Quartz gives you more design control in a bathroom than in a kitchen, because a vanity is a small surface and you can use a pattern that would be overwhelming across twenty-five square feet of kitchen counter. A dramatic Calacatta-look quartz that we would talk a client out of on a large island is often exactly right on a 60-inch double vanity.

Three directions work consistently in Portland homes:

• Bright white and near-white with soft veining. The spa look, and the practical choice for our climate. Portland bathrooms are frequently interior rooms with one small window and a lot of gray daylight nine months a year. A bright top bounces what light there is and keeps a small bathroom from reading as a cave.

• Warm greige and cream. The fastest-growing request we get. Pairs with the white oak and walnut vanities that have replaced gray-painted cabinetry in Portland remodels, and it hides hard-water spotting better than a stark white does.

• Bold marble-look or dark quartz. Best in a powder room, where the surface is small, the use is light, and the room can afford to be a statement rather than a workhorse.

A few things we tell every client at the showroom. Match the undertone, not the color — a cool blue-white quartz next to warm cream cabinetry will read as a mistake even though both are technically "white." Look at the slab under your own lighting conditions if you can, because Portland's gray north light flattens veining that looked dramatic under showroom halogens. And if you are doing a double vanity from one slab, ask how the two tops will be laid out on it, so the veining runs in a deliberate direction rather than landing randomly.

Finish matters too. Polished is the default and is easiest to wipe down. Honed and matte quartz look excellent in a modern bathroom but show fingerprints and toothpaste residue more readily on dark colors — worth knowing before you commit in a kids' bathroom.