I don't know why it gets a bad rep. I guess because it CAN look cheesy and cheap. We have it in our upstairs bathrooms and I love it because it's so easy to maintain. We have a cream and white- you can barely see any color/texture. Just enough to keep it from being too flat and generic looking. It's not as 'pretty' as perfectly maintained tile but I've not seen much 'perfectly maintained' tile. I HAVE seen a lot of once-pretty tile gone bad. And it doesn't take much to get from one state to the next.

We are now putting in a basement bathroom and I'm likely to go with Swanstone. It is available at a decent price through Lowe's and doesn't have that super shiny finish that cultured marble and some cultured granite has. The more satin finish I think looks better as does the granite texture- but it's personal perference for sure. If you go with the regular cultured marble, I'd recommend the cream on white type since the marble looks kind of yucky if there is more contrast between the two colors ie. medium brown swirls with a white background.

I'm actually considering an off-white colored Swanstone beadboard for the tub surround for downstairs. There will be beadboard in the rest of the bathroom and doing that in the tub will enable me to do the actual tub deck and vanity top in granite without introducing too many patterns- I think. I might change my mind still! LOL!

If you are able to DIY, tile is probably cheaper than a solid surface surround unless you are using really expensive tiles.

Also, much depends on your local market. In some areas cultured marble is very acceptable up to even high RE pricepoints; in others, it is only acceptable in lower market or starter homes.

However, resale is a factor only if you plan to sell your home. If you don't plan to sell anytime soon, getting what you want is a lot more satisfying.

For us, since we know we will eventually sell the house, just don't know exactly when - say, 5-10 yrs, we always keep local resale in mind, balancing it with what we want. Ends up being a 50-50 mix for us. You need to decide what's important for you, since local markets differ so much. Talk to a local RE agent if you have any uncertainties, they're a fount of useful information.

We chose cultured granite for our shower walls and tub surround because we felt "solid walls" would be easier to maintain than tiled walls. Our cultured granite is off-white with tiny granite specks.

We then splurged on a frameless shower door, with baroque glass, so the shower walls can't be seen through the glass.

We chose granite for the vanity countertop. We weren't sure if the cultured granite would look "cheap," but since both are not next to each other, it looks alright.

We don't plan on moving anytime soon and so our decisions were based on what we felt would work best for us.

Well crap. Strike the Swanstone with a beadboard texture. Cool as it would look, at a cost of nearly $2000- just for the surround, not going to happen. Back to the regular cultured granite I guess.

Cultured granite is ok. Stay away from the milky solid colors of cultured marbles. They can stain really easy.

My last house had ivory colored cultured marble on the vanity, and it was pretty. My current house has black cultured marble and we *hate* it because it shows water spots, scratches and soap film. I think it might be okay on a vertical surface, but I really think it's a pain as a vanity top.

I love the look of tile showers, but didn't want the maintenance. We put CM in the new shower and also splurged on a frameless door with a rain design.

We have a CM vanity top in the original bath and when it comes time to redo that bathroom I'll be replacing it with granite or quartz. The finish has worn with 15 years of use. On the other hand, the CM shower walls in that bath look almost like new after I clean them with Gel Gloss.