So so so many of you have DM’d or commented asking a lot of questions about what happened to our rug line – why am I not on the site anymore, and do some of our rugs have a new name? It’s been confusing, so here goes!

Why Aren’t You On The Website Anymore?

Well, I’m no longer collaborating with them – they cancelled the collaboration. After 2 lines with Rugs USA (2 years), the second one in particular selling very well, they made the decision to break it off.

Why Was It Cancelled?

I don’t totally know, but there has been leadership change and financial shifts. Different CEOs get to change the direction of the company under their watch to meet their goals (usually under pressure from their board of directors, debtors, and investors). Essentially, financial shifts changed their marketing budgets, and collaborations are always part of the marketing budget, so we are always vulnerable to this when there are large leadership changes (this isn’t the first time this has happened). Pretty standard business, honestly. The line was doing very well, but Rugs USA needed to make some changes, and so I’m sure a lot was on the chopping block, including their influencer/designer collaborations.

Did You See It Coming?

Kinda. Again, when we heard about the changes at the top, you always wonder if they’ll retain the relationship – its their call and again, I’ve been through this before with new CMO’s at other brands. Different visions = different strategies. At first, we were told about the marketing personnel changes, then bigger marketing shifts. I knew could happen. A week later, decisions were made.

Are You Bummed?

Sure. We worked really hard on these, and the revenue was great for EHD – myself and the team. We were really proud of them, and the entire process was a super positive experience. Had it been fraught, we would likely have had a different reaction, but it was really great, so we are sad to not work with them anymore. But I also know that businesses have make hard decisions at times (all the time, really). Zero hard feelings – it’s just business.

Was It Because They Didn’t Sell?

Nope. The sales were high. But listen, Rugs USA brought a lot to the table, including in-house designers and a massive population of people who shop from them regardless of them knowing me or not. It was great marketing for us. I get the need to cut costs in hopes of retaining more of the profit. I’ve done similar moves in the past when I was in had skyrocketing overhead – you hope you can do the same volume with less costs (and sometimes you totally can). I have no insight into their business beyond what I read in a Wall Street Journal article. Everyone is vulnerable and hard decisions have to get made at times, so I really do understand the reaction, and only time will tell if that was the right thing to do.

Do You Regret Doing It?

No! We learned so much, met such awesome people (their marketing team was so incredible – totally changed the brand to be way more design forward, cool, stylish), and my team got to develop and flex different muscles. Plus, we made money, so it really was a win, regardless of how it turned out.

Are You Looking For Another Rug Partner?

Yes!… As of today. Because it was such a success, we feel confident that we can work with another company we love and produce as good, if not better, rugs for us and you. We have a lot of revenue streams, thank goodness, so this is just one that is down for a bit, but we are genuinely excited to find the right partner and give it another go.

The Biggest Bummer…

I designed (and already shot) my brother’s river house to highlight these rugs. It’s going to be in a big magazine spread (with rooms you haven’t seen yet), so not making any money off of that design and marketing work on our end is a huge bummer. Sure, we can link to them and make a tiny affiliate commission (usually 3-5% of the retail cost, depending), so we’ll still link to them. But when you literally design a house based around your own designs, excited to show people how good it looks in this home that you’ve spent 4 years working on, and then it’s no longer your line…well, yeah, that’s a bummer. I still stand by the rugs – they look so good in my brother’s house, and I’m not changing them out.

Can They Still Use Your Photos And The Names Of The Rugs?

Yep. People are extra confused by this but If they paid for the shoot and the production of the rugs, they own usage (even if it’s in my home and named after my kids or my maiden name – Starke!). So if you see photos of them at the mountain house or our house, it’s all legal and on the up and up!

If We Buy Them Does EHD Benefit?

Kinda? We can still use affiliate links when we feature the rugs here or on social (links that pay out the influencer a tiny percentage of the sale price from the retailer, at no cost to the consumer). So we’d be silly not to link to the rugs when we feature them on past or my brother’s project, but it’s not the royalty that we used to get, it’s pretty minimal. I still think they are great rugs, and right now they are on a massive sale (they might be discontinuing them, which is why they are on such a huge 40% off sale).

Man, it’s fun to see them all together like this.

I’m seriously so proud of my team for their hard work on this, especially Jess, who helped lead the design process. The line did really well, we had a ton of best sellers that we loved, and again, we learned so much about the design and manufacturing process. RugsUSA was a fantastic partner, the design and marketing team particularly rad. And listen, running a business, especially a business rooted in digital marketing, we have to be fluid and willing to pivot pretty quickly (lord, we know how much TikTok and AI are disrupting otherwise historically solid platforms – ha, I use the word “historically” very loosely). It requires us to be nimble, not sensitive and also to have a lot of different revenue streams, so if a solid one (like this) gets cut in one day, we are totally fine. It’s always a great reminder to stick to our core values and audience, and while growing forward is great, growing bigger comes with its own risks. A huge thanks to all of you who bought the rugs, love them, and cared enough to ask.

We’ll keep shopping from Rugs USA when we need a great affordable rug for now. :) Onward and Upwards!!

Unless Otherwise Noted:
*Styled by Getteline Rene
**Photos by Mark Weinberg