just orange oil whenever we remembered to.

There is a huge difference in the look of soapstone (or it’s equivalent look in granite or Silestone) and sparkly quartz! Looking at your color scheme - which I love - the darker countertop would really enhance the green. You have to decide if it will bother you if your soapstone doesn’t look perfect all the time. If that is who you are (I am like that) go with Virginia Mist granite. Looks the same when honed and doesn’t have the issues.

Team soapstone all the way. It will look amazing with those wood cabinets and with the green island. We had it in our last house and I miss it. The only thing I would suggest is that you keep your backsplash light. Ours was dark and matte (previous owners installed) and it felt like a dark cavern. If we have another opportunity to renovate a kitchen, I’ll almost definitely go with wood cabinets and soapstone.

The sparkly white quartz is more appropriate for a bathroom IMO.