lolab-It is called Natural Slate Multicolor by Unicom Starker.(I bypassed-thought it was real- it when looking because it's named Natural Slate) I told the flooring guy I wanted a tile that was a good mimic of natural slate. He showed me this. It says natural slate but it is porcelain. It comes in two other colors besides this-Autumn and Winter Here's a link froma quick search showing it's "fake" slate Here is a link that might be useful: porcelain slate tile

Diagonals can indeed look great. I'd simply advise you to do a mock layout with pencil and paper. And probably an eraser too. You don't give the dimensions of your room, and that can be the deciding factor. How the pattern lays out and how you shift it against the walls will dictate your cuts, waste, etc. If your diagonal fights you in terms of you not being able to get a decent or efficient pattern from wall-to-wall, you might be able to get good results by centering a diamond pattern made from full and half-sized tiles in middle of the floor and using a border to bridge the gap from the diamond inset to the walls.

I used a porcelain "marble" tile that has about 10 different tiles. We went with 12 x 24s and then 12 x 12s on the floor. I'll tell you what though, even with staggered, I can pick out the repeats in the veining. It's hard to say since I don't know what your tile looks like, but I think that would be more obvious with only 5 different tiles and stacking? Plus, stacked is very unforgiving - you just need perfection which sounds easy but there are always funky spots (corners, threshold to shower, niches, places you've had to cut them.) Now, I live in a 1917 colonial so you can imagine that I'm fairly traditional but you are going with a carrera look, so? We went with the 30/70 layout instead of a 50/50 stagger and that makes it visually really interesting, plus repeat veining it hard to pick out. We also went with the smaller width of grout (forget what that size is...) Here's how it looks - good luck! Shower: Floor (hard to see - sorry!) It's 12 x 12s of the same tile set in a diamond pattern. There are actually four of the SAME tile in the center of the floor - laid when I wasn't home, of course! - but he turned them to make the veins into a square, so it's turned out OK but it bugs me! If you look closely, you'll see 'em! :)

My contrarian two cents: For a hallway and adjacent spaces at either end, I would vote for the diagonal pattern, either in one color or checked. The diagonal increases the sense of depth, so that people looking from either end would have a sense of some elegantly distant vista. The diagonal would definitely be more labor-intensive, however, so perhaps you could buy a couple boxes of your tiles and array them in patterns along the hall. Then you can decide whether you prefer the diagonal and -- if so -- enough to justify the additional labor cost. Best of luck, whatever you choose.