During the 1950s, Gene Myers began buying scraps of carpet from local mills and reworking them into stair treads and small rugs to sell through area chenille stores in “Peacock Alley” on Highway 41. The world was still in its post-war bubble; Americans were prosperous and optimistic, with a baby boom that led to the great suburban sprawl—which, in turn, meant more houses that needed carpets, rugs and stair treads. It was the perfect formula for a business, and so Myers Carpet Company was founded in 1957, with Gene Myers at the helm and his wife, Evelyn, as his first mate and main supporter. Seeing the opportunity before them, the couple opened the first carpet store in Dalton, Georgia, and began selling a variety of carpeting options made by local mills.
The store’s offerings started out small. Its first partnership was with Patcraft, though its lines were expanded when Art Black, founder of Evans and Black Carpet of Arlington, Texas, partnered with Myers to sell its line of products. The company continued its successful growth over the next two decades, and the sons that had watched their father build a brand took over operations in 1981, when Gene Myers died at the age of 53.
Rick and Ray Myers continued their family’s legacy and expanded the store by moving to a 3,000-square-foot showroom on Peachtree Street in Atlanta in 1987. Six years later, they saw another boom and purchased a 35,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse that ultimately became the flagship store for Myers Carpet. By 1998, the Myers brand had expanded outside of the state, adding a Myers Flooring location in Nashville to begin building what would eventually become an empire and establish their presence as a front-runner in Nashville’s carpeting and flooring industry. The decision to diversify proved successful when the company purchased Discovery Carpets in 2001 and relocated to Downtown Nashville. Though the company might have originally been Georgia-based, Myers demonstrated its command of the industry when it acquired Nashville Carpet Center, Inc., in 2016, followed by the purchase and renovation of its current 60,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse located in the Nashville Design District a mere year later.
Nearly 70 years after its founding, the company is comprised of Myers Flooring Dalton, which includes its corporate headquarters; Myers Flooring Atlanta, which has grown to be the largest floor covering store in Atlanta; and Nashville’s largest floor covering store, Myers Flooring Nashville. Naturally, its staff has also grown along with the locations, though the company remains rooted in the family values of its founding. “We employ approximately 100 personnel and numerous teams of independent installers who make up the Myers work family,” says Rick Myers, who continues in the role of co-owner with his brother, Ray. “We also have our controllers, Sandy Valleriano and Krista Pharr, Patty Mooney in human resources, and managers Chris Fonville in Atlanta, Doug Peeples in Nashville, and Sinclair Myers in Dalton.”
In each of its locations, Myers’ services include a wide range of flooring materials sourced from leading manufacturers, like Shaw, Mohawk, DH Floors and Engineered Floors. Over the years, the company has expanded into selling luxury carpet and area rugs—many of which are constructed of wool or other natural fibers—from such high-quality lines as Stanton, Couristan, Masland, Prestige, Karastan, Kaleen, Nourison, Bloomsburg, Kane, Fibreworks and Design Materials. “Myers Carpet has become the largest wool carpeting retailer in the Southeast and one of the major natural fiber retailers in the United States,” says Myers.
Additionally, all three locations include custom rug workrooms, where specially trained teams cut, serge, bind and create customized area rugs, stair runners and room-sized rugs for whatever a client’s needs may be, offering a unique way to personalize their space with hand-selected colors, textures and designs. “What separates Myers Carpet Company from other floor covering retailers are our state-of-the-art workrooms,” Myers contends. “We can use any roll of carpet in our warehouses or any sample in our showrooms and make a custom rug, hall runner or stair runner for our customers, which means that they are getting something completely one-of-a-kind and specifically tailored to their tastes, as well as the needs of their space. It also allows them greater freedom in their selection, providing our clients a virtually unlimited selection of products, from materials including sisal, seagrass, wool, cut pile and Berber, in addition to an endless array of colors and patterns. Knowing that, when they come to us, clients won’t be limited by what they see in a showroom or in a catalog. We’ve been able to provide something that most flooring companies can’t. That’s been one of the hallmarks of our success and something that pays homage to our beginnings, when my father created the company.”
The Atlanta showroom, which recently relocated to a newly renovated 80,000-square-foot facility on Chattahoochee Avenue, boasts a spacious 25,000-square-foot showroom complemented by a 55,000-square-foot workroom and warehouse. The showroom highlights both high-quality natural fiber rugs and custom carpeting services that make Myers a go-to source for designers and homeowners alike.
As closely tied to carpet as the company has been since its founding, flooring encompasses much more than carpeting and area rugs. In keeping with its expertise in the flooring industry, Myers offers luxury laminate, LVT and hardwood flooring options in a vast selection of finishes, colors, textures and widths to complement the design of any residential or commercial space.
Regardless of material, Myers sources its products from mills and manufacturers whose quality, reliability and beauty align with its dedication to craftsmanship, excellence and value. Nearly 70 years have proven the company to be a trusted provider for flooring, and that continued standard has weathered it through decades when competitors faltered.
Beyond residential and commercial sales, Myers has become a significant resource for Georgia’s film industry, supplying flooring for many movies that have been filmed in Atlanta, including Anchorman II, multiple movies from the Marvel franchise and three Clint Eastwood films. Additionally, it has worked with production for several TV series, including four seasons of Stranger Things and four seasons of Ozark. Naturally, the notoriety of this unique aspect of the business adds another dimension to the company’s influence, supporting both small-scale television projects and large movie productions with quality flooring solutions. “The film industry in Georgia has developed into a multibillion-dollar industry,” Myers notes. “Myers Carpet has had the opportunity to provide the floor covering for sets of a significant number of major films and many Netflix, Showtime and other television projects, such as Showtime’s recent film The First Lady, starring Viola Davis as Michelle Obama, Michelle Pfeiffer as Betty Ford and Gillian Anderson as Eleanor Roosevelt. We made three rugs for the Oval Office set in Atlanta, telling the story of three different presidents and first ladies.”
Having recently celebrated its 67th anniversary, Myers Carpet Company’s legacy has continued to live on through the people who have maintained the integrity of the name. As competition comes and goes, as technology changes, the brand recognition it has created reflects a history of service and satisfaction that has kept it successful over the decades. *
Liesel Schmidt lives in Navarre, Florida, and works as a freelance writer for local and regional magazines. She is also a web content writer and book editor. Follow her on X at @laswrites or download her novels, Coming Home to You, The Secret of Us and Life Without You, at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.