Classic Polished Travertine Basket Weave Mosaic Tile

The basketweave belongs to Victorian and Edwardian floors, where paired rectangles turned at right angles produced a woven appearance without any need for colour. It works because the eye reads the pairs as overlapping bands, a reading that depends on the pairs staying clearly grouped, which is why the pattern survives well at small scale and looks best where a floor is large enough to show several repeats.

Polishing travertine is the unusual decision here, and it produces a surface with no equivalent in a dense stone. A polish closes and reflects the solid parts of the face, but travertine's natural cavities cannot be closed, because they formed as gas voids when the stone was deposited. What results is a bright reflective plane interrupted by small matte openings, so the surface reads as glossy and pitted at the same time. Across warm beige and cream travertine the effect is rich rather than restless.

Those open cavities take up grout readily, so seal the sheets beforehand and again once grouting is finished. Being reflective, it suits walls, splashbacks and lightly used floors better than a wet room base.