Here is Fireclay Luna Brick, both are the same tile sitting at two different counter locations. It feels "earthy" , it is not a perfect match, but it gives enough contrast for the white cabinets and is light enough to give the space brightness that I want. My concern is the variation between each brick. Fireclays web site's pictures are sometimes misleading. I attached Fireclay's image of Luna installed as a backsplash and it shows a lot of variation from one tile to the next and then the other photo they have looks more consistant in color, confusing. Plus their color looks totally different from my sample. Do you think it will be too busy for my space? That is a good idea to order several more samples of Luna. I do plan to do this myself. My bid came in at over 1,000 for a professional. I probably won't do a herringbone if I use this size of brick.

So it sounds like you want to use a wood-look porcelain tile as your flooring choice. And that you want the tile to help make the space look bigger which is why you are choosing a form of herring bone installation. You are trying to decide between a herring bone or a chevron pattern herring bone where the tiles meet at a 45 deg angle (cut at the top and bottom of each tile) like a mitered corner. OK...now that we've go that straight, here's a few things you will want to consider. To achieve a herring bone (no cuts to the tiles...they remain intact) you MUST use a tile that is a perfect multiple of itself. That is to say, the LONG edge is TWICE or Three times as long as the short edge. So a 12" x 24" tile will work. A 6" x 18" will work as well (these are rare but are out there). An 8" x 36" will NOT work. That means your purchase/product choice will be limited by the pattern you wish to use. With wood-look tiles this normally isn't an issue....but it is still something you MUST consider. The second thing you will need to know about "chevron" pattern is: it works for wood but it is HORRIBLE to work with wood-look tiles. Normally these tiles come in RECTANGLE shapes. It is *possible you might find a tile that is specifically designed in the shape you need it to be to make the chevron work. This would require INCREDIBLE LUCK and a high price tag (special shapes have special pricing). And then you would be stuck using the same pattern for the entire floor - every room would have to be a chevron pattern. There would be no way to change that with this particular shape of tile. And cutting them to shape would be a nightmare! The amount of waste you would have due to chipped tiles would almost double your purchase. Thirdly the cost to install herring bone (I'm just going to assume this is how you will work because the chevron is very hard to get to work in tiles) is pretty high. And the waste level for herring bone is another 10% - 15% more than a traditional/straight install. It sounds like only some of your space will get the herring bone while the rest will get a straight install. That's a good way to maximize the appearance of the tiles while still keeping costs/waste at a moderate amount. As for direction....I would let that wait until you find the tile that will work in a herring bone. Then take it from there.

You will need to choose your MOST IMPORTANT aspects of the floor. All floors scratch and show wear. Even porcelain tile will look 'lived on' after a while. A house with 10 people would be considered a high-wear situation. I would look for a floor that offers commercial grade wear. Engineered hardwood offers the benefit of being able to add acoustic underlayment. Whereas most vinyl products (95-99%) do not. They will need to be installed straight down onto the subfloor. Engineered hardwood can scratch...depending on the type of finish. It can handle spills that are cleaned up within 15 minutes of so (1/4 cup fluids) but it won't handle a large puddle (the entire gallon of milk sitting on the floor) for that long. Yes, vinyl scratches. Sure. But everything will - eventually. The 20mil finish on vinyl is going to be good enough for most households. For yours I would suggest getting tougher (30mil - 40mil) finish. There are a few of these out there...but not many. Again, the noise reduction won't be very good (it is cheaper to insulate the ceiling than it is to get any meaningful noise reduction underneath vinyl. These two issues need to be reconciled to your level of acceptance. A scratched, beaten up vinyl is still a viable, sound floor. It just doesn't look nice. An engineered hardwood will scratch as well...but eventually it can be brought to the point of plank failure (cracks/splits, wear through causing raw wood to be exposed). This level of wear on an engineered hardwood is rare (especially if you work with the super tough finishes on the high-end products) but it still can happen with a family of 10. I suggest you decide which is more important - pretty vs. functional vs. quiet. It would be hard to have all 3 with a family of 10.

I am far from a floor expert, but... whether or not you can change the direction of the floor depends on your subfloor. Flooring needs to run perpendicular to joists on most floors. You can stiffen the floor from above or below to change that, but you shouldn't assume you can change direction. My opinion on your questions... 1. It depends on your subfloor. 2. I would consider different tones if you are going to change the wood species. You generally want to avoid any chance of it looking like you were trying to match and failed. 3. If you are going to match, match as much as you can. If you are not going to match, make it distinctively different. 4. Many engineered products can look good next to hardwood, but you are going to have to spend extra. So unless there is a compelling reason not to, stick with hardwood. Having said this. It is your house and my answers may not work so great for you.