May 8, 05: Stoners, soapstone suck light out of room

Stoners, soapstone suck light out of room

Posted by edwena (My Page) on Sun, May 8, 05 at 14:46

I have a fairly light kitchen and am planning soapstone on island and lengthwise wall counter. Not an L. A furniture piece will be on other part of L wall and will be carera. Will the matt black soapstone suck out the light? My daughter-in law suggested carara on the island (sink is there). What do you think.

Thanks

Follow-Up Postings:

RE: Stoners, soapstone suck light out of room

I have white cabinets and my soapstone is being installed Tuesday. I am also putting carrara marble on my island, which I am so excited about. I guess it is the reverse of what you are doing. I'm not sure where your eye will be drawn if your island is ss or marble.

RE: Stoners, soapstone suck light out of room

We have all soapstone counters, nine feet on each perimeter run, plus 8 foot island, plus peninsula. Since the cabinets are light, there is no problem. We have no windows, but we do have a central skylight over the island.

RE: Stoners, soapstone suck light out of room

Edwena - I think you're wise to be cautious on this point. Soapstone is dark and matte-finish, so it does tend to make the room much darker.

We recently installed soapstone in our bar area. Before the soapstone went in, my DH said he thought the bar light fixture was WAY too bright and that we needed to install a dimmer. After the dimmer was installed and the soapstone went in and was oiled, I turned on the lights and DH said how much better the bar looked "now that the lights weren't so bright." Little did he know, the dimmer was turned up to full brightness. The soapstone absorbed enough of the light to make it look perfect.

RE: Stoners, soapstone suck light out of room

This is a good point. We have soapstone on a long counter and a 9' island. The room has a big window, but that side of the house is a little dark at certain times of day, and we find ourselves using the lights a lot. It has occurred to me that the room might have been a bit brighter if we hadn't gone with matte black countertops. But it's really not bad.

We would have loved to go with carrera marble for the island, and actually considered it at one point, but I just didn't think our housekeeping skills were up to it. I don't regret that decision, either -- we have carrera elsewhere in the house, and I really do think soapstone is more easy-care.

My DH might disagree about the regrets though. As we found out, soapstone is definitely not as nice as marble for rolling out dough.

RE: Stoners, soapstone suck light out of room

Those that feel that their kitchen is darker because of the matt black soapstone, do you notice the darkness more during the day, or at night?

Thanks

RE: Stoners, soapstone suck light out of room

Easy enough to add more lighting for night use: the big question is, does the room have enough natural light during the day that artificial light isn't needed?

If its super bright, no prob, and if its already too dark, you'd just as well go for what you want and resign yourself to running the lights pretty much all the time. OTOH, if its borderline, you may need to spend some time balancing your options: large swaths of near black will make the room seem darker. It may be worth it, though I personally hate having to turn on the lights in the daytime.

Issues like floor, wall and ceiling colors, window treatments, etc. will all play a role here.

Since [I think] we're talking about a room that already exists, you could 'test drive' the light level by covering the counters with a very dark wrapping paper or the like...

RE: Stoners, soapstone suck light out of room

To be honest, I really don't notice it much -- and not every day -- mainly just on dark, rainy days, which we've had a lot of lately. It's a fairly light room anyway, and we have light colored cabinets on the perimeter, which helps offset the counters.

I should probably mention that the rest of my house is done in pastels. I'm not used to decorating in black and grey tones. (And on an everyday basis, my soapstone is really more of a matte charcoal color, not a black.)

posted by starpooh @ 9:11 PM   0 comments

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