Do yourself a favor and don't get marble. It's a bathroom and there's a lot going on there that could etch or stain marble, and soon it won't look like the beautiful stone you bought.

Don't let them tell you a stone is quartzite, and then you'll see it etches because it's really marble. Before you buy, try scratching it with glass. Pour on some lemon juice and see what happens. Here's a link.

I was at a slab yard yesterday and they had the porcelain marble and the real marble set up right next to each other. Your pictures look like the exact stones I was looking at. I much prefer the look of real marble, but know I would be sad if it got etched, etc., so I will not let myself go in that direction.

Interestingly, I put leathered Fantasy Brown marble in both of my kids bathrooms 3.5 years ago. (At the time I was less informed so when the slab people said it was granite I believed them.) Fortunately, we have had no issues with that. But my kids are both boys and they don't use any "product" and I put a clear tray on the counter to hold their electric toothbrushes and their water glasses.

In a shower where marble is desired, I'll almost always recommend a porcelain that looks like marble.

For a countertop, you have to accept what marble will give you. It can be stunning, it can be etched, stained and chipped, it can require more maintenance and care than a porcelain.

In a kid's bathroom where they may not care? Porcelain.

In a master where the adults will either take care of it, or accept what comes with it? Marble if that's your true desire.

The safer choice is always good looking porcelain.

No matter where you are using it, if you care what it looks like, don't go for real marble, go for porcelain tile and man made quartz. If you don't mind etching or stains or having to do poultices for stains, and consider them to be "patina," then you may be suited for real marble. I have had neither, but I have read the bathroom forum for many years, and this is what I have learned.

The first looks fine, the second looks beautiful. But it is a bathroom. Marble is a porous soft stone, some can live with the patina, most can not.

By the way, a solid, quiet splashback would be better with either.