Image Tile and Carpet - Faces of Burnet Rd.

submitted by Steve Zettner

Heart Leads Moroccan to  Burnet Rd. Carpet Store

Sam Beirouch once sold my wife and I a carpet. A few years later, when I met him by chance, he was effusive. “How’s your wife – Sara? You know I saw you once at Pyramids when your family was eating there. I couldn’t say hi because I was on stage with my band playing the lute. (Yes – that was me. We were playing by the bar). Your wife was having a baby, wasn’t she? How did that turn out?”

Sam, the manager of the Image Tile and Carpet on Burnet Rd, is a native of Morocco and speaks six languages, a handy accomplishment when your career takes you to customers on three continents. Sam’s career began in perfume, not carpet. As a Promotional Décor Department Manager for Chanel, Sam brought innovation to the old theme of product contests. His “Count and Win” concept used a computer-generated kaleidoscope of Chanel product images – perfumes, lipsticks, watches. Count the correct number of products and win a prize. “The catch was that in order to count the products, you had to study them carefully, become familiar and comfortable with the look.”

While in the United States on a business trip, Sam visited Austin and met Marnie, a native Austinite who grew up near Highland Mall. After a year of restless trans-Atlantic dating, Sam married Marnie and gave up his promising career at Chanel to live in Austin. “I knew the previous owner of Image Tile and Carpet. So I came down to Austin and threw myself into learning the trade.” He learned quickly and was named store manager for the Burnet Rd. location. He and Marnie have talked about moving to Africa and working with orphans in Kenya or Ethiopia. But that plan was put on hold this year after the birth of their son Jibril.

Burnet Rd. is known around Austin as a home-improvement hub, says Sam. “There are five other tile and carpet places along this street. People drive down Burnet hitting one store after another, looking for what they want.” Allandale homeowners will often come in complaining about the pink 1950s-era tile. “They want something more elegant. We have a huge selection of products. Again, the trick is figuring out what you want.” To that end, Sam’s floor team offers free interior-decorating expertise. “We’ll come over with samples to help people brain-storm, or we can refer customers to professionals that we work with and trust.”

Sam sees Burnet Rd. growing, and his business along with it. “Image recently became the biggest specialty retailer of flooring products in Central Texas, and we’re proud of that. Our secret – we deliver what we promise.”