Last year furniture sales hit a record high of 63.76 billion dollars in the United States. And the large majority of those sales were mass-produced thousands of miles from the closest American shore.
Think about what the impact would be if most of us shopped for locally-made American furniture.
Considering Americans discard 12 million tons of furniture every single year, it’s pretty massive—not to mention all the emissions reductions from shipping. If more people opted for not just eco-friendly furniture but furniture made in this country, it would support both the local economy (by creating meaningful jobs) and also the planet.
Not to mention the fact that quality handcrafted American furniture is hard to beat.
But don’t think choosing local means sacrificing selection or variety. You can furnish your home ten times over with the beautiful wares these brands offer. And they don’t just make locally, but they also use sustainable materials, ethical labor and green business practices.
We did our best to make this roundup as prefabricated as possible for you, but if you don’t mind a little “assembly required”, you can read up on our new Brand Rating System. We’re soon to roll it out to assess brands against a range of criteria, like transparency, climate impact and water use. You can learn about here.
We independently research all featured brands and we ask them to confirm their claims. In many cases we personally review recommended products. This post contains affiliate links which means we may earn a commission if you buy something. Learn more here.
Shop Local For Furniture Made In The USA
Floyd uses top-quality, low-off-gassing materials to give your home a minimalist Scandi vibe. Their USA-made pieces have outstanding attention to detail, and some of their wood is locally grown, too.
As one of Etsy’s prestigious best sellers with thousands of five-star reviews, Brandon Built’s handmade furniture uses reclaimed and FSC-certified wood
Index: American Furniture Brands
- Floyd Jump to brand
- Brandon Built Jump to brand
- Reclaimed Wood USA Jump to brand
- What WE Make Jump to brand
- Emeco Jump to brand
Floyd
About Floyd
If any city understands and values the importance of American labor and engineering, it’s Detroit. Floyd is one such “Detroit company that wants to get away from disposable furniture.”
While not all Floyd furniture is made in the USA, most pieces are. They keep their offerings simple: a bed frame, mattress, sofa, chaise, dining table, side table, coffee table, standing desk, and a few storage and shelving systems.
Floyd’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
When you furnish with Floyd, you’ll be bringing these materials into your home: Steel (for its durability and recyclability), natural linoleum sourced from the Netherlands (made from wood, rosins, cork, limestone, jute, and linseed oil—not vinyl), Baltic birch, and FSC-certified American-grown walnut.
They avoid flame retardants and only work with wood and foam components that aren’t associated with dangerous levels of off-gassing and VOC emissions. Many of the pieces meet CARB II and TSCA Title VI Certifications, some of the highest anti-formaldehyde standards around.
Supply chain & labor practices:
All products are in either the United States, Mexico, or China.
Regardless, they only partner with factories that share the same environmentally and socially responsible values.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
Their Full Cycle program extends the life span of their products by offering to service furniture and recycle it responsibly when repairs are no longer an option. It’s currently only available in California, however.
In fact, everything is designed with easy-to-service components, making it simple to make small repairs/replacements, rather than discarding the entire piece.
You can also shop for imperfect Floyd products, keeping them out of the landfill and saving up to 50% for doing so.
By 2025, 70% of their materials will come from recycled or renewable sources (including 100% FSC certified wood). By then, they will have also eliminated single-use plastics and will disclose a greenhouse gas emissions report.
Brandon Built
About Brandon Built
Based in Kearney, Nebraska, Brandon Built started as a joke. Three friends were discussing their passion for building home furniture and laughing at the thought of someone actually being interested in their own creations. The next day, one of them surprised the others by announcing an Etsy shop had been established.
No one is laughing now, but there are plenty of smiles, from the 7000+ customers who have given the shop 5-stars and the vast number of beneficiaries from Brandon Built’s not-for-profit business model.
Jokes aside, they’re truly a star, with four items earning a place on Etsy’s prestigious best sellers list. Shop bookshelves, bar carts, bar stools, blanket ladders, clothing racks, coffee tables, end/side tables, shelving, TV stands, and more.
Brandon Built’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
The furniture is made with reclaimed wood or solid pine, sourced from an FSC certified supplier.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Two of the friends are still involved with the business and the USA based woodworking that comes with it.
Reclaimed Wood USA
About Reclaimed Wood USA
Reclaimed Wood USA ticks all the boxes. At 28,000 sales (and growing) with an average five-star review on Etsy, we’re clearly not the only ones who think so.
Because they proudly use reclaimed wood to create beautiful handcrafted furniture—from small shelves to big fireplace mantles—you won’t get any Ikea-esque pieces. Instead, they’ll adorn your home with rich, unique, and rustic made heirloom pieces designed for generation after generation.
Reclaimed Wood USA’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
This shop uses reclaimed wood and metal, most of which comes from the construction sites and wreckage caused by Gulf Coast hurricanes. All are finished with 100% eco-friendly water based stains and lacquers.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Reclaimed Wood USA works strictly with US-based designers. All handmade in their woodworking and metal fabrication studio.
What WE Make
About What WE Make
What WE Make (AKA wwmake) is a family-owned and operated brand hailing from Chicago with 15+ years of experience. In the past five years, they’ve shifted focus entirely on reclaimed materials.
Using the old to create a whole new look, they offer living room furniture, dining room furniture, bedroom furniture, and more. Specific pieces include dining tables, benches, coffee tables, end/accent tables, console tables, bathroom vanities, chairs and stools, buffets, bookcases, storage pieces, media consoles, and eco-friendly desks.
What WE Make’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
What WE Make uses reclaimed old-growth wood, sustainably sourced Midwest walnut and white oak, hand-welded metal, and durable, special-blend concrete. All old-growth wood is harvested from midwestern barns and is at least a century old. It features one-of-a-kind variations with naturally-occurring splits, weathering, knots, cracks, and nail holes.
Pieces are finished with no or low-VOC eco-friendly finishings – far fewer toxins than traditional furniture.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Each family member is responsible for a different aspect What WE Make. All woodworking is done by hand by brothers Dan and George Quinn in their Algonquin, IL workshop.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
All items are made-to-order, which both minimizes their carbon footprint and means they don’t need to have a warehouse storing stock. To reduce waste even further, they donate woods scarps and sawdust locally for farming and fires.
Emeco
About Emeco
What do Coca-Cola and Emeco have in common? A plastic bottle! Well, 111 plastic bottles, to be exact. A partnership between the two brands has given way to the 111 Navy Chair—which is made from 111 plastic bottles and can be 100% recycled.
For locally made modern furniture, Emeco is ironically taking it back to 1944, when the salvaged aluminum Emeco 1006 Navy Chair was first created for warships and sailors. Almost 80 years later, those same chairs are found in offices, hotels, and restaurants around the world.
Chairs are still the brand’s forte, although they now also have stools, tables, shelves, benches, sustainable outdoor furniture, and upholstered furniture. Not to mention a host of accessories and replacement parts to keep this American made furniture lasting a long time.
Emeco’s Ethical & Sustainability Practices
Materials:
Recycled aluminum (80%) is what’s found in their modern version of the Navy Chair. They also use recycled PET (from plastic bottles), local and FSC-certified or reclaimed wood, cork, eco-concrete (made from recycled glass bottles), and reclaimed wood polypropylene (WPP), which is leftover bits from plastic factories combined with discarded sawdust and wood from lumber yards. It yields a speckled look and natural easy-to-wipe feel that’s effective for high use and harsh environments.
Most pieces are finished with a no-or low-VOC sealer to make them stand the test of time.
Supply chain & labor practices:
Emeco prides itself on making furniture in America, often by hand. They partner with Amish communities in Pennsylvania and also have their own Pennsylvanian factory—which is the same one that produced the iconic chairs back in 1944.
Carbon commitments & green practices:
When it comes to their aluminum chairs, they’re made in a 77-step process so that these chairs will truly last forever (or at least 150 years). After all, Emeco’s guiding principle is that if you “make something well, it can survive anything.”
They also have an impressive environmental statement, which elaborates on how they reduce water and electricity consumption.
