I'm not going to be delicate about it: my first flooring attempt looks pretty bad. Yes, it could definitely be worse. But it could also be a million times better, so it's a real bummer that it's super-bad. I guess it's not terrible.
I don't think it's so bad that it's distracting when it's blurred out in the background when I've zoomed in close-up on an item like this photo. But I don't care for the uniformity & flatness of the texture. I also don't like how little it looks like wood. The lightest color that I used appears to be too pale. The lack of uniqueness, knotholes, cracks & crevices......boring, boring, boring!
It was a good experiment & I'm glad I tried it. I've learned that feigning wood grain on Illustrator is currently so far out of my wheelhouse that I'm like a moth trying to land on the moon. No matter what the effort I put forth, it's not going to happen without magic & miracles.
Luckily, there are far more flooring options than wood alone. In my rooting about the internet I came across many examples of dollhouse flooring - both extravagantly detailed & elegantly simple. For my next experiments, I'm going to focus on the plain & understated; how to do it well, how to make it mine. Concurrently, I have thought about a few more intricate flooring ideas that I'd like to try. I'll learn those techniques while mastering something much more within my fumbling grasp.