Douglas flooring adds blinds, closet products

Fox Valley shoppers have a new source for Hunter-Douglas blinds and Coleman Custom Closets. Douglas Carpet One Flooring and Home recently acquired Gert's Blinds and Service, a longtime North Aurora business, and began offering premium blinds and closet makeover products in its showrooms in North Aurora and Geneva.

"We now offer vignettes showing our closets and blinds, as well as different varieties of flooring throughout the showroom and many smaller samples for viewing," said Mike Douglas, president.

Douglas Carpet One Flooring and Home has a long and storied connection to the Fox Valley, in general, and to North Aurora, in particular. It was founded in the North Aurora garage and basement of Len and Marilyn Douglas in 1964 and has been growing steadily in that community ever since.

Len Douglas was a postal worker, working two or three jobs at a time to support his wife and three children. One of those side jobs was installing carpet. That is how he got the idea to strike out on his own. He convinced a supplier to take him on and he founded L.A. Douglas Carpet Service, using his basement as a showroom and his garage as a warehouse.

Len would install the carpet that Marilyn sold from their home while she simultaneously raised her daughter and two sons. In 1969 the business had grown enough that Len built a separate warehouse but kept the carpet showroom in their basement.

In 1978 their son, Mike, joined the business as an installer and in 1983 he bought the business from his parents, moving it totally out of the Douglas family home and renaming it Douglas Floor Coverings. He added a showroom and doubled the size of the warehouse.

In addition, Mike Douglas added other products to the company's offerings, including vinyl flooring, ceramic floor tile, hardwood, wallpaper, mini-blinds and professional decorating services.

During the 1980s, he also expanded his services to include homebuilders and moved to ever-larger showrooms and warehouses.

In 1989, Mike's brother, Jim, joined the business, too. His parents were only working part-time by this point, so Mike needed the help.

The economy was booming during the 1990s, so Douglas Floor Coverings expanded again in order to better serve its customers, which by now included not only homeowners, but also school districts, churches, office buildings and the contractors building entire subdivisions.

In order to grow its buying power and to get some help with advertising and marketing, Douglas Floor Coverings became part of the Carpet One cooperative in 1997, changing its name to Douglas Carpet One.

A few years later, in order to appeal to an even wider audience, the Douglases added an outlet store called Big Bob's Flooring of the Fox Valley at 200 Alder Dr., North Aurora. It offers hundreds of remnants, in-stock specials and in-stock flooring for the cost-conscious consumers who prefer to hire their own installers. Special orders are also accepted at Big Bob's.

"Hard surface flooring makes up a much larger portion of the market today than it did years ago," Mike Douglas said. "Hardwood is very popular, but vinyl planks, laminate and tile have come a very long way and now they have a very high end look that people enjoy.

"The vinyl planks, for instance, are water resistant and they are very attractive. They are not your grandparents' vinyl flooring."

Carpeting also remains popular with many homeowners. It, too, has changed and gotten better through the years, especially with fighting allergens, Douglas said.

The Douglas showrooms carry both roll carpeting and area rugs. The business can also make any size area rug or stair runner from any carpet of the buyer's choice and its certified installers are experts at installing even the most challenging designs.

Mike's brother, Jim, serves as senior vice president of Douglas Floor Covering and personally oversees all Douglas Carpet One outside operations. He is on-site at jobs daily and oversees the installation crews and measuring, as well as job organization and claims management.

"Being a family-run business enables us to provide a higher level of customer service and care all the way through the process - from selection to installation," Jim Douglas said. "Our dedication to customer satisfaction, our quality of our products, and our commitment to stand behind our service and installation … this is what we provide. All of our Douglas Carpet One installers are certified and many of them have been part of the family for 20-plus years."

In fact, the third generation of Douglases, Mike's son, Zach, is also now part of the business, working in commercial sales.

"This company has deep roots in this community, so the Douglas family has engendered loyalty that has sustained them through the tough years. In fact, many of our customers have had more than one round of their home's flooring come from us," said Fairel Rank, the business' director of marketing.

"Mike is the former village president of Sugar Grove, is active in the North Aurora Lions Club, and is a former member of the board of directors of Mercy Center Hospital in Aurora. We have sponsored local Little League teams for years and take part in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Walk of the Fox Valley, which is coming up on Oct. 16.

"We also work with other Carpet One cooperative members to support breast cancer awareness nationwide and to support Building for America's Bravest program, which builds hi-tech smart homes for catastrophically injured, returning service members," she said.

Douglas Carpet One Flooring and Home has two showrooms - at 1049 W. Orchard Lake Dr. in North Aurora and at 716 W. State St. in Geneva.

For more information, visit www.douglascarpetonenorthaurora.com or call (630) 892-8600 or (630) 232-8600.