An in person visit is still the best way to find what you need. We do not sell online, only in store. Most contractors only purchase things that they can see, feel, and judge their quality. We only sell first quality goods, which many internet sites do not. Yes, I'm a ProSource employee, but not on the flooring side. I'm a KD at one of the stores. Almost any real in person flooring store can get you loads of choices that an internet presence that concentrates on closeouts and second quality cannot. This post was edited by live_wire_oak on Thu, May 1, 14 at 17:03

I had the same dilemna. I have golden oak floors throughout the rest of the house, but I wanted a darker floor in the kitchen. I would have loved an rustic, wide plank wood floor. This floor would not have matched the floors in the rest of the house and I was warned that the transitions from one floor to the other would not look so good by the saddles. In the end, I decided to go with the wood look tile because it works better with radiant heat than wood. I am so glad we did. Between the children and dog it was a good choice for us. I still have to stain the saddles at the two doorways that lead out of the kitchen, but it will be fine. If I used any floor other than golden oak, I would have the transition issue anyway. Love my tile floor! So easy to maintain.

newkitchen10 - I don't want to hijack storklady's flooring thread, so I'll send you an email with a few more pics and some details. The picture posted here was not a 'finished' picture, but it showed more of the floor. But, yes, we love our banquette! There are some really pretty floors posted here...I especially love allison0704's floor. We had put ours in 5 1/2 years BEFORE we redid the kitchen, and since it went through the entry, breakfast, office area, family room and dining room, we kept it and just filled in where our cabinet footprint changed. Luckily, the tile store where we bought it could still get it. A very nice man from the store drove 2 hours to the distributor and went in and hand-picked tiles that matched one of my extras from 5 years before! AND he did it TWICE, because our contractor changed his mind and thought we might need 2 more boxes! Amazingly helpful.

Redsilver, not only are we talking about a material being somewhat different, we are talking about character of materials, which can change drastically based merely on shape. Go into any stately major building that uses stone floors -- be it cathedral, palace, historical ruin, hall of government, etc. -- and you will never find this rustic flagstone look. That's for a reason. Instead, it will be something that looks refined and/or sophisticated. As another example, sculpted carpeting was for several decades the rage and/or just popular. Now it's almost never used because its character does not match the level of sophistication most people's tastes have developed. In general, the flagstone look is the sculpted carpet equivalent of stone flooring. That's the argument against the material itself. But K & D also made a great argument against the use of multiple competing materials within a confined space.