Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Soapstone vs. honed granite

My friend, Alyssa, an interior designer (is that right Alyssa) gave me her opinion on soapstone vs. granite.  I want the look of soapstone, uniform color, charcoal gray, square edges, not too polished and shiny.  I think we are going to go with honed dark grnite and get it cut with square edges.  I really want soapstone but everyone says it dings, could I live with dings?  I don't know, I'd love to see one in a real kitchen. 

Her thoughts:
I love soapstone too - it is gorgeous! I don't tend to specify it much because it requires a lot of maintenance and it scratches easily. Granite you only have to seal once a year, whereas soapstone you need to wipe down with mineral oil once a week for the first year and maybe 4 times a year after that. It also tends t...o scratch/chip easily - so it tends to be better as a 'museum' than a work space. Granite is much denser, so you don't have to worry about the chipping/scratching. I saw a gorgeous honed granite the other day that was dark grey with some white movement to it and looked soft like soapstone. I'll find out what it was for you.

Check out her blog, I think her favorite topic is kitchens!  Thanks Alyssa.

http://persephoneirenedesign.blogspot.com/

6 comments:

  1. Granite is harder than soapstone, but NOT denser. Soapstone is the most dense of the natural stones. I love soapstone too, and would like to have it for our kitchen when we get to remodel. You should also look into the recycled paper countertops. The black ones look just like soapstone, but they're much lighter and easier to work with. PaperStone is one of the brands.

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  2. Thanks for the correction Helen. Sorry to misinform - from my notes at a seminar but it was early and I had minimal coffee! Recycled paper is nice.. I had also thought of poured concrete, just haven't used either yet. We're in a world of carrara marble here in my market.

    Kandace- Honed Nordic Black Antique granite was the granite I loved. You could also use soapstone in a less worked area -we've used it for more shallow perimeter tops that don't get used as much for work space. I like to mix my surfaces and my cabinet finishes.

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  3. Thanks to both of you! I am just amazed and excited that I have readers that I don't know!!! :)

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  4. The folks at Enon Hall used soapstone and love their countertops. They talk about the kitchen countertops in the Feb & March 2007 entries.

    http://www.enonhall.com/

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  5. my parents went through this when choosing their counters. can't remember what it is they got but i love their counters more than any other i have come across. facebook my mom and ask her what they are...

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  6. woowoomama, your parents have soapstone, I was admiring it last time I was over.

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