You can not bleach marble. Marble tiles must be sealed. Porcelain is impervious to everything can not etch or stain.. Will they look the SAME? NO. Because one is porcelain and made by man, and the earth and mother nature created the marble. A giraffe is not an elephant. Despite both are animals.

Thus it depends your level of care, your preference with regards to that, and what will make you happy. And your budget.

More important than that dilemma is your layout, waterproofing of the shower,,,,,,,etc.

Marble........

Not Marble:

I used porcelain and love it

I need more info. Are you using this for floor and shower walls too ? I love real marble but there are some things you need to understand. If dying your hair is something you do the marble could be an issue. As for thesize of the tile that size that you want is only going to work with a very good tile setter since that size tile needs a real pro . I agree the waterproofing in the shower is the first item to address , all the pretty in the world will not work if you have improper waterproofing.. I do love the look of a marble bathroom , we stay in Rome has the whole bathroom done in cararra marble , walls, floors shower and it has been there since early mid 20th century and looks amazing so for me it would be marble

Thanks everyone! Very helpful. I understand they look different. That's my issue: i really like the marble. I am willing to seal annually, but since I am planning to use on the walls and the floors (but maybe not on shower pan) - i am concerned whether it would get stained/ruined just because it is bathroom and has to be cleaned and santizied. People have been using marble for years. No? How do they do it?

Marble has been used for millennia but today, many don’t appreciate or desire the patina it develops over time. For that reason it needs more upkeep. If you don’t want the patina or want to care for the marble, porcelain is a good alternative and there are some pretty good and realistic designs out there to choose from now. Best of luck

I'd avoid natural stone of any kind in a bathroom as it's soft and porous and there are lots of examples of problems with staining. Stick to porcelain as you know how it will perform.

I love natural materials also. I have remodeled four bathrooms. I used real marble on the floor in one bathroom and lived to regret it. I had a boy child and I don't know how to say this delicately, but etching occurred around the toilet. Now I only use marble on countertops in master baths. Porcelain is fantastically durable and low maintenance. I used a travertine porcelain look alike in my previous master bath and it looked great. Most people thought it was real travertine.

Make sure that your tile setter is not inexperienced and doesn't line up the veining in an unattractive way. Check it before it's grouted. I have seen posts on this site showing horrible layouts. At that point the poster is unhappy with the results and looking for a redo.

I remodeled recently and have marble counter and floors in my bathroom.

I was worried about maintenance and so I looked at the manmade stuff but didn't like the way it looked. Marble is beautiful and organic.

In my experience, mainteance isn't a problem at all. I only stock products that are safe for marble which includes my toilet bowl cleaner and the glass cleaner for the mirrors. These products were recommended by Dragonfly who is a tile/stone professional and posts here frequently. Since the toilet bowl cleaner is recommended for the finish of my Toto toilet, it is a win win.

Of course I also exercise what I would call normal precautions - I don't dye my hair in the shower but I never dyed my hair at home anyway. I am not a farmer or paving roads so that I am not scrubbing off copious amounts of embedded grime when I shower and I also use liquid soap instead of bar soap but I always have since I hate bar soap in the shower. FWIW liquid shower soap is recommended for any kind of tile shower - not just marble.

Yes marble has to be sealed periodically which is easy to do. You can do it yourself or hire someone.

People talk about etching and I thought that was some kind of horrible unsightly thing and it is just a bit of a place where some of the shine has gone. You can only spot it at certain angles when the light hits it right. And honed marble is what I call pre-etched. 🤣

Anything you choose is going to be a balance of form versus function. Obviously marble is a bit more maintenance than ceramic tile. Tile is probably more maintenance than sheet linoleum. But for a normal adult - at least in my opinion - it's not an issue.

FWIW the problems of marble in a kitchen are also overstated as my friends who have had marble for years have put them to hard use and they still look fine.

There are plenty of beautiful and successful marble bathrooms, but there are also examples of staining and premature failures. The issue is the variability of the product and how it interacts with your particular environment ie water quality, humidity, products you use etc. So I think porcelain is the lower risk material to use. There are lots of potential issues and problems in a bathroom remodel and I think it's best to avoid know potential problem areas.

Bodily fluids, and standard bath cleaning products, and many personal care products, etch marble. Etching is the dissolving if the top layer of the stone. No sealer prevents that from happening.

IMHO all marble bathrooms are reminiscent of a mausoleum.

I went with natural stone (soap stone) for my kitchen counter tops because I knew they would age and show wear and that's what they've done and I like the patina in a working kitchen. I didn't want that in my bathroom and so I used porcelain tile and cultured "marble"...ie stone dust and resin that is pretty inert for the window trim, shower curb and thresholds. I would choose your materials carefully, understanding how they will/might react where you use them.

We are in the middle of a bathroom reno. We had difficulty making the decision for floor and shower walls. we really wanted the least poseible maintence, but something that looked great too. in the end, we ended up going with large (24x48) tiles, marble looking. they just finished laying the floor and its gorgeous.

I have read through so many threads here, even with photos showing marble staining/pulling metals and it turns rusty-looking, or pink or yellow.... I just wouldn't have real marble in a shower. A shower is a VERY expensive thing to change out.

But then, I'm pretty frugal, and a great quality porcelain tile would be good enough for me.

I probably would do marble on a kitchen counter though, and enjoy the patina, but not in my shower.

Marble is a higher end look and a luxury finish that almost all luxury projects receive. I specify marble for all of my high end clients and this is what they expect. Initially, it will need to be sealed several times, possibly 10-15 times for some white marbles! You can opt to use an epoxy grout, which is used in restaurants, to help avoid having to maintain that along with the marble. Then you will need to clean and seal the marble again every 6 months to a year. It is very easy to do on your own with a little time and care. If you are uncomfortable with the long term maintenance of marble, then there are now some decent porcelian tiles out there for consideration but you will have to have a contrasting countertop material. There are large format porcelain tiles that can be used as tile and matching on counters but they are much more expensive in labor to fabricate and the edge often won’t appear as realistic. It can chip and is more difficult to repair than marble or solid surface. Marble can be filled with epoxy and it can be custom colored to match any varation in color or veining. Even with all the hype about low maintenance porcelain tile, I still chose marble for my own home, and that includes white marble kitchen countertops also! I absolutley love walking into my kitchen every morning.

Our daughter has porcelain marble. Art deco building.

You can't just lump all marble as high end or luxury! Plenty of cheap marble from China sold at big box stores!

I was looking for an answer to this question. I always dreamed of real marble on my bathroom floor and cost isn’t an issue (it’s a small bathroom), but after reading this thread I will be choosing porcelain (especially after the etching around the toilet comment). Thanks everyone!