I think the only countertops to be wary of using would be marble or tile with white grouting. Granite, quartz, Corian, or even formica should not give you any trouble with staining.

Hello Arbin, In bath the tiles are usually anti skid and need to have a rough area to avoid accidents/slips. Depending on the water contents of your area you will see marks on them. However, when it comes to floor area , matt finish are easier to mantain for high traffic areas. No doubt glossy tiles provides a better look but it requires more care. If you don't have a big family and can mantain glossy tiles go for it..

Mukti, From what you described, it seems you need a water softener than a hydrophobic coating. Salt based softeners are good for these issues.

The original tiles provided by the builder were 595 x 595 mm. And they were used continuously through the open kitchen and the passage that connected to the bedrooms. Changing tiles in the living room alone up to the edge would have resulted in non-alignment between the old and new tiles. Because currently the closest size available is 600 x600 mm. We did not want to disturb the kitchen tiles which were intact. So what we did was to retain the old tiles on the outer periphery of the living area, and replace the space in the middle with 600mm square tiles laid on the diagonal. So the problem of aligning 595 mm with 600 mm was eliminated. We chose Nitcos's Bianco Beige which is a beautiful mocha and contrasted reasonably well with the original cream tiles. Then we inserted Nitcos's mosaics into the pattern. Then created a simple dark chocolate border with Nitco Cuero to contain the centre 'carpet' pattern