As lovely as a marble countertop can look, there’s always one issue:

Stains.

“You install it and the first week it looks great but after that it doesn’t hold up so well, even if you seal it,” says Bob Paradiso, vice president of sales and marketing at Hanstone. “You pour something on it and it will hold that stain.”

But this month, Hanstone is introducing an engineered stone product line called the Cascina Collection.

Et voila! It looks remarkably like marble, but it’s made of stain- and scratch-resistant quartz. It’s also a durable, non-porous and heat-resistant countertop that’s easy to maintain.

“‘What’s different is that it incorporates the strength of quartz and it doesn’t need a sealer,” he says. “And the design of it incorporates a veining technique that you can’t find in natural stone – and that’s where the demand is going today.”

Response from the design community has been positive, with white still the preferred look, though off-white is also popular, with a gray or dark veining the favorite.

“The architects and interior designers want a heavy veining like our Italian Wave,” he says. “The lighter is the Classic Statue.”

The pricing is right, too. The Cascina Collection leans toward the mid-range. Depending on thickness and edge, it’s $60 to 75 per square foot at two centimeters, and $65 to $90 per square foot at three.

“Marble might be a little higher, but this is comparable,” he says. “People want it because there’s very little maintenance, it has a beautiful design, and it lasts.”

In other words, it’s got the right look – but all it needs is a wet wipe at the end of the day.

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