$699,000 Oyster Bay home's tile came from Versace store, owner says

Celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Sean Combs and Elton John have walked on the marble tiles in the library of an Oyster Bay home on the market for $699,000. 

That’s because the tiles were hand-picked and imported by fashion designer Gianni Versace, and once lay in the elevator of his Manhattan boutique, says Matthew Ruiz, who owns the house with his wife, Natascha.   

“The list of celebrity feet that have crossed those tiles is innumerable,” Ruiz says. 

Matthew and Natascha met while working as managers at Versace in Manhattan and were married in 2008 at the Versace mansion in Miami, he says. When the Fifth Avenue boutique was being renovated with a more modern influence, he noticed that the marble flooring was being uprooted. 

“So, I asked, ‘What are you going to do with it? You’re just ripping it out?’ ” Ruiz recalls. “They said, “Yeah, we’re going to throw it away.’ And I said, ‘No! No! No! You cannot throw away thousands of dollars of marble.’

“I guess my charm led to them letting me take it home,” he adds with a laugh.

The two tiles — featuring a grid pattern that combines emerald green, cream, black and white — are about 4 square feet each and are at the center of the home's library, which is filled out with cream marble tiles, Ruiz says. The tiles are pictured in a book about fashion architecture.

They are just some of unusual design elements in the three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bathroom home. 

The house was the first built in the Capitol Heights Park development in 1906, says listing agent Danielle Laria of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. During the division of lots at the time, a late-1800s barn and carriage house belonging to a neighboring house were inherited by this 51-by-157-foot property.  The structure, now a two-car garage, includes a 1 1/2-story loft with a bathroom that has a shower tiled with tumbled marble stone and a backlit onyx sink. The loft, which has water views, serves as Ruiz’s "man cave."

Just outside the garage is a hot tub made by Bisazza in Italy that is iridium tile, giving it an iridescent and reflective quality.   

“It’s the best of both worlds because the house has the character for somebody looking for an older house, but we have updated it with all of the modern amenities that you would need,” Ruiz says.

The living room of the main house features original molding, millwork and wood floors, plus a decorative faux fireplace, wood-beamed ceilings and French doors that open to the library.  The house includes a formal dining room and an eat-in kitchen with stainless steel appliances.  A year-round sunroom, with radiant heated floors, opens to a stone patio in the backyard.

Being in the fashion industry, the Ruizes say they needed extra closet space that older houses don’t always provide. So, they built a walk-in closet in the attic and added a staircase in the master bedroom leading up to it.

The stairs leading down to the partially finished basement in the main house are made of 2.2 tons of onyx black marble river rock, Ruiz says. 

“I’m a tile freak,” Ruiz jokes. “The main house we kept very classic and neutral, but when you go downstairs, it’s like an escapism to something more modern.”  

The Ruizes say they plan to stay in Oyster Bay, where their designer consignment and luxury resale boutique is located. Has he considered taking the Versace tiles with him to his next home? 

“I did think about that,” he says. “But we put it there, it belongs there. I think the next owner should enjoy it as much as we did.”