Well hope I'm not too late but....we installed Brazillian Walnut in our kitchen and dining room and we've been really happy with it. I don't have the problem of everything showing on this floor any more than on the oak we have in some other areas. The planks have some variation in color so maybe that's why. This is a very solid hard (like teak) wood. We got it at Lumber Liquidators (Bella wood) and installed it ourselves, but they have installers they can recommend too (if you don't have one already). The first is a more recent pic, the floor is 10 years old. One huge plus with this particular floor is that it is not stained, it's this color all the way through so it will always look like this. When the time comes all we have to do is lightly sand it and revarnish. No staining involved. Furniture wise, our house insn't real large, so we just have pieces we love, an old farm table I've refurbished and an old cabinet both painted white. I don't think a floor type necessarily limits you, especially if it's wood.

I hope that floor finishong techniques have progressed since the last time those pickled floors were "in"!!! We were home shopping during that time, and the finish on every floor we saw was horrible! I have had theseinexpensive hickory floors for 5 years now, complete with " cabin grade, (no warranty)" finish, and I cannot complain about them at all. Everyone who comes in comments on them, and my realtor cousin's FIRST comment was, "These floors alone would sell this house!"..... So maybe they are trendy....all I know is, I like them!

HI joshua123, The kitchen tile is from Pratt & Larson. It is a custom waterjet mosaic piece in marble. The color is a dark grey with a lot of variation. the exact color is bardiglio. the white boarder and interior boarded are snow white marble. kathy and Micah at pratt & lason were extremely helpful finding exactly what I wanted for our kitchen. I'll have to post a couple more pictures from a sunny day, as the ones I have posted dont really reflect the real colors. as far as style and mosaics being dated or not, I'm a firm believer that you should go with what you love and what speaks to you. you are going to be living in the house and walking into that kitchen every day. I dont think our kitchen mosaic looks dated at all, but I'm also not a designer. I can tell you it makes me happy when I walk in to make my morning coffee in that room. I did consider using more of that tile to cover the entire backspace area from the cooktop to the hood, as diana illustrated in some of her photos, to really give it a more modern look, but it was too expensive to justify in this house.

@chispa I certainly do love the floors :) I actually chose it. I love the cozy feel it gives :) @Beverly Yes, I agree! However, we don't want to get rid of the sofa since it's pretty new. We purchased a leather sofa because we thought it would be less of a hassle dealing with the dog hair compared to having a fabric sofa. ------ Update: I have moved the rug to our guest bedroom and it works great! I will try finding rugs per your advice and post an updated photo. Stay tuned! We definitely are learning that the pieces we have are beautiful on their own, but it doesn't mean it all fits together. My father has told me many times - "Everything (furniture/art/etc) has beauty, it just needs to be in the right place."