For a job like this, it's best to hire an expert!
We took this flower floor from an idea to what you see in the pictures below. This is a laundry room and our client wanted something custom. We went to Tile House of Marietta and started throwing ideas against the wall. We came out with flowers and plank tile. At this point we started devising a plan to get the floor done. The floor had joists 24" on center which would not have supported the added weight of tile so we added another layer of plywood. We couldn't use Ditra mat for underlayment because it is not rated for mosaics under 2". The only other option was Permat by Blanke and that's the blue you see in the prep photos. Next we set the plank tile...6"x36"....Let all that dry and we came back to get our mosaic area up to the same level as the plank. That required us creating a depth stick and filling the area with thin set so the flower mosaics would be at the same level as the planks. We let that dry and then set our flowers which involved cutting a hundred little pieces and putting them in like a puzzle. We let that dry and grouted with Prizm grout by Custom. Now looking at this 42sqft floor you would not think it would be this much work (over 20 hours) but when you're dealing with a custom floor the details all add up. These type of high end projects are perfect for us and I love them because they are functional works of art.