Countertops: stylish and strong.(HOME: BATHROOM MAKEOVERS)

Lower prices are moving limestone, marble, and other natural materials into the bathroom. You'll also see more concrete, granite, and--yes--stainless steel as kitchen preferences migrate.

Home Depot, Lowe's, and other major retailers now sell natural and resin-based, engineered stone for about the same price as Corian and other solid surfacing.

Engineered-stone, solid-surface, and stainless counters are waterproof. Granite and engineered stone should also be able to handle dropped shavers and forgotten curling irons without a fuss. But as our tests confirm, some materials are much less forgiving than others. The details:

Limestone: Pretty but impractical. Even a high-quality sealer didn't keep this soft, porous stone from getting stained by nail-polish remover and other common spills. Twelve of the 19 substances we applied left permanent marks after just 24 hours. As we also found, scratches and dings from our dropped 5-pound weight stood out on its surface.

Marble: Sealing is important. As with granite, most stains that marred unsealed marble wiped away with water on sealed samples. But hard-water-deposit removers left a permanent mark even on sealed stone, as did scrapes and dings.

Stainless: Tough to a point. True to its name, stainless resists most spills. But drain cleaners and hard-water-deposit removers can discolor it, while fingerprints, scratches, and dents are easy to see.

Concrete: Choices but little strength. Concrete can be shaped and colored to suit your space. But it chips and scratches easily Stain resistance depends on the sealer. Topical surface sealers made our counter nearly stainproof, though nail-polish remover dissolved them. Penetrating sealers were less effective for stains but better for heat.