I'v seen it done before and it is beautiful! The way they did it was to install a metal trim strip that the tile butts up to on one side, and the wood on the other. I think you'd have to use engineered wood because of the potential for expansion and contraction solid wood would have. You couldn't butt solid wood up to the trim strip.

Thanks ccoombs1 for your informative advice. I think it would look nice also, so I am going to see a contractor today and I will mention what you are suggesting.
I will keep you posted of what I decide to do.

The trim strip I saw was sold by the tile store. It has a nailing strip on one side. The nailing strip is covered by the tile. Be sure to post pics of your completed project!

Thanks again for the info. I just talked to a floor contractor, he is mainly in tile and travertine and he said he will bring another person regarding wood floor. So whenever they both are here I'll let them know about your advice.
I sure will post pics and keep you updated.

I'v been thinking more and more about your idea and have decided to do something very similar in my new house. I was worried about how a wood floor would stand up to table and chairs in the dining room sliding across it, so I have decided to inset a travertine "rug" in the dining room. So mine will be opposite of yours in that mine will be wood with a 8x10 tile area inside of it. I think it will look wonderful!

I, too, am thinking of a wood-tile combo in my kitchen. I was going to putting only a couple of rows for a border of the tile, but my GC and his designer feel that that would be too narrow, and advise a 42 inch "border" (that will fill space between a possible future island and counters) for the L perimeter with an angle at the corner, then the rest would be wood - they suggest to match my cherry cabinets. Organic-june, what advice did the 2 flooring people give you?

Here's a look at how I did it. I think this border is around 30", but I can go measure if anyone wants a more accurate number.

Unfortunately I haven't seen the wood floor guy yet, the stone floor guy saw my floor but he said he needs to bring a wood floor guy and then they can tell me how they do it and if the cost would be a lot more than just doing it in one material.
ccoombs1 I think your project would be more logical because of the wood scratching furnitures, chiefneil picture looks very nice and the width of the wood border sounds right too except if you want to use area rug on your travertine floor you might want to use a narrower width of wood.
chiefneil did they have to install anything special at the border of the stone and the wood? Also I love your floor wood color, it is gorgeous,what kind is this wood?!

Hi June, I don't have any kind of a border or separator between the wood and tile. It probably would have been better to have something, but at the time I'd seen a lot of model homes with the tile going straight against the wood and decided I liked the look.

It takes a little planning to get a look like this. You have to have wood that's a little thicker than the tile, but not too much thicker. In my case the match was just right for the tile guy to use a 1/8" notched trowel (I think) for the thinset to get the tile to the exact level of the wood. You need to set the tile first by a few days to allow the moisture to dry before laying the wood.

The wood is a very dark, reddish-brown hand-scraped engineered product from a Chinese manufacturer. The brand is called Provenza; I got it from ProSource. I designed the flooring plan so that the wood runs throughout the public areas, while individual rooms have a different material inset to provide definition and visual interest. Here in this photo you can see where I have carpet inset in the family room, while the kitchen tile in the foreground again butts up directly against the wood. Many people consider multiple flooring materials and colors to be a design no-no, but personally I quite like it.

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Hi Chiefneil, first I wanted to thank you for explaining in detail the way wood and tile works together, this is all new to me and I appreciate it. I am going to ask the floor guys who are coming here today how they think it should be done and let them know how you did it. I don't know why design-wise it is no no, I think it looks wonderful.

I found this link in a different thread. Its the strips you can use to transition from tile to wood.

Here is a link that might be useful: schluter

Thanks ccoombs1 for the info. Actually, I don't like to show any thing between wood and stone if it is possible. I am sure under wood and stone probably they use something to separate the two material from each other but I don't want to show it on the surface too.

The problem is that the tile guys may not leave you a perfectly straight edge. Then when the wood butts up against it, you'll see that it's a little ragged. That's why I said in my first post that it probably would have been better to have something. I had the tile guys come back and straighten out one edge, but in another area I just let it go and you can see a little jagged area where it meets the wood. If you decide not to do a border, just make it clear to the tile guys that you need perfectly straight and clean edge. You might even want to give them a long straightedge to use.

Hi Chief -

I just wanted to say that your home -- both inside and out -- is always a pleasure to see.

Thanks Chiefneil for sharing your experience. I am a little scared about this, I really don't want to use border but I hope I can get an experienced tile and wood guy who pay lots of attention to this detail and I am going to ask them for using long straightedge as you mentioned. It is easier to find a good tile and stone installer than finding for wood. One wood installer came but he was not very friendly and I thought it would be hard to work with him, so I am still looking...

Arielitas_mom - Thanks!! I never get tired of compliments!

organic_june, where are you located?

Chiefneil, thanks for helping, I am sure there are a lot of qualified installers here in southern California, I only haven't got chance to go to different wood stores to ask for a good wood installer yet. I am going to look more seriously for some references starting tomorrow!

chiefneil, your home is beautiful. I just posted a similar thread to this, asking basically the question on how it all works. How is the wood holding up next to the tile. Is the tile a travertine? I think you said the wood was engineered. I plan to use a Brazilian teak. Searching for the travertine to use, or may go with something else, have decided.
Thanks for showing the pictures and let me know how it's going still with the wood/tile combo.

Hi vfish, thanks for the compliment. The floors have been in for two years now with absolutely no problems. The tile is travertine, and the wood is indeed a glued-down engineered. If you're planning this you'll need to get samples of both in advance to make sure the heights will match up. Not all travertines are the same height, ditto for wood. The tile guy was able to check his finished height against the wood sample as he went along, which was helpful. Also make sure you use caulk for the border between tile and stone - my wood guy used a color-matched sanded caulk that matches the grout exactly.

One other thing I forgot to mention is that you may have a sharp edge where the cut edge of the wood meets the tile. I sat next to my wood guy and as he cut the boards I hit the edge with a small handplane to match the bevel, and also applied some matching stain to the bare wood that was exposed as a result. Sandpaper would also work to ease the edge.

Great, I am looking forward to this look in my home, thanks for the help.

Hi there again,
Sorry, I got distracted from flooring subject due to other parts of remodeling specially my kitchen cabinets. It is not easy to make decision about all these expensive stuff which you can't change your mind after you order them. Any ways, today a tile guy came for giving estimate and since I told him about wood inlay with travertine border around it, he suggested using membrane under both wood and travertine surfaces to minimize moisture. I just wanted to check and see if you guys also think this is a good idea and if he does that, can he use thinset on top of it under the travertine to make the travertine and the wood in same level.
One more question is that he mentioned first installing wood and then travertine since it is possible to play with edges of travertine to make it more leveled with wood at their border. But I read somewhere in this forum that first we should install travertine and then wood. Which one is the better way?
Thanks always for your thoughtful and helpful comments.

If you're on a slab, a moisture barrier under the wood is a good idea. I've only heard of it in conjunction with hardwood on slab, though, not tile. Hopefully you can get a tile guy to answer if one is needed. Generally I've only heard about moisture barrier with tile in wet areas like shower walls, in order to protect the backer and studs.

My installer recommended the tile first so that the moisture from the thinset and grout didn't cause the hardwood to swell. The tile guy is right in that he can make small adjustments to the height of the tile during installation. But that's why you should get a sample plank of the hardwood for him to use to check his height as he's installing. You should have the wood in the house acclimating by the time you're installing tile anyway, so you can just pull a couple boards out of the box for the tile guy to use.

Cheifneil,
Thanks so much for your reply, I think you are right, tile doesn't need moisture barrier so I'll ask him why he thinks we should do that. Also giving the tile guy several of the planks must do it and as you mentioned they can figure out how they should install the tile comparing to the wood planks.
I can't wait to start all these and I'll post pictures for you to see! (whenever it is done!!)