The Kitchen Countertop Material Designers Say You Should Avoid

Picking a countertop isn’t just about aesthetics—it has to work for your lifestyle, too. And if you’ve got kids or just a busy household, some materials can end up being more trouble than they’re worth. According to interior designers, a few popular options are best avoided unless you’re ready for the upkeep.

Here, two pros share which countertops to skip—and what to choose instead if you want something that’s both stylish and kid-friendly.

The Kitchen Countertop Material You Should Avoid

While designer Meredith Owen appreciates marble’s “timeless elegance,” she notes that by no means is the stone going to remain looking flawless over time.

“Marble is incredibly porous, so it tends to absorb spills and stains easily—think juice, pasta sauce, or markers left uncapped (we’ve all been there!),” the designer says. “It also scratches more easily than many realize.”

Another countertop material that you might wish to avoid, especially if you have young children, is butcher block, shares Anastasia Casey, founder of The Interior Collective. While Casey appreciates the look of this material, she calls it “the one living finish that can just be too lived in.”

If you opt for butcher block countertops, you’re going to want to be realistic about all that’s involved in keeping them looking just so. “It requires a lot of regular maintenance like daily cleaning, weekly deep cleans, and deodorization, on top of monthly conditioning and oiling,” Casey says.

But even if you think you can handle the aforementioned care needs associated with butcher block, it’s important to recognize how sensitive this material is in general, particularly when it comes to water, Casey adds.

Kitchen Countertop Materials for Busy Households

Some of the better kitchen countertops to consider for busy or kid-friendly households include quartz and quartzite, Casey and Owen share.

Casey is partial to Caesarstone’s Black Tempal, which she has installed in both her personal home and her design studio. The material “wows me every time,” Casey says. “It looks like soapstone but is a quartz product with a natural finish.”

Owen is also a proponent of quartz. “It’s non-porous, low maintenance, and comes in a wide range of finishes to fit any aesthetic,” she says, calling the material “virtually indestructible.”

When designing for an active household, she also recommends looking into quartzite, which is a natural stone (quartz is engineered). “It gives you that organic, high-end feel with a lot more strength,” she says.

At the end of the day, spills of all kinds are inevitable when raising little ones, but, as Casey puts it, you want to set yourself up for success from the get-go. She says, “Kids should be messy, but you want the messes to be easily cleaned up.”