We've chosen a porcelain tile with a color profile that ranges from gray to red, in 12-inch tiles and 6-inch tiles, and this pattern will predominate throughout. We bought these sample tiles today.
Bernie and I intend to do the installation ourselves -- the cost of hiring someone to put the tile down for us is insanely prohibitive for us, and frankly, I'm so sick of bare concrete that I'm willing to endure yet another learning experience if I can have a floor that doesn't have slab cracks and dings in it, and isn't cement gray throughout.
This tile is about as close to the colors of natural slate that we could find, and won't have the need-to-seal issues and the ohmigod-the-dogs'-toenails-are-scratching-it issues that natural slate would have.
A scary project, though. The layout of the tiles alone is going to be epic.
