beejas, You obviously already have allot of timber and I think certainly stick with the timber but you might like to use some nice carpet squares under the bed so that its a bit more cosy in winter. Houzz had a forum on the correct placing of carpet squares in and around furniture including bedrooms, as well as suggestions on types of material and suitable colours, if you search, you'll find great inspiration. Cheers, Barbara

I think a light colour which will brighten up your room. Blackbutt perhaps? We have Blackbutt in our house and a manufactured oak in our holiday house. Both are light any really lift the room.

there are many ideas on line to overcome this dilemma but my most successful solution was to install short lengths of 5x2cm pine along the sides of the joists pushing up against the floor and gluing and nailing to the underneath of the floor boards and the joists...keeping in mind that you need access under the floor and older house are likely to have asbestos dust etc so breathing, eye and skin protection is necessary and i found that precutting, drilling and nailing the strips of timber and preparing several applicators with liquid nails before crawling under the floor made it a little easier ... it's a tedious dirty job but well worth the effort to eliminate the annoying squeaks and took about a week to do the whole floor of a small house but hope there are some other suggestions for you to try

R u laying boards over the concrete or beside?