“The Rug Rats concept was born at my kitchen table in Farmville, Virginia in the Fall of 1987. I started the business with $500,” explains Sandy Henderson, owner of Rug Rats. Her eyes dance as she remembers how the idea first came to her. “I was excited from day one. A man asked me if I could craft a carpet using one of the Matisse cut-outs as inspiration. I said, ‘Of course!’ Then I figured out how to cut, sculpt, and create the design he wanted to make a quality carpet. It just took off from there.”
Picture-perfect Farmville is hardly the place where you would expect to find a revolution in carpet design. That’s what makes this story of vision, enterprise and optimism so uniquely American. “Even then, I could sense the enormous potential there was for show-stopping, one-of-a-kind custom carpets,” recalls Sandy.
The Rug Rats retail showroom (separate from the workroom) opened on Main Street in historic Farmville, Virginia in 1990, next to legendary Green Front Furniture, in quintessential small-town America. When Sandy expanded the design workroom in 1992, the Rug Rats custom design business moved to the next level.
“Our business has grown exponentially from the small town of Farmville and central Virginia to clients all over the country. We now offer many different lines of the world’s best carpets in addition to the custom rugs sculpted in our workroom, and now offering custom logo rugs and custom logo mats. I’m always looking for what’s best, what’s new.
Sandy is clear on the foundation for the Rug Rats success story. “We owe the success of the Rug Rats phenomenon to this – from the very beginning, we have kept our focus on three fundamentals: high-end carpets, very competitive prices, and the unique ability to turn our customer’s inspiration into reality. We always find a way.”
