I have tumbled travertine (basically a form of marble) in the master bedroom and a marble mosaic in the master bath. It is higher maintenance. It stains and it wears differently in different areas. I am not doing natural stone in my new home. There are some fantastic tiles now that mimic all the stones, and a good quality porcelain tile will be very durable. Some ceramic wall tiles are "weaker" but I have had excellent luck with porcelain tile. Granite floors. Sure. But as people have said they also require maintenance like periodic sealing etc. In a house that size you don't want a different kind of floor in every room. I would stick to one or perhaps two types of floor tile in the main rooms. You can get away with additional types on walls in the bathrooms but I would keep the floors consistent. As far as cost goes, there is a very broad range of tiles and stones. In my shopping I have found some very good high quality floor tiles for reasonable prices. Stone has priced out higher...at least the ones I have looked at. Good luck!

I didn't realize it was a faux stone pattern. There is nothing you can do to hide the grid pattern I am afraid...However, as it is recessed in a niche, I am inspired by your windchime pattern to think of adding eyelet hooks on the top and bottom that align with the vertical grids and uplight them from behind...This idea but with less vertical rods, and then uplit to give an effect like the second picture...

nice, light coloured tiles

This is the colour of my tile cladding on my living room wall . What colour should I paint my room so that it there is a warm inviting room? also I live in an apartment and my living room is a dark windowless room