Fine Carpets Custom Rugs

Customers of Sandy Henderson’s Farmville-based business walk all over her product. She doesn’t mind though; it’s all part of the custom carpet business.

Henderson’s company, Rug Rats, has been selling custom-designed, hand-made rugs for more than 15 years. The former dietician began the business after realizing the demand for high-end rugs. “I started with Greek rugs for Hampden-Sydney College, doing their fraternity letters on rugs. Then things just grew.”

She opened a shop on Farmville’s Main Street in 1990 and began a Web site, www.rugratsva.com, six years ago, which now provides 40 percent of the company’s sales. The small-town business, which employs seven, ships carpets all over the country. Judging from celebrity comments on its Web site, Henderson’s handiwork has impressed NASCAR’s Ward Burton and country legends Garth Brooks and Hank Williams Jr.

All of Rug Rats carpets are one of a kind. The patterns are laid out, cut and hand-sewn to make a floor covering much more peeper pleasing than machine manufactured rugs, which simply print images onto a carpet. Henderson claims that they can match any pattern in any size. “A machine can’t do what we do,” she says.

Since its modest beginning in a warehouse above a feed store, Rug Rats has moved to its elaborately painted showroom on Main Street. For Henderson, the love of the job is there as much as it was in those first tough years. “Beautiful rugs can take someone’s home to a whole new level — and that’s my passion.”

From frat boys to celebrity patrons, Rug Rats has relied on customer service and old-fashioned hard work to keep customers coming back.