My small house is located in New England and has lots of rustic charm. I recently removed saltillo tile from three adjoining rooms: kitchen, small bath, and mud room. I aimed to update these spaces with materials that fit in better with the ambience of my home. I chose Vermont slate cut in 6x12 tiles for the mud room and bath - grout is a close color match with the tiles so it blends into the background. The slate is beautiful, I love it. So, the kitchen... I initially considered tumbled limestone for all three spaces but couldn’t find a tile in my local stores (there are only two) that I felt confident would look good in the space - I wanted something grey toned but all the tumbled stones were cream, gold, brown. Cabinets in the kitchen are natural cherry, have aged for about 20 years, and the counters are Vermont slate (honed). I thought putting slate on the floors would be too much slate for a relatively small space. I chose to install random width eastern white pine, species match for the adjacent dining area and living room. The other floors are 40 and 20 years old. Though these older floors were refinished the difference in color is glaring. Of course, the new floors are also tightly packed as they haven’t had time to shrink, another glaring difference. It’s unfortunate as I like the pine floors but I really don’t believe that these woods will appear blended in a reasonable amount of time. I’m not interested in staining or tinting. I plan to have the pine taken up and replaced with slate. The room configuration presents a challenge for the rectangular tiles though. I’m trying to figure out if 12x12 tiles would look too odd next to the 6x12s in the mud room. I could just do 6x12s as I do like them, but if I match the direction that they are laid in the mud room, they’ll be in the “wrong” direction in the short hall that leads to the bath and they’ll oppose the direction in which the tiles were laid in the bath. It also seems like they’ll be in the wrong direction when you’re standing in the kitchen. If you stand at the stove and look to the left, you’re looking at the sink and kitchen working area. Any thoughts?