Welcome Home: Local Living

Episode 1: “I’m Home” 

Listen to the Interview

Drew Olson welcomed us into STARK Carpet’s recently opened showroom in North Charleston’s Design District to kick off our new interview series, Welcome Home: Local Living. We chatted about the small sensory details that make a house feel like a home as well as how livability and personal expression affect design decisions.

Audio Interview and Story by Josh Walker | Photograph by Ruta Smith

What makes a house feel like home? That question is at the heart of Welcome Home: Local Living, a new Charleston Home + Design series featuring conversations with the people who shape the places we live. Beyond first impressions, it explores how a home feels, functions, and reflects those who live in it, as well as how thoughtful choices can make spaces feel personal and comfortable.

In this first episode, Drew Olson, National Vice President of Sales at STARK Carpet, invited me into the brand new showroom in North Charleston’s Design District. Upon first impression, it’s a place for designers, architects, and homeowners to explore sophisticated collections of rugs, carpet performance materials, and custom designs. How it feels, though, is much closer to a home where connections happen.

Olson’s career in flooring began as a teenager, when a neighborhood carpet-store owner hired him for summer work. He removed old carpet, moved furniture, and eventually began installing flooring himself. What he remembers most, and what ultimately stuck, was seeing a room transform.

“Walking into a space and seeing the old and walking out the same day and seeing the new was quite satisfying for me,” he said.

He turned his early appreciation for transformation into a career and has spent decades helping designers and their clients bring their visions to life. Our conversation explored why good design often begins with how people actually live, and how a beautiful room still needs to accommodate children, pets, and the daily routines of real life. “Functionality is key,” Olson emphasized.

We also explored the role rugs play in shaping a room’s experience. They can act as a soft, understated anchor or become a highly stylized statement piece filled with pattern and color. Either way, the decision begins with a larger question: What should a space feel like?

Olson’s answer to that question goes straight to the heart of this interview series: “I’m home,” he said without missing a beat. “I think it’s important for all of us to come home and feel very comfortable in our own space,” he added.

For Olson, that sensation can come from the softness beneath your feet in a bedroom, the rug you see when you walk downstairs each morning, or a floor comfortable enough for playing games with your kids or goofing around with the dog. That feeling also comes from a home that is gradually collected, he said, reflecting where its owners have been, who they are, and how they live—rather than a collection of things purchased and placed all at once.

He’s found that “people like to feel connected to other people,” he said, and those relationships matter throughout the process of creating a home, just as they matter once the work is finished and visitors are welcomed in.

Throughout the interview, our conversation repeatedly returned to the idea that a meaningful home engages more than just the eyes. It has to work for real life. It has to feel good beneath your feet, tell a personal story, and create opportunities for connection. At its best, home is both a reflection of the people who live there and a place to draw others closer—it’s the unmistakable feeling that you have arrived exactly where you want to be.

—

Welcome Home: Local Living is a Charleston Home + Design series that explores what makes a house feel like home through conversations with the people who shape the way we live. Each installment goes beyond products and projects to uncover the experiences, ideas, and personal connections that influence how we design, furnish, and experience our homes. For more information or to participate in the series, contact josh@newhomecharleston.com.