Nationwide — Meet Audrey Bell-Kearney, founder of The Rug Chest, the newest Black woman-owned area rug company in the country. An entrepreneur of 23 years, Audrey says that she was inspired to start this particular venture when she came up with the idea to produce a special line of Madam CJ Walker dolls. During that time, she was already producing plus-size fashion dolls with her friend, Georgette. While searching for toy manufacturers in China, she unexpectedly came across a rug manufacturer and it hit her: “Why not start an area rug company?”
However, what started as an idea to print images of Madam CJ Walker on a rug has already become much more than just that. After starting the company Audrey realized that she could work with artists who are looking for more outlets to sell their work. This partnership will give Audrey the opportunity to keep new and unique kitchen rugs coming out. Some of those will be limited edition rugs while others will have no limits.
What Audrey learned from her time in the doll world was that people loved to own limited edition collectibles, so she is transferring that knowledge over to The Rug Chest.
In 23 years as a successful business owner, she has learned a lot about launching businesses. Audrey says that The Rug Chest is what she calls her fourth real company and believes that all her past ventures have prepared her for today. Two of Audrey’s ventures are streaming TV networks, so it would only make sense to have a rug shopping channel. The rug shopping channel will be on The Noise Media Network which is also owned by Audrey. Noise Media Network is streamed on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV & Android Mobile App. So being able to tell the story of each rug will be viewed on smart TVs in over 100 countries if not more. Anyone who knows Audrey knows she loves technology and is also working on how to leverage Artificial Intelligence to help build The Rug Chest Brand.
Now all of that seems pretty exciting for a new rug company, but Audrey says that what is really exciting for her about this venture is her Adopt My Room Initiative. Audrey knew right out of the gate that she wanted to have a give back built right into the company at the beginning. She thought about a cause she would support and Habitat For Humanity showed up for her. She thought that she would donate a rug to each of the new homeowners. She had a meeting with the Director of Philanthropy at her local Habitat For Humanity and during that meeting, the director mentioned that they had a program called “adopt a room” where they made over a room. The director also talked about how former Atlanta Falcon’s Warrick Dunn had furnished a whole home for a new homeowner. After Audrey left that meeting, the Adopt A Room program stuck in her head and that is when she decided that she wanted to do more than donate a rug to Habitat. She wanted to makeover rooms for children as a part of her give back who were not a part of Habitat For Humanity. So, she decided that she would create an initiative called Adopt My Room where children with the help of a guardian if needed can submit a video to have their room entered into a pool for a room makeover.
“I cannot furnish a whole house like Warrick yet, but I can put aside some of my proceeds from the company to support Habitat For Humanity and for room makeovers for a child,” says Audrey. Now Audrey says she sucks at decorating, so she is looking to partner with interior designers and organizers to help her move her initiative forward as the company starts to bring in revenue.
“I feel so strongly about The Rug Chest and Adopt My Room Initiative and how they will help artists, homeowners, and make a child happy. I am borrowing experiences from my past adventures to light the path of my future legacy,” says Audrey.
For more information about The Rug Chest go to TheRugChest.com or AdoptMyRoom.com.
For press inquiries, contact Audrey@TheRugChest.com or call 770-282-5116.