Magic (Econo) Carpet Ride

I gave up rug hunting a few months ago, beaten down by the prices and options.

The husband, however, hadn't given up faith. "Wanna go check out that rug place?" he asked two weekends ago.

Whatever. Sure. Blah. Blah. I guess it had been long enough to where I could try again.

So we ventured down to Myer's Carpet (1500 Northside Drive; Atlanta 30318; 404-352-8141). I'd been there once before (see the post here) and the hubs had only seen the samples I brought back. Last time I visited, I was sticker shocked; the least expensive scrap rugs cut to my custom 8 x 11 size would have still been nearly $300!

We wandered around the expansive back warehouse, barely getting a "let me know if you need anything!" from some employee off in the distance. (If you read their google reviews, you'll see a few mentions of lax customer service/attentiveness.)

One piece of good news here is that we realized the pre-made rugs rolled up and stacked against the walls were more reasonable than I remembered. We found some neutral, durable 9 x 12 rugs for anywhere from $250 to $600. Of course none of these were your fancy orientals or fine fibers — but they would have done the job of covering our master bedroom floor just fine.

A $250 pre-made rug from Myer's Carpet we almost bought (9 x 12).

However, we weren't enthralled. There wasn't one rug that begged, "take me home!"

I casually mentioned to Dan that we could maybe check out Excel Carpet in Dunwoody before we called it a day. I called and asked, "Do you have pre-made rugs, say 8 by 11 or 9 by 12?" A friendly voice said something to the effect of, "No, I don't think we have any pre-made ones in today... but I could tell you how much having one made would cost." (I anticipated a tough-to-stomach number but asked for more detail anyway). "Sure, what's the average price?" I asked.

When we heard, "Oh, probably $175 or $200," we were sold.

Since we didn't have anywhere to be that particular Saturday, we made the trek up 400 to Excel Carpet (8345 Roswell Road; 30350; 770-650-5959). If I would have visited the Kudzu page for Excel in advance, I would have seen 76 5-star ratings.

The show room and remnant "warehouse" at Excel are about an eighth of the size of Myers', but they made up for it in price and customer service.

We were greeted by a friendly employee named Russ, who helped us in a not-overly-salesmany way throughout our entire visit. We asked for quotes on a few rugs — and he looked hesitant to tell us when a rug would be closer to $200 than $175. We told him not to fear, that the prices were still very reasonable. He answered our questions, told us what was most popular and walked us through the timeline (rugs are usually ready the Wednesday after you order them).

Excel works like this: remnants stacked along the wall are marked with their dimensions and prices. You buy the WHOLE remnant (even if it's a little too big) but the binding is at no additional charge. And we saw big ole remants (14 x 8 and crazy sizes like that) for under $300. You can also shop from large rolls of their popular carpets — these are sold by the foot and do not include binding. Then there are seagrass options, for which they only charge for binding. (To put some numbers around that, a 11 x 7 foot seagrass rug would have been about $180 for the binding). Excel carries berbers, polyesters, etc. etc. in mostly neutrals but a few patterned carpets. And I should also point out that while Excel has nice items, Myers has more in terms of high-end/expensive options.

Shaggy, multi-colored fiber carpet that can be made into rugs per your specs.

One seagrass option. With seagrass, you get to pick what color ribbon/cloth binding to put around the edges (hunter green, burgandy, black, chocolate, etc.)

We opted to buy some slightly shaggy, multicolored carpet (off a large roll) in 11 x 7 versus 9 x 12. That way the rug would be about 20 inches from each wall in our master bedroom. With the the necessary binding it was $183. We also have our eyes on a nice, large berber roll that is $179 (would have free binding).

If we were to come into some money and need a new living room rug, I'd get one in this pattern made. Love.

We left Excel feeling good about the customer service, selection, pricing and information. I didn't know to to dislike our other store experience until we went to a place with a much more customer-focused vibe.

Picked up the finished rug/carpet Tuesday:

The fibers.

Our one regret is that we didn't REALLY diagram where our furniture was, how deep each piece is, etc. We would have maybe made the rug just a little bit wider — not because it HAD to be wider but because aesthetically it may have made more sense. Still, we're very happy.

And for fun, pre-rug: