The Carpet Barn

Thank goodness for tax refunds. Otherwise we'd never get to do any of the big projects we always dream about. We have an old house. It needs fixing up. And one of the things that weighs on me most is our carpets. They're cream colored! That's one problem. Another problem is that the front room is different color from the adjacent master bedroom, which is different from the adjacent stairs. They're all a shade of cream or beige, but not exactly alike. The biggest problem is that we have two mobile kids, each of whom drools, spills, drags toys around, tracks food from the kitchen through, and in every other way possible create a track of grey from the kitchen, through the front room, and in a horseshoe shape around our bed. No matter what we do, we can't seem to keep it clean. We even get it professionally steam and chem-cleaned, but it only lasts a few days and then the drips and streaks and grey tracks are back. So we have finally decided it's time to replace the carpet with something more durable (and less beige).

My friend Krissy, may blessings rain down on her head forever, referred us to a discount carpet warehouse in West Valley called The Carpet Barn. I sent Kelly by to check it out since it is right by one of his clients. He called me as he drove past saying it looked like a dive. But I made him go in anyway. And I'm so glad I did. He called me right away raving about the amazing prices. New, nice, good quality carpets for about 1/4 the price you could find anywhere else. He brought home several swatches for me to examine. And they seemed pretty good! So today we went to the Carpet Barn together so I could see the possibilities for myself.

Let me first say that the name Carpet Barn is a misnomer. Even Carpet Shack might be a stretch. This scary looking warehouse in the seedy party of West Valley (is there any other part?) gave me doubts when I first pulled up. But once inside, I could see what Kelly (and Krissy) were raving about. Sure, there were a few $3.99/ yard pieces that wouldn't suit a dog house floor, but most of it was decent to excellent carpet and at fantastic prices. We found an additional 6 carpet choices to consider. We got swatches of all but one (it was a remnant so you couldn't cut into it) and brought them home. Then we laid them out, cocked our heads, squinted, moved them around, laid them against the wall, moved them to the center of the room, and tried desperately to use these 3 inch squares to imagine what the front room and bedroom would look like with those colors. Kelly even photoshopped the floor in our two favorite colors to see how they would look. But it's still hard to imagine it until you see it. Right now we're leaning towards a milk chocolate brown that is fairly soft, good quality and affordable. It's got a medium pile. The other option is a tan colored, longer pile. It would show more traffic (matting, not dirt), but the color is more neutral and the quality is even better. Same price. Tough choices! We also think we'll get the remnant, our favorite choice, for our bedroom. Tune in next week or the week after for the final result!