The Carpetman By Stark owner Robert Gill and son Colby Gill
The Carpetman by Stark sets an unbelievably high bar for family businesses everywhere. From eccentric shags in the ’70s to modern, outdoor carpets, the company has been redesigning the East End for over 50 years. We sat down with owner Robert Gill to chat about the Carpetman’s history and how every generation brings something new to the surface.
CAN YOU TELL A BIT ABOUT THE CARPETMAN BY STARK’S HISTORY? The Carpetman was started by my father in 1971, and I bought the company in 1993. I worked in the company throughout high school and early college before I went into the military, and once I got out, I bought the company from him. We have always catered to a diverse segment of people when it comes to flooring. We mostly target the higher end of the flooring industry, which includes wool, natural fiber and more. We’re dealing with handknotted area rugs, and we are working on some of the finest homes in America.
I’ve worked in seven different carpet stores across the U.S. while I was in the military, and nothing compares to the business environment that we have in the Hamptons. The only other company I’ve seen that even comes close to dealing with what we deal with is Stark, which sells a combination of a high-end clothes showroom trade-only and is a carpet mill that imports its own carpets. I have been trying to create a relationship with them for the past 20 years, but they always viewed us as a competitor since NYC and the Hamptons were close. When NYC was forced to slow down during COVID, one of the Stark owners in the Hamptons realized he needed a store on the East End. A few people in the industry who knew I was interested in becoming a Stark showroom put us in touch, and the rest is history!
HOW HAS THE COMPANY EVOLVED WITH THE DIFFERENT GENERATIONS? When my father started the company, it was only carpets: big old fuzzy shags in all the infamous bright colors from the ’70s. When I bought the company, I wanted to expand our materials and start working with seagrass and sisal. We were pushing to carry better goods that would be fit for a Hamptons summer home. Over time, we expanded from one table of wool hanging samples to a complete showroom full of wool carpets. We reached a point where we had well over 10,000 samples hanging in the store. I had a small fortune wrapped up in my samples— and of course, we became very good at selling and installing sisal carpets, and we started developing a large sewing room to put on binding and different options for the edge of carpets.
We also had a carpet cleaning company, and we just started installing Hunter Douglas window treatments, which was something that my father thought of in the early ’80s as well. It finally reached a point where I had to open up Hampton Fabric and Blinds. This way my customers would have full access to all the window treatments and fabric options without having to go through closure rooms to get it. We guarantee that Carpetman By Stark has the best prices and best service any day!
ARE THERE ANY NEW PRODUCTS OR PROJECTS YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT? As far as products go, we are excited for outdoor carpet (which is technically a four-letter word). Everybody thinks back to that ugly grass carpet that they would stick outside on their porch, but now they have developed a fiber that is bleach proof, doesn’t have a shine, is soft, and they can weave it into the delicate patterns that wool carpet normally has.
I’ve installed a lot of outdoor carpet on stairs and many area rugs in people‘s houses, and you cannot tell that it is not wool unless you do a burn test on it, and if you did that you would realize that it is a synthetic fiber. The advantage to my customers is that it is cleanable, it does not pill when you hit it with a vacuum cleaner, and it has the luxurious look everybody is looking for.
I’m excited about all of our projects that we do with our customers. I know that seems lame, but that’s why I’m in the carpet business. 633 County Road 39A, Southampton, 631.283.0885, thecarpetmanbystark.com
Photography by: PHOTO BY MARK SAGLIOCCO
