Modern rustic: 12x24" porcelain tile made to resemble a wide piece of distressed wood. Not an overtly obvious wood grain, more of an implied grain that you only see after studying it for a minute. Rectified and small grout joint. (Form follows function in design- easy to live with is always first!) option B: a vein cut travertine patterned 12x24 in brown or gray tones. Set in a soldier corse, straight stack pattern, so it's not about the grout joints, it's more about the linear pattern of the tile.

I think concrete makes a fantastic surface in wet areas, and looks even better in high traffic areas. The feel of a raw or honed concrete underfoot is amazing, and the unpretentious look in well designed spaces is earthy and contemporary. There are so many possibilities for colour, finish, inclusions and add ins, heated or non heated etc, that the beauty of concrete almost matches stone. For me, a huge concern is foundation movement, if on a slab, there is bound to be ground settlement and often hair line cracks can shift and become noticeable, patching is obvious and really just highlights a fault joint, basically destroying an entire floor, and leaving you with the option to tile or lay flooring over it anyway. An expensive excercise just to end up where you started. the veneer version can be laid on both pre finished slabs, fc surfaces and even timber, but the flexible movement and expansion that occurs often voids the warranty on its finish, I've investigated this option for myself, and basically th client takes the risk, and hopes for the best. As far as concerns regarding hardness goes, hardness =durability, so plates smashing will occur as it would on every other floor surface! There are large scale porcelain tiles that have a pre finished concrete look, really large as in 3000mm x 1500mm, minimising grout lines, and will be somewhat warmer underfoot. Cost is really high, so it needs to be something on your wish list, and where No compromise can be or will be made. love concrete..time worn and tested.

When I first wrote in August 2017 we got a lot of great suggestions and comments. At the time we had accepted the limitations of the block (easements, tree, solar access etc). It is now one year later and I can tell you we found a way to move the garage to the south-west corner. This allowed us to move Beds 2 and 3 and the bathroom to the northern side. Pantry and laundry between garage and kitchen/living/dining. I think it was all of the comments and suggestions that encouraged us to look at it again from different angles, rather than just accepting the limitations. Thanks to everyone for their generosity! The solution involved working around a lovely tree (it is nice, just in the wrong spot). It is still in the way (council said we couldn't remove it) but we've opted for a long, curving driveway that starts on the other side of the block and weaves its way around the treeline to the garage entry. Not ideal, because a large portion of the front setback will now be a hard surface, instead of a garden. But if there is one thing that designing teaches you - its all about compromises. Thanks everyone. MB Design & Drafting Shara C Nik Star girlguides oklouise siriuskey genkii saragraham76 Andy Pat brizcs Mel N 3D Home Concepts suancol Caro

That is a really long piece of glass to manufacture and is going to be really expensive to make and install. It may need to come from interstate. I hope access to your kitchen is good enough to manhandle a 4.630m piece of glass! One possibility may be to use two different materials as your splashback to reduce the length of the glass. For instance use a stainless steel splashback behind your stovetop that is matched in width to the stovetop, then a smaller sheet of glass on either side of the stainless steel, such as in the kitchen in the photo. You can see it is a smiliar length of bench to yours, but by putting in the stainless steel "break", the length of glass is much shorter and manageable, and the joint looks more natural between the change of materials. It will be a much cheaper option as well. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls