I'm posting this in Kitchens also - wondering whether anyone has recent experience w/ either encaustic (cement) floor tiles or end-block wood flooring in their kitchen (or elsewhere)? I LOVE color & pattern, and keep returning to photos of encaustic tile floors - I know that tile has all the comfort issues but wonder about other specific real-world experience with encaustic: maintenance, etc. Villa Lagoon is one seller I've found - they have an amazing online tool that you can use to experiment w/ customizing colors in a huge variety of designs - like coloring book pages - & then set up tiles in any arrangement w/ borders, etc. It's addictive - to me, anyway! I'm including a link to their home page.

On the other hand, DH & I saw a floor in a hotel we stayed at that I was fascinated by (both the hotel & the floor!) - it was end-block wood laid like bricks in a herringbone pattern, & it was gorgeous. Found a company in MA (Kaswell) that manufactures this & seems to have provided it to lots of places - apparently it's an old-time product that's become newly appreciated. Was used in the past for street paving & factory floors, so is presumably durable. Again, probably not of interest to most of you ("timeless" in a different way, maybe?!), but wondering if anybody here has used or considered it? Thanks!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Villa Lagoon Tile