If you're building or renovating a kitchen, you have more countertop choices than ever. Some high-end materials, like stone, have gotten cheaper, and budget counters are looking more like stone. The natural look is big, but so are the bright, bold colors possible with innovative materials like engineered stone and concrete. All those options might explain another recent countertop trend: combining styles.

kitchen countertops can be customized to reflect your personality. Let's say you enjoy hosting parties you can install prep sinks, warming drawers, and countertop steamers to your islands. This allows you to serve and prepare food while conversing with guests.

Artistically inclined people can use the island countertop to serve as a contrast to the kitchen cabinets. Islands can also have unusual shapes or have some parts resemble desks or other furniture. A dual- or triple-level island is suitable for families, with the highest level usually for dining or entertaining. The lower levels of the island can be used as a work space for homework. Islands also can provide more storage space through the addition of cabinets. They can also accommodate microwave ovens to free up more space.

YOu wishes for cooking counter space in your kitchen can be further fulfilled by installing two islands. One can have a marble counter top for rolling dough, for instance, while the other can have a wood counter top suitable for cutting foods.

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Hear the words "concrete countertop," and the image that likely comes to mind is of a cold, modern Soho loft inhabited by a nihilist artist or an avant-garde architect. Well, shove that picture right out of your head. "A lot of people associate concrete countertops with a dull, industrial look," says Christian Lincoln, owner of Counter Culture Concrete in Saugerties, New York. "But half of my clients these days are putting them in older houses."

Since just about any pigment can be added to the mix, the possibilities are endless. In addition to limitless color choices, it can be poured into just about any shape, troweled to any texture, and given any edge profile, so it looks at home in a wide variety of spaces. And because each countertop is handcrafted, it has an artisanal quality that other manufactured materials lack.

Growing popularity has assured that you can find pros who make and install concrete countertops nearly anywhere. Expect to pay $75 to $150 per square foot, about on par with granite.