Wood mosaic kitchen counter top. About 6 years ago i asked a woodworking shop here in Cincinnati to cut me some wood…. 
the criteria were as follows: 1) that it must be half inch thick, and 2) that it be from the scraps of wood that most individuals find unusable. That is, i wanted the wood to have worm holes, bore holes, little bits of knotting, spalting, and be unusual in all kinds of ways, even missing a corner here or there or having some bark left on it, 3) each piece needed to be an whole number, no fractions, or mm, in width and height. The blocks cut could be 1×1, 1×2, 1×3, 1×4 for instance, and or, 2×2, 2×3, 2×4 etc, 3×3, 3×4, etc up to about 6 inches in width and length. 4) number of iterations did not matter 5, every kind of wood (not composited (with the exception of bamboo wood which i did use).
The person who created the underneath framework, also made the border for the sink and back out of redwood.
So this many years later it has held up pretty well. I know i sanded each block to soften the corners, i remember using weldbond glue, II i think, I did space in some ceramic, glass, porcelain tiles where assembling the counter was needing some flexibility. I know i gave the finished counter top 6 coats of urethane before using. So while it was a lot of work, it was not that costly… and i enjoy the wood surface every day. I needs a sanding and a new coat of urethane…I cannot remember if i covered the grout with urethane. I do remember using expensive grout, not cheap stuff.
The grout gets a little dirty and there are places where there are cracks but i have just added grouts to those areas.
Couple of trash tile-clay pots there also.