Hi Cathy, yes floors look just as good.... we did them in December 2013. When floors were brown.. wood coloured they showed a bit of wear (dog scratches), on the white you don't see the scratches... the white floors still look fresh... the beauty of the painted floors is that if you get heavy wear in certain areas, you can just repaint the floor!!! (ie no sanding... this is a big deal). If you decide to go ahead, I would love to see your before and after photos. Thanks. Following is how my husband did the floors: We are in Sydney, Australia... unsure if the following are international brands? My husband used Feast & Watson Floor Paint in White Satin (water based) and then 2 coats of Intergrain clear finish (also water based... so with sunlight the floors won't yellow if you use water based)

What you are referring to is proper "parquetry" and the labour is generally costly as it requires more attention to detail and is more time consuming... you may be able to manage cost depending on your choice of timber (note parquetry now also comes in engineered timber which can be a bit less) but the labour will be costly regardless... my google search of "parquetry flooring Sydney" came up with a few results so hopefully you can find someone there after a few enquiries... good luck! :)

What natural light do you get in the room/what orientation? i.e. is it a 'cold' or 'warm' room? If it's a colder room, I'd go with a grey with orange/red undertones to warm it up a bit, or if it's a warm room you could get away with a cooler grey, maybe green undertones to compliment the maroon. Or you could even try a green rather than grey. The Aerobus is a blueish grey so will be cooler. As others have said you would probably want a lighter tone than this for the walls (unless you're purposely going for a dark dramatic mood). 'Miller Mood' is a couple of shades up in the Colour Atlas. Get sample pots and paint a section on each wall, or paint a white bit of card and stick to the wall to see how the light is at different times of day.

Hi Mon, have you seen the Dulux Paint App? You can download it to your phone for free. The idea is that you can take a photo of of the space you want to paint and the App allows you to change the wall colour by selecting from their colour range; Dulux says this enables you to actually see what the new colour looks like next to your floor and other furnishings without the need of trying out several paint pot samples. I have not personally used it but the concept is pretty cool. Hope this is of help. Malcolm