My first instinct was tile exactly because of how labor intensive this would be but then I began looking at all the color variations. I would think tiles would have more consistent coloring so this could definitely be timber. It seems too "imperfect" to be man-made material. As someone else said, "tricky."

Your tile will co-ordinate beautifully with the timber if you can pick one of the darker colours out of the timber and select a tile in this family of colour. The trick to making a colour concept work is to either co-ordinate or contrast. If your timber is as busy with grain and colour as the image you've shown, then maybe co-coordinating is the best way to go. Never chose materials independently of each other - always take a tile sample home to see in the natural light, next to the timber. I hope it all works out the way you envisage it. Cheers, Michelle

You just can't beat timber. It's real and isn't trying to be something else. The timber look tiles do look quite ok but they could be unfashionable in 10 years time. Bit like tiles laid in the diamond pattern at the moment, just out of trend.... Tiling isn't cheap, mine charged just under $100 per sqm. It is pretty good though and was sandstone theres a bit work involved when compared to ceramic. Go with the real deal if you can afford it, will look great for decade's.

Depends on budget. Many dwellings (probably majority actually) don't setdown the floor structure to end up with a flat floor throughout. It costs extra money to achieve for something that is to most people un-noticable. High quality dwellings do this all the time however. If you're going to that level of detail you should also look at setting down the floor edge where the sliding/stacking/bifold doors are (if you have them) so that the door sill is flush. This something you'll see continuously more often than the bathroom/ens floors. It was mentioned on 'The Block' recently and I've now had numerous clients asking about it and/or presuming that this how all floors are done.