We are in the midst of renovating the entire house and need to make a decision about flooring on the ground floor. Our options are to go for oak flooring throughout, or to consider a combination of oak in certain areas (eg the reception rooms) with tiles in other areas (eg the kitchen and connected open plan dining area). While I like the idea of having bright tiles "opening up" a dark hallway, my concern is that they will get grubby quickly and the grouting get very dirty so spoiling the nice clean look. I therefore wondered if oak in the hallway might hide this dirt better? However, there is then the associated problem with oak in high traffic areas of wear and tear (although I am not sure whether this is only after many years and can be mitigated by proper maintenance).
Does anybody have any advice/considerations they could share with me please?
Many thanks in advance.
PS Cost could be a driving factor ultimately and so we are getting quotes to see where we stand on all of this... Decisions decisions...