How many doors will be off the hall as it may be a little too much oak but will you use a runner/rug? I'm sure the laminate will look just as good! What sort of slate effect were you looking at? Some of the light or honey toned ones would look good but I think the darker grey could look a little cold. I haven't found natural stone an issue in the past, just make sure whatever cleaning fluid you use doesn't have acid in. Or have a look at limestone effect? I only suggest limestone as the honey should work with the wood and the grey will work will the carpet but you can also get similar slate effect. My search has only yielded these so far! http://www.alistairmackintosh-porcelain.co.uk/sahara-natural-stone-porcelain-tiles.html I also spotted an encaustic style tile in your Ideabook, is it worth looking at these?

Yes - mixing like this in different areas is fine! And oak is warmer on the elbows if it's an island with an eating area too !!

Yes Daisy they are not comfortable and we tend to be lounge dwellers lol but I do like a table when I have guests or sunday lunch around a table so nice for get together. I work with lots of young dogs and puppies and my last german shepherd (sadly now passed) had a thing about testing my new tables and chairs just nibbling them around the edges so this was a bit of a solution with metal finish to that issue as we had him for 15years!! lol. But to be honest has worked out extremely well especially for hot things. I have considered Having top recovered in solid surface as I like its shape and size and I do use it as a workstation too and bentwood chairs soooo love this style of iconic chair around a mismatched table and love natural woods thats why I kept the upper cabinets that are solid med.oak and beautifully made just replaced one or two facia panels on the wall units to tie in with my new base units in a matt sage/grey finish thats so easy to keep clean. Going to replace facia on plate rack on far wall next to link it in more sort of evolving this kitchen make over used a great replacement door company in Stoke. If I do replace whole lot table and chairs will then make a charming little set for the garden so I cant complain about this buy as purchased half price In late summer sale nice when things are useful. I do like the slightly industrial timber plank tables too with metal legs and rustic tops

Hardwoods Group have seen many great inspirational projects come from Oak over the years and wanted to find a way to celebrate our customers skill sets. So, we ran a competition. The competition lasted for 2 months, giving customers the chance to submit as many photos of any projects they had done using the oak supplied from Hardwoods Group. Hardwoods group have a varied client base with Architects, Joiners and Builders, so the photos were also quite varied from buildings, loft extensions, staircases to furniture. This competition gave our customers a chance to showoff projects they had work on that otherwise might not been seen by others. So, we decided to put together a blog to show our top ten entries.