Finding the Right Flooring

By Lisa Arnett
Appears in the April 2026 issue.

The Novy family’s basement was originally half carpet and half tile. By the time they hired designer Dana Silver of Desa Design Studio to redesign the space, they already had taken the first step of replacing the carpet with luxury vinyl plank (LVP) flooring. Even though the Novys didn’t love the look of the outdated tile that remained on the other half of the room, they assumed that replacing it would be out of their budget. Silver suggested they extend the vinyl flooring throughout for a more cohesive look. “We thought we’d have to rip out all the tile to do that, but we were able to have it installed right over it,” Novy says. However, that still left the issue of what to do with the landing at the bottom of the stairs, which was covered with the original tile and couldn’t be redone in LVP because of the exposed edges. Finding just the right tile to use just on the landing solved the problem. “Our idea was to find a wooden-look tile that was basically an exact match to the LVP flooring, and luckily we found something that was absolutely dead-on,” Silver says.

Photo: Ryan Ocasio Photography