Podcast: How Armstrong Flooring® Kaleido™ Color Lab Is Expanding Creative Possibilities in Commercial Flooring with Oxana Dallas

In this special sponsored bonus episode of the I Hear Design podcast, host Robert Nieminen speaks with Oxana Dallas, principal designer-commercial, AHF Products.

Key Highlights

  • Armstrong Flooring® Kaleido™ Color Lab invites designers to become co-creators, experimenting with pattern, color, and scale for personalized flooring solutions.
  • The platform supports a broad range of applications, including floor-to-wall features, enhancing versatility in commercial spaces.
  • Biophilic-inspired patterns like Prism™, Mosaic™, and Mirage™ incorporate rhythm, complexity, and tactility without literal nature mimicking.
  • With domestic manufacturing and low minimum orders, Kaleido enables quick, sustainable, and project-specific flooring options.
  • The episode highlights the convergence of digital visualization, biophilic design, and resilient flooring technology to elevate commercial interior design.
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In this special sponsored bonus episode of the I Hear Design podcast, host Robert Nieminen speaks with Oxana Dallas, principal designer of commercial at AHF Products, about how Armstrong Flooring®’s Kaleido™ Color Lab is reimagining the flooring specification process as a more creative, flexible, and digitally driven design experience.

Rather than treating flooring as a finish selected near the end of a project, Kaleido invites designers to become co-creators—experimenting with pattern, color and scale. Dallas explains how the platform gives designers a curated yet highly adaptable system for developing custom LVT visuals that align with a project’s brand identity, emotional tone, and performance needs.

Listeners will learn how Prism™, Mosaic™, and Mirage™ patterns draw on biophilic principles without literally mimicking nature, instead translating qualities such as rhythm, complexity, order, and visual tactility into modular flooring designs. Dallas also discusses how Kaleido’s floor-to-wall capability expands the role of LVT beyond the floor, opening new possibilities for wayfinding, feature walls, patient rooms, hospitality spaces, workplace environments, and other commercial interiors.

The conversation also explores how customization, speed, and sustainability can work together. With more than 500 combinations of pattern, color, and scale—as well as stocked neutral options—Kaleido is designed to help specifiers move quickly without sacrificing creativity or client confidence. Dallas highlights the platform’s made-to-order model, domestic manufacturing, accessible minimum order quantities of only 2,500 sf,  EPDs, and long-term performance attributes as part of a broader shift toward more intentional, durable, and project-specific commercial flooring solutions.

For designers, architects, and specifiers looking for ways to bring more personality, purpose, and performance into commercial interiors, this episode offers insight into how digital visualization, biophilic design thinking, and resilient flooring technology are converging to create more expressive surface design systems.

Meet Our Guest

Oxana Dallas, Leading Commercial Designer, AHF Products

Oxana Dallas is a leading commercial designer at AHF Products, advancing resilient flooring through biophilia, material storytelling, and modern craft. Originally from Moscow, she holds degrees in civil engineering, interior design, and a Master of Art in Textiles from Kent State. Her award‑winning woven work shaped a career defined by precision, elegance, and nature‑driven design. Across healthcare and hospitality, her acclaimed AHF collections reflect a mission to create flooring that performs beautifully while inspiring and elevating
every space.

Sponsored By:

 

AHF Products is a leading hard surface flooring manufacturer in the USA with a family of trusted brands serving the residential and commercial hardwood, tile, and vinyl flooring markets. With decades of experience in award-winning flooring design, product development, manufacturing, and service, we create quality flooring to last for generations through inspiring designs, innovation, and a deep commitment to outstanding customer service. We manufacture beautiful, durable hard surface flooring and wall coverings in a range of textures, styles, and designs to meet the needs of the consumer and commercial markets.

About the Author

Robert Nieminen

Market Content Director

Market Content Director, Architectural Products, BUILDINGS, and interiors+sources

Robert Nieminen is the Market Content Director of three leading B2B publications serving the commercial architecture and design industries: Architectural Products, BUILDINGS, and interiors+sources. With a career rooted in editorial excellence and a passion for storytelling, Robert oversees a diverse content portfolio that spans award-winning feature articles, strategic podcast programming, and digital media initiatives aimed at empowering design professionals, facility managers, and commercial building stakeholders.

He is the host of the I Hear Design podcast and curates the Smart Buildings Technology Report, bringing thought leadership to the forefront of innovation in built environments. Robert leads editorial and creative direction for multiple industry award programs—including the Elev8 Design Awards and Product Innovation Awards—and is a recognized voice in sustainability, smart technology integration, and forward-thinking design.

Robert's work has earned him industry-wide recognition throughout his career, including:

  • ASBPE Award (2019, 2018, 2017, 2015)—Best Regularly-Contributed Column; retrofit
  • TABPI Award (2017, 2016)—Top 25 Entries, Cover Story; Retail Environments
  • WPA Maggie Award (2011, 2010, 2008)—Best Publication, Trade; interiors+sources
  • FOLIO: Eddie Gold Award (2022, 2007)—Best Feature Article & Special Section; interiors+sources
  • Contributing author of ASID’s 2020 Outlook and State of Interior Design report, as well as The State of the Interior Design Profession (Fairchild Books, 2010), which earned a place on the International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers’ “50 Must Read, Must Have” book list.
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