jockewing....My 2 cents worth......I had travertine tile in my last bathroom and it was wonderful in the shower on the walls, but the floor kept getting small hairline cracks in it. I had it repaired three times and this is a tiny bathroom we are talking about. It was only my DH and I living there so it had nothing to do with heavy traffic. The floor was laid brand new and I watched the contractor do the entire job....I don't believe that he did anything wrong, so I just don't understand why it kept getting small cracks.

We have wood throughout most of our upstairs (bi-level house), and in our foyer/entryway from front door. Yes, it has gotten dinged and scratched, but it still looks nice, like wood that has some character marks! lol

We also have travertine tile--light noce, in our downstairs entryway (from the garage), and in our laundry room, two closets, and our downstairs bathroom, as well as a different travertine in our upstairs hall bathroom. The light noce has been in for 7 years give or take, and it's held up fine. It's gotten a few scratches over the years (easily colored-in with a permanent marker in a matching color, excess "buffed" off with a piece of fine or extra-fine steel wool)--we don't baby it at all, and have dragged stuff across the floor, so the scratches weren't a big surprise.

That Ocean Blue is stunning stone. We are looking at Ocean Beige (Italian Silver travertine) for our family room/spare bedroom. Similar look, but with beiges, taupes, and creams along with greys and blacks, rather than the shades of blue in the Ocean Blue.

Good luck deciding!

we used it on our fireplace and it is stunning. but i do think it's a fragile stone.

I have 85 year old wood floors thru out my home which have seen 85 years of young children, dogs, cats and hard use and have only needed to be refinished once in all those years.

All floors will have some sort of issue and darker wood finishes will show more wear earlier than lighter but if you install a harder wood in a medium finish it will look wonderfull for many years. The first scratch will bother you but after a patina develops you will not even notice the wear and tear. The tile is lovely but not as warm for a living room as wood is, in my opinion.
Good luck deciding!

srg215, that fireplace is lovely. I remember admiring your pictures before. Do you remember at all how much this stuff costs? Did you have to seal it?

We have hardwood throughout our house with new travertine in the master bath project that is still ongoing. As the other poster said sure wood gets scratches but if you don't go with a really dark floor it just blends in and gives it character. I've seen it in our old historic buildings here in town that have been there since the early 1800's. Opt for a non shiny sealer of poly to help protect it and you will be fine, less shine the better starting out. I don't think I would put travertine in so many areas JMO. It's cold and sort of fragile. It bothers me more to scratch the travertine because it is not as easy to fix and it could break or crack. I'm sorry we have it. I don't even think it's pretty. I choose it from one tile sample when in reality it's hugely diverse one tile to another. I very much dislike it. Mine is called Philadelphia travertine it cost a lot of money and every time I go in there I feel sick about it. The Ocean blue is pretty though, I like it on the fireplace.

srg215--Still one of my favorite fireplaces!!!! Is your tile the Ocean Blue or Ocean Beige (AKA Silver travertine)? It looks closer in color to the stuff we're looking at.

If you don't mind an OT question--what paint color did you use on your cabs/fp surround? I'm looking at BM cream/off-white colors for our FR.....

jockewing: i think it was $20 per square foot for the tile. the slab (inside the surround) was way $$$$!

cat mom: i got it through artistic tile and they call it the ocean blue vein cut travertine, but it's also known as silver travertine. i think there's a lot of variation. ocean beige may actually be just another name for the same stone. some of the tiles we got were much browner, but since we ordered more than we needed we just used the lighter ones.
the color of the built-ins/fp surround is grey mist by bm. it sometimes takes on a slightly yellowish cast. if i could do it over again, i would have done it all in the white dove which is what all my trim is.

We'd be getting ours from them as well (if our tile guy can get it for the discounted price he was quoted!). They have both Blue and beige on their site. I know that Ocean Beige is also known as Silver travertine (didn't know it was the same as the Ocean Blue), but supposedly, only one place/quarry in Italy has Silver trav that looks like the stuff Artistic Tile is calling OB. Silver trav from other places looks much greyer, without the beiges, taupes, browns....

Thanks for the paint info, too!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Silver Travertine from Italy link

I think prefinished wood floors would hold up better in a kitchen than site finished, due to the heavy wear and exposure to water.

I know nothing about trav for floors, but I think you can find a similar look in cork if you can find the right color. Cork would be softer and warmer underfoot than tile...