Beautiful stone!

Love it and I like soapstone for kitchens a lot more than quartz for sure. I would however suggest you let this be the star and keep cabinet style very simple to allow that.

i prefer the first one. it has a more earthy look "dirty gray" for lack of a better phrase - a good thing for coordination w wood cabinetry. the 2nd choice imparts "cold" .....lacks the versatility of the first. Good Luck...... #1 for sure.

@deegw thank you, that is a helpful way of looking at it! Our floors are hardwood (red oak) and we will be resurfacing after the layout changes so we will probably be choosing stains on the spot and I may be back here for advice haha

Will advise you not to settle. If you can't find exactly what you are looking for you should keep looking until you do.

@dada139 thank you! I do too. My thinking right now is a very middle of the road stain on quarter sawn oak shaker (maybe shaker with a bevel) cabinet faces. I was thinking soapstone is so smooth that the oak brings the texture - but visually do you think that is too much? Our kitchen layout only allows for uppers on one side wall so I thought a warm white wall and the openness and high ceilings of the adjacent room would keep things balanced. But I am no expert!

@herbflavor these are two pictures of the same slab, the second one is also super gorgeous (and my husband’s favorite) but I just love the green in this one. The upside is I love them both! The downside is I’m struggling to choose.

Show us the layout of the kitchen and where counters will be placed. A fantastic stone gets cut into pieces and parsed out throughout a room. Where would the features land of the stone you love so much?

Also wondering if the mint-y green is too polarizing. I’m sure it’s not to everyone’s taste.

Your kitchen need not be everyone's taste. It needs to be YOUR taste. You clearly love the minty veining. How nice to find something you like so much.

When I went looking for soaptone, some 11 years ago, I gravitated towards slabs with green veining. I also knew I wanted a very hard variety…one that wouldn’t chip or scratch easily.

I found the perfect slab at M. Teixeira, the largest soapstone dealer in the US. They specialize in soapstone, with hundreds of slabs to choose from on premises. With their guidance, I found a gorgeous slab of Belvedere. It has dramatic white and turquoise-y veins in some sections, and more subtle veins in others.

Now going on 10 years old, the kitchen still makes me smile. As my husband often said, ”the soapstone is the best thing we did.” So easy to care for, and the counters don’t have to babied. As Belvedere is an extremely hard variety, it’s almost impossible to scratch. I still marvel at the beautiful veins, and how they change as the counter patinas.

My advice: Test the slabs you’re considering for hardness. If you can scratch the slab with your fingernail or a coin, keep looking.

And, don’t let what others may think, influence your decision. If minty green veins are what you love, then get what makes you happy. Your the one who will be in the kitchen day in, day out. You don't want to regret the final outcome, because you succumbed to the opinions of others

Heck, if I’d followed the herd, and did a kitchen that was the trend, I’d have wound up with a white on white kitchen, with poorly-imitating-marble quartz counters...and, been miserable.

P.S. soapstone varieties containing green, usually rate higher on the hardness scale…which is a good thing. But, test!

Oooh I love the second slab. The first slab is wonderful too, but I like the pattern in the second better. I like @Kendrah's advice to be mindful of the layout and where patterns and seams will fall. (I think the "Z" vein in the first piece is throwing me off a bit.) Also, is one slab enough?

The good news is that both slabs are lovely, so you really can't go wrong. But if you choose the second slab, you could add something minty somewhere else (like the toaster below.)

They look very similar to the soapstone that is in our current kitchen. I do not know what type it is as the last owners installed it.

These pictures highlight the green and the veining but when you see our counters irl the veining is not very pronounced and the green is very subtle, the overall look is dark gray, almost black and not busy at all.

If the slabs you are looking at are similar to what we have then the stone is very hard, it is great for counters. Even with the slabs being of the hard variety, they have been easy to work with. When we bought our current house the counters were highly polished and I sanded them down by hand to get a matte finish. I had Old Dominion soapstone in our last kitchen and it was softer and more gray, it showed marks and patina more than this type of soapstone and was much easier to dent and chip.

I like all soapstone varieties, but agree with you on loving a little hint of a turquoise green in the veining or elsewhere. You mention not seeing similar examples online. I think that's because of what s m describes so well : when you see the counters irl, the veining isn't so pronounced and the green is very subtle. The overall look is dark grey, almost black and not busy at all. s m's photos capture the green very nicely.

I have similar soapstone with turquoise/green veining but I can't capture it so well in photos. I can see it best when I am standing a few feet away (or closer) and especially when the counter is wet. My soapstone is called PA Original (also known as Stormy Black).

I really like all 3 photos you have posted. The first two photos (in your original post) are from the same slab (one from a distance and one close up). The third photo you posted is from the second slab you are considering...correct?

The two slabs are beautiful.

Keep us posted on which you decide on and follow up with progress reports!

A lighter, veiny soapstone with minty/green veining can absolutely work — and it can be beautiful with medium-tone oak and brass. It won’t read like the classic deep, moody soapstone, but that’s not a negative — it’s a distinctive look. The main questions are practical (is the slab sound?) and stylistic (do you want the green as an accent or a dominant note?). Both are solvable.

I love both stones, and was hoping the darbuka would comment. Her kitchen is exquisite, and she's very knowledgeable about soapstone. I always find that if I keep coming back to anything decor-wise, be it stone, fabric, wallpaper, paint color, then it's probably meant for me. So select the one that both you and your husband agree on, and you'll love it forever.