The floor tile is basically a flat colour there's no vein or pattern at all. It's the bench that has the pattern. We already have a skylight and the only other area we can put a window has an a/c unit unfortunately. The other walls have rooms on either side. It's tough. I found another tile yesterday I love. But from about 11 until 3pm, the entire island bench has this yellow hue to it. I think because no direct sunlight is hitting it?? But mornings and evenings it looks lovely! I might just have to bite the bullet and go with how nice it looks for the majority of the time (mornings and evenings). That's when we are most there anyway.

@vickimpond, Coastal themes in my opinion with earthy tones, can go quite nicely with grey even though I don't personally like grey. I would suggest you research and gather colour swatches, that mirror some of the earthy colours you intend to use and then look at the colour wheel too and there is often a simple choice opposite the colour you like. You will have to incorporate the grey already in the room, in other words don't isolate the grey but link it with your colour choices obviously. Just make sure the tones are a match, meaning there isn't a for example, a blue tone in your tiles and a yellow tone in the wall colour. Look at nature, even animal eyes where you can have a grey cat for example with green or blue eyes, that will help broaden your selection and if you go all out for a coastal theme, then I think you need blue in there somewhere!! If you want to play it safe, you could stick to a very neutral wall colour, there will be plenty of choices out there that will gel with the grey and white already in the room, then you wouldn't overrun the house with a permanent strong colour that you might tire of quickly like say a blue for example. You can instead use accessories for pops of colour perhaps and to keep the grey theme active if that's what you want to do, perhaps grey cushions mixed with blue cushions for the couch if you go with a blue for example, that way the room doesn't end up looking too busy, as you are talking earthy tones mixed with the grey tones mixed with the white already there and finally another colour whatever colour that it is you choose if you get my drift, so accessories can give you those colours without being permanent, well that's my thoughts anyway. Good luck, Barbara

I'm personally not a fan of tile - very hard on the feet, I find - so I'd probably restrict tile to the wet areas and go for hardwood everywhere else. Our last home had wood in every room except the bathroom, and after 10 years it still looked fine. Even the kitchen looked good. That said, we didn't have kids running around in the house. Did (and still do) have a dog, though. Our current house has carpeting in the bedrooms, engineered wood in the living areas, and tile in the bathrooms and laundry. All three floor coverings have a similar greigish tone, so to my mind they look fine together, and meet the practicality and comfort criteria as well.

I’d go with timber or cork. Cork is great in a kitchen. Easy on your feet and joints and things are much less likely to break if you drop them. Especially as you age, tiles cause fatigue if you are standing in the kitchen for too long. Cork is now available in lots of different colours and styles including charcoals and greys that might compliment your slate. It’s not all 80s orange. Of course timber can look great too. Just make sure it’s ok for kitchen use.