If you are in a hot state, tiles are nice and cool. They can also be good near a North facing window as a heat sink (passive thermal) as long as you have good shading on the window in Summer. Not advised for elderly people. In the kitchen and dining room, dropped items will break. timber is natural and fashionable, good temperature year round. Less good in wet areas. Is not no-maintenance, needs stripping and sanding periodically. Is more forgiving if items dropped, baby falls, or in an earthquake. Is not cheap.

I have two dogs and they both live and play inside. At one stage we had three. Our floors look no more worn than the day I oiled then 6 years ago. We will be selling in around a year and at that time I may rotary with a white pad (never need to sand again)but really there is no need. After 30 years of fixing timber issues, it breaks my heart to see such a beautiful substance treated with a toxic plastic bag. This is our puppy the other day with a sore foot.

This must be close to the 100th time you've asked a similar question. And you've spoken to Dulux already.Tell us what you don't like about the colours suggested so far, that will give us an idea of what you're after.

Hello Louise yes I think this mix will look good. I would suggest limiting the proportion of Lighter timber though, and using a greater proportion of white (like in some of the images above and here below). I would also recommend that you don't stain (colour) your floors but just polish (clear lacquer) them. Before sanding and polishing you could also fill the small gaps and cracks between the boards with Calking and then sand this calking back (when dry) along with the timber to give a more flush uniform, modern finish to your floor. Hope this helps, Malcolm