adi1972 - thanks for that pic. Is it real slate? We are still in the planning phase, working with our architect on drawings, but I think the dimensions will be approx 8 x 13 ish with a soaking tub centered on the 8ft side under a double window. There may be a skylight too, and possibly a smaller window on the longer side also above the tub. However, the large window faces east and out into the woods, so we get very little direct sun from that window. The south facing window would have to be high and small because that side looks right into the neighbors deck. We want the slate (or slate look alike) tile for the tub surround and the stand alone shower (all three walls tiled, hopeuflly with frameless glass doors) and possibly the floor. Does anyone have pics of porcelain tile that looks like slate? Can you buy it multi-colored or do you have to get boxes of individual colored tiles and randomly place them yourself? Is there a big price diff between real slate and porcelain? One of our biggest issues with this project is trying to keep our finish materials cost down so we don't outprice ourselves out of our neighborhood. (Although we are planning on staying here long term). DH will hopefully be able to do a lot of the finish stuff himself (he can tile, dry wall, install cabs, etc) IF he can find the time to do it outside of work. He typically works 60-70+ hours a week...

Thank you, mongoct, for your professional opinion. It is very encouraging to know that the slate is likely fairly high quality since it survived honing. This was the first time I'd seen honed slate and I really like the look. I'm considering ordering a box of the tile soon so I can see whether I like the variation in the stone (beyond just the single sample tile) and so I can see how things look if I try layout the tile in my space. If I do go with this tile and the variations look similar enough, I think charcoal grout will look fantastic. The tile seems to have a mixture of dark charcoal and silver colors. I think going with a grout that matches the darker colors will be durable and hopefully allow the silver to really showcase in the tile. yillimuh, you have a beautiful bathroom! I love it! What variety of slate is that? If you have any pictures of the master bathroom, I would love to see that as well. That is very encouraging that after two years of normal usage it still looks as stunning. Also, is there a difference between just honed and honed and polished? The sample I have at home is very smooth and I'm wondering if it is somehow also polished or if that's just how the stone looks when it's honed. (I borrowed this sample from my brother so I haven't been able to interrogate the tile store employees.)

What a wonder site and thank you to each one of you for your contribution. We are avid DIY'ers and done floors from hardwood to ceramic and porcelain, but never slate or any other stone or marble. The picture I posted (hopefully the picture posts properly) is of a portion of a home we did in a porcelain tile that mimicked a natural stone wonderfully and we considered using this same porcelain in our present home, but I've now seen a travertine tile that amplifies exactly what we loved about this particular porcelain so much and I can't seem to shake it. Even the cons that I've read I feel are worth accepting because this travertine is so beautiful. Can anyone tell me........if you seal the floor as instructed and you were to spill something (say some pickled beet juice), but wipe it up reasonably quickly, will it STILL stain??? Also, we have shied away from using hardwood under the dining table area because we are afraid of it being scratched from the chairs regardless of the fact that we have pads under the legs - does anyone out there have experience with travertine under their dining table and did / do the chairs scratch the flooring? I am truly attached to this travertine and really hope that we can make this work, but if it really is NOT practical, then the logical side of me will dictate that we do not use it (sniff, sniff) and perhaps we'll use the same porcelain we used before. One more question though.......I've heard that travertine can be sealed and then a finish can be applied that will give it a nice gloss (similar to a glossy porcelain tile) now is this true and does anyone have experience with this? The "flat" finish on the porcelain tile was probably the only thing that we didn't care for about it as we do like a gloss although I would probably forego that too for these travertine tiles. BTW.......we think the most beautiful thing about the travertine is the highly irregular patterns and colouring as the background is basically a mix of bright white and creamy white, the striations and streaks and lines and "blobs" of rusty orange, gray and even a bit of maroon are unbelievably BEAUTIFUL !!!!

I bought a case of fifteen 12x12 tiles and laid them out on the floor. I also thought the overall impression was very green. I didn't think it looked anything like jejvtr's floor - which I would have been very happy with. It was a pretty darn good imitation of slate texture though. I ended up going with Dal's French Quarter in a mixture of colorways. It doesn't look like slate, but the overall color impression is closer to what I was looking for.