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Quartz vs Granite for Bathroom Vanity

Choosing between granite or quartz is an important decision when deciding the right material for your bathroom vanity.  Some of the important considerations include price, design, look, feel, durability and maintenance. 

This article will walk through those main considerations and provide some recommendations for your next bathroom vanity. 

Granite is a high quality and extremely popular countertop for your kitchen.  However because we are looking at bathroom vanities, there are a few important differences that make quartz bathroom vanities a much stronger option. 

In order to understand why many people prefer quartz rather than granite bathroom vanities, you need to understand the main considerations.

Appearance & Maintenance 

Granite is made from pure stone.  The stone is cut and sawed into the desired shape. The granite is then cleaned and polished to bring out the natural stone beauty.

In order to maintain the natural granite appearance of your bathroom vanity, it is important to annually to stain the granite. 

Keeping an annual staining schedule on a granite kitchen countertop is a little easier.  Your kitchen countertop is a larger space and represents a primary centerpiece in your kitchen. 

On the other hand, a granite bathroom vanity is hidden in your bathroom and represents a much smaller sized space.  This makes it much easier to delay and defer required maintenance on your granite bathroom vanity.

Quartz Bathroom Vanity Maintenance

Ella Bathroom Vanity

Quartz countertops are made with engineered stone.  The primary benefit of quartz bathroom vanity countertops is that engineered stone is far more durable and does not require the annual maintenance that granite requires. 

Ella Bathroom Vanities with quartz countertops do not require annual resealing.

This means that you don’t need to worry about keeping up with annual staining on your quartz bathroom vanity.  The benefit is that quartz countertop looks just as nice as granite, but doesn’t require all that extra work to keep it looking nice.

The appearance and style of your bathroom vanity is also important.  Bathroom vanity cabinets are available in multiple colors and include a choice of drawers vs doors.

Additional Durability Considerations

Because granite is made of natural stone, it has the potential to crack and chip much more easily than quartz. 

If you think about being half asleep in the morning and the high potential of dropping something on your bathroom vanity after getting out of the shower, just imagine how you would feel if that causes a big crack or chip in your granite bathroom vanity. 

On the other hand, a sold quartz bathroom vanity won’t have the same potential for cracking and chipping if you happen to haphazardly drop a few things on the bathroom vanity during your morning routine.

The overall lifespan of a granite vanity is very similar to a quartz vanity.  You should expect anywhere from 25 to 50 years for both granite and quartz bathroom vanities.

Colors

Ella quartz bathroom vanity

Granite countertops offer some amazing natural colors that show tremendously in the light.  Expect to see colors ranging from blues, greens, rose, and various earth tones. 

Quartz offers some extremely nice colors as well, but the big difference is that you have a much wider array of quartz colors to choose from because the colors can be added directly to the quartz during the engineering process.

Our collection of 25 inch bathroom vanities with sinks include six different quartz countertop colors.

Porous vs Non-Porous

Ella Bathroom Vanity

Since quartz is an engineered material, quartz bathroom vanities are non-porous.  This means that water can’t gradually seep into the quartz and damage the material.  As a result quartz topped bathroom vanities like this hold up extremely well in a naturally wet environment like your bathroom.

In comparison, granite is a porous material.  This means that a granite bathroom vanity runs the risk of having water stains and gradually warping the material.  You can minimize this issue by immediately cleaning off the water from your bathroom vanity.

Cost

Granite and Quartz have very similar cost ranges.  On the low end, both granite and quartz start at approx. $80 per square foot.  However as you move up in quality, the cost of granite gradually starts to exceed the cost of quartz on a square foot basis.  

High end quartz tops out at approx. $140 per square foot, while the top range of granite can run close to $180 per square foot.

Final Recommendations

Granite is an amazingly beautiful material to use for your countertop.  I really like granite for my kitchen countertops.  The natural stone material can really stand out and make your kitchen shine. 

However, for my bathroom vanity, I prefer a quartz bathroom vanity.  The most important factors include the limited maintenance required for quartz, the ability for quartz to withstand the naturally wet environment of a bathroom, and the increased durability associated with a quartz bathroom vanity.