Saturday exploration: Myer's carpet

Carpet remnants galore at Myer's Carpet.

Shoppers write down the sample number and price per-square-foot on the back of each sample for easy reference.

Maria is a most beautiful and most helpful shopping companion.

A variety of textures and materials comprise Myer's' offerings. This damask one was about $5 per square foot.

Seeing how our samples look against the hardwoods. The closest one was a favorite.

Since this post is about thrifty shopping and about home improvement, I was torn about whether to post this here or on my other blog.

I've been on the hunt for reasonably priced rugs. In fact, there have been multiple posts dedicated to said search. Thanks to a comment from Naomi on this post, I decided to go check out Myer's Carpet (1500 Northside Drive; Atlanta 30318; (404) 352-8141).

My bestie Maria and I arrived an hour shy of Myer's' 3pm Saturday close time, thinking we would have plenty of time to comb through the store.

I had sorely underestimated how much time one needs to dedicate to a Myer's trip! Myer's sells carpet, hardwood flooring, high end rugs and other floor coverings (think Shaw carpets, Bella Wood, etc. etc.). We, however, were only interested in checking out options when it comes to making rugs from carpet remnants. Even though we made a beeline for the remnant area, there was still much to see.

A salesperson showed us which carpet remnants were fair game for custom rug-making. They were sectioned off by material: polypropylene, wool and seagrass (looks like woven natural fibers). Browsers can take home as many free samples as desired — and it's recommended that you write down the specific carpet's price per square foot and item number on the back of the sample (or else it would be hard to keep up with what's what). From home, you can see how the samples fit with your home's colors and textures then e-mail an account rep with your ordering decision (size, specific carpet, etc.). Note: there are some finished rug remnants available for purchase as well.

Most remnants were about $2.00 to $5.00 per square foot. Binding the edges is $2.50 to $3.50 per linear foot (depending on what binding material you're using). We saw everything from neutral berbers to wool remnants with beautiful flowers or damask patterns on them. Colors ran the gamut from animal prints to safe solids.

I immediately thought, "this is great!" Then I started doing the math...

I was hunting for several rugs (master bedroom, dining area and hallway runner). Take the master bedroom rug I had in mind. I want a rug that's 8 x 11 (to mostly cover the floor). If I found a nice remnant with a $2.50/square foot price tag ($220-ish for the carpet itself) then added the binding costs ($95), that would still be one expensive rug! (If you're a new reader, then I should point out to you that I am a rather cheap chica.)

Sensible Maria reminded me that paying $300 for a nice, custom-made berber rug is smart investment when compared to buying a poorly made one for $125 that may need to be replaced a year later. Hmmm.... I had a lot of thinking to do!

Luckily, Myer's' model really encourages you to "sleep on" the decision to get a rug. We may pull the trigger on one (master bedroom?) in the next few months, but I mostly feel too afraid to commit to three $200 - $300 rugs. I also hear that Excel Carpet on Roswell Road has a similar model and perhaps even more affordable prices, so I may go check them out.

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: