We are in the process of filling our gaps with pine slithers (they cam in different widths) You can buy them online. You do suffer from bald/ red knees when you hammer them in and then need to chisel them down so they are flush with the rest of the floor but it really does help. What you can also order with the pine slithers is pine saw dust with resin - you mix the two up and can fill the really narrow gaps which the slithers don't fit into. If you don't mind spending the time doing this I would recommend it yourself (especially if you're worried about costs), depending how big the surface is, and then have someone in to do the sanding. The varnishing you can also do you yourself with a normal paint roller. We also recently had a quote for sanding and varnishing and I think it came to £500 for mid size living room and 3 m length hall.

I like the wood effect tile. If properly placed it might give the impression of an actual wood floor. Well apart from colour i guess one would have to conisder how easy they are to clean with stains and all. But more importantly how slippery they are when dry, when wet or when there is a little bit of oil on it.

You could do a black paint trim over the wooden bits. It would go with the work tops. But not so much with the creamy doors; Or get all of the kitchen units spray painted white? I think if you try to match the floor with the wood of the units in the kitchen you may leave yourself open to a mismatch or even just an overload of wood. I didn't feel there was enough black there as the island top kind of took me by surprise on first seeing it. But could you remove that granite altogether and see how it looks then? Maybe it's the black that's the problem not the wood at all

We had a very nice porcelain tile laid in our kitchen. It looks like a distressed grey wood plank. We would like some suggestions as to what flooring we should use throughout the rest of the house. Carpet is not an option and the installer said that because of the way the current floor is installed, tile is really not an option either. The walls are light grey with purple accents. What do you feel would be the best look?