FROM MICHELLE SLATALLA’S October 17, 2002 NY TIMES ARTICLE:
Finally I stumbled across Discountdecorator.com, which sells high-end carpets and wallpapers directly to home shoppers at reduced prices, eliminating the retailer altogether. The site’s selection of 13 brands was idiosyncratic, including Cowtan & Tout, Pierre Deux and Village. There were several carpet patterns from Langhorne Carpet, which makes carpet sold under the Stark Carpet brand. Among the site’s wallpapers were several expensive hand-screened Bailey & Griffin patterns that had been discontinued and discounted from $180 a roll to $30 a roll.
The quirky selection is the result of serendipity, said Marcy Maimon Monheit, an interior designer who owns the site. ”I saw there was a market of people who want high-end products but don’t want to pay a designer $100 an hour, so I called the companies that are near me and asked if they have any stock they want to clear out,” she said.
”Which of the carpet patterns do you recommend for hiding potentially disgusting stains?” I asked. ”Also, it should work for my daughter’s bedroom as well as the hallway, because her room needs to be brightened up.”
”Consider wallpaper for her bedroom and leave her beige carpet alone,” she advised. ”It’s a much cheaper way to decorate a room.”
She also recommended that I get a carpet installer to measure the hallway before ordering. Also, when buying direct, be sure to ask if carpet is returnable and whether it can be delivered to a warehouse where your installer can pick it up; you don’t want to try to wrestle a 500-pound roll of carpet by yourself.
In the end, I ordered a carpet sample (for a $25 deposit) and four wallpaper samples ($10 apiece) that Ms. Monheit said would be nice in the room of a person who likes pink. ”She won’t grow out of these patterns,” she said.