I have tile in my family room which leads out to the pool. I currently have it covered with a large rug because too many people, me included, fell on their butt because the tile gets slippery when wet. I hate it and am so sorry I got rid of the wood floor. It's cold too. My dogs love it though because they can lay on their bellies and keep themselves cooler in the summer.

kswl - Do you have a picture? A pale travertine is something I thought about, but I didn't know if the pale color would show more dirt than a darker color.

I think Allison has travertine in her family room. You may want to give a shout out to her. It looks really nice.

We do, it was from the PO. I am not sure i have a photo that shows the floor, and we have an area rug over it. I find it a nice neutral background. Although arguably out of place in CT, our living room is an ocatgon with 5 sides of windows, so it has almost a sun room feel and that is why I think it works.
Ours is very pale and I think a Versailles pattern?

What climate are you in? We have radiant heat, which I think is important if you are using it in a climate like ours.

I will take a picture tomorrow.

I live in Texas and it does get cold in the winter, but our winters are much shorter than yours, so hopefully I would be okay without the heat.

We have vein cut travertine tile. No radiant heat :-(, but we did have a gas insert installed in our fp, and that thing really warms up the downstairs, and quickly when it's turned on.

We are very happy with the way the floor turned out. No regrets. Yes, carpeting would be warmer, but the travertine should hold up better in the long run.

Here is a link that might be useful: cat_mom's FR

I live in Florida now and installed wood-looking tile in our family room. Love it, don't have to worry about spills and scratches. It looks so much like wood, I get complements all the time on what beautiful wood floors!

I do have 'real wood' in my living-room and dining-room. I put tile in all the bedrooms and baths as well. Easy to keep clean.

Jane

We installed large format porcelain tiles in our family room. They mimic slate. This room is on the lower level of our split level and includes the entry way(which we also tiled). The room also has sliders to the patio/pool area so tile was a good choice for us.
I love the tile. It's easy to care for, looks great and is not cold at all. We do have an area rug in the seating area.

cat_mom - How pretty! I don't think I've ever seen travertine like that.

jane_ny - I'd love to see pictures of your wood tile if you have any. My mother is also thinking about getting rid of her carpet and one of the flooring stores mentioned the wood tile to her, but we've never seen it in anyone's house. Have you had any chips in it? We were wondering it it was a dark color and got a chip in it, if the chip would be white.

I'd love to see pictures that anyone else has to post!

No pictures?

Cat-mom - don't think I've ever seen pics before of your room but I love that flooring. Looks kind of like wood, but very sleek.

Thank you both! The tile is vein cut Ocean Beige travertine from Artistic Tile. It is technically Silver travertine, but the type that looks like ours (more creams and beige and brown tones along with the dk grey and black streaks, than the mostly silvery-greys that is typical) is only available from one particular quarry in Italy, and Artistic Tile has exclusive rights to it (?). Someone on this forum used either Ocean Beige or Ocean Blue for their FP surround. A truly swoon-worthy FP surround!

Most people think our floor is wood when they see pics of the FR, and some even think it is in person. Everyone is surprised to find out that it is stone. It's a very dense stone, so didnt require more than one coat of sealer if I recall. it is easily cleaned with a sponge mop.

I have tile in my family room/den (and most of the house) because I have large dogs. It's cleaner than carpet, less maintenance, and its certainly not "cold" because I have heat mats underneath the tile. I also have a large rug in the den over it -- but again, its easier to clean that one rug than the whole room.

Just seeing your question now, msrose. Will take a photo in the am.

Thank you Cindyandmocha! That's exactly my reason for going all tile....my dogs.

I think the new wood look tiles are great looking. I wish I had somewhere to use them. I would do those in heartbeat! They look soooo real - but yet would take a beating. Doesn't travertine have some negative attributes?

I think the new wood look tiles are great looking. I wish I had somewhere to use them. I would do those in heartbeat! They look soooo real - but yet would take a beating. Doesn't travertine have some negative attributes?

jeannie01 - That's a good question. It does seem like I've heard travertine is more maintenance. Can anyone tell me what that means? One of the flooring stores I went to mentioned there are alot of porcelain tiles out there that look like travertine, but I haven't done any serious shopping yet to see if it looks like the real deal.

I don't see any maintenance issues at all w travertine.

Here are photos FWIW

Like I said, our floor(s) is very easily cleaned with a sponge mop. I have found that some travertines are more sensitive to etching. For ex., the travertine in our guest bathroom etches most easily. The tiniest droplet of TB cleaner or Lysol tub cleaner (or pee!), wiped up within seconds of hitting the floor, will often leave a small dull spot (which is easily "buffed" out with a green scrubbie, BTW). The travertine in our hall bath is much, much less sensitive, and appears to not etch as readily, if at all (so far). The FR travertine also appears to be very dense, and less prone towards stains or etches.

We had the same travertine that is in the guest bathroom , in our entryway from the garage. We didn't baby it in the least, and only swapped it out in order to have a continuous run of the tile that is now in the FR. We don't remove our shoes when coming in from the garage, and tracked in our fair share of dirt and grit, and slid bags and boxes across the tile when bringing in stuff from garage. The old travertine did scratch, but they were all surface scratches. I camouflaged them with a colored permanent marker (buffing away any excess with a piece of fine steel wool), and they were barely detectable if at all.

Travertine tile can always be professionally polished/re-honed if necessary anyway. So that is something to keep in mind. We don't find our floors to be a big deal maintenance-wise beyond avoiding placing bottles/containers of caustic materials directly on them. We avoid doing so on our wood floors, as well.

Here are some photos of our DR floor:

The close up shows a lot of color variation:

But when you look at it in context it appears like this:

It has cracks in a few of the perimeter tiles which, oddly, don't bother me at all. You can see into the entrance a little bit where there is a rug on this same tile. The PO put it in, tearing up wood to do so. I have no idea how it is cleaned but will ask HK if she uses anything special.

We have two bathrooms with travertine very similar to the color of mtnredux's photo and it is very neutral also.

mtnrdredux - I've noticed when I see the smooth travertine like yours, it always has such small grout lines. Do they use small spacers or do they put the tile right next to each other. The good thing is you wouldn't have to worry about stains in the grout showing up.

kswl- Yours looks like it would be great at hiding dirt even though it's a light color. I really like the little diamonds.

Thank you both for the pictures!

Interesting point, MsRose. I don't know since it was already here. But I think you need to grout? I like very small grout lines in most applications --- unless you are going rustic.

you're welcome, hth!