It’s Labor Day Weekend and that means furniture sales. I’ve gone through another batch of furniture companies for you so you can shop with confidence! If you missed it, check out my first Furniture post here.
Local/Direct: Search to see if you have a local furniture store near you! If you have a particular brand you like, search online to see if you can buy from them directly on their site.
Free/No Purchase: USE BUY NOTHING GROUPS for furniture! There are always tons of furniture options on there – both cheap and good quality, and if you need something specific you can always put in a request.
Thrifting/Alternate Options:
Habitat for Humanity ReStore is basically a thrift store for used furniture and building materials and you can find great deals. Search for your nearest location here in the US, or if you’re in Canada here.
Estate sales are an amazing way to find vintage furniture that may be higher quality than what’s being made today. You can use EstateSales.net and EstateSales.org to find one near you.
Local thrift stores are also a great resource for items like tables, chairs, dressers, and potentially couches/etc depending on wear and tear. TheThriftShopper.com can help you find your local thrift store, but since it’s run by one person sometimes the listings are out of date.
Living Spaces: Affordable furniture store with lots of inventory from various brands. Same-day delivery is available if you are located near one of their stores, otherwise they offer shipping for online orders.
The Details: Privately owned, but not backed by venture capital. They support DEI and do not have a profile on OpenSecrets.
What they have: Almost any kind of furniture for living room, dining room, bathroom, home office, kids & teens, outdoor and bedroom including mattresses. They also have home decor, lighting, rugs, bedding, and wall art.
Price Range: $ to $$, they have this cute little sofa for only $495 but also have mid-range and higher-end options
Where to Shop: Online or in-store, including locations with a Kids Fun Room so you can shop without distraction
Sabai Design: Sabai Design furniture is made in the USA with durability and sustainability in mind. You can select the upholstry type and color for any of their designs, and swatches are available to ensure you like the look and feel of the fabric. They also offer Sabai Revive, a buy back program, and Repair Don’t Replace for ordering any components that need to be fixed or replaced.
The Details: BIPOC and women-founded by Phantila Phataraprasit and Caitlin Ellen, with Phantila serving as CEO. Privately held but not backed by venture capital. Sabai Design is a Certified B-Corp.
What they have: Sofas, sectionals, loveseats, sleeper sofas, outdoor sofas, chairs & ottomans, chairs, a couple of rug options
Price Range: to$. Their prices are a bit higher but not insane, and as they’re built for quality any items should last awhile. I would view these more as an investment than “your first apartment” furniture. Their starter loveseat is $1.3K and largest sectional starts at $3.2K.
Nathan James: Furniture designed by their in-house team to be stylish, affordable, durable, and easy to assemble.
The Details: Founded by Brooke Burdon in 2016. I can’t find much on their ownership, but there’s also no Pitchbook profile so it doesn’t seem to be venture capital funded or private equity owned. They do not have have a profile on OpenSecrets. They do not have a public diversity policy but they are on the smaller end with 50-200 employees according to LinkedIn.
What they have: Sofas, tables, chairs, storage, credenzas/cabinets, bookshelves, dressers, outdoor furniture, lighting, kitchen furniture, entryway furniture
Price Range: $$, they’re more in the range of Wayfair but not crazy expensive. They have loveseats starting at ~$1K and top out at $3,749 for a 5 seat sectional, and their storage cabinets are between ~$169 and ~$400 for small/mid size versions.
Bassett Furniture: High-quality, stylish furniture that’s built to last. Bassett furniture sources its wood and materials from the Appalachian region and plants two trees for every BenchMade item through their Returning to Our Roots sustainability program. They also make efforts to recycle wood dust, wood pallets, and fabric scraps.
The Details: Publicly traded with institutional investors as the largest shareholders. They don’t technically have a diversity policy but they do say on their careers page: “At Bassett, we value the diversity of our associates as an essential component in the way we do business”. Bassett Furniture did not spend any money on lobbying in the last two years.
What they have: Almost any kind of furniture for living room, dining room, outdoor and bedroom including mattresses. They also have bedding, home decor, and rugs.
Price Range: to$, they have some mid-tier items but definitely more expensive than Nathan James. Their smaller sofas start at ~$1.5K but on the higher end their leather sectional sofa is $7,110.
Ballard Designs: Unique and stylish furniture and decor with a distinctive European influence.
The Details: Owned by the QVC Group, who also owns HSN (Home Shopping Network), Frontgate, Garnet Hill and Grandin Road. QVC is publicly traded with institutional investors as the largest shareholders. They support diversity, though they call it Inclusion & Belonging, with a ton of employee resource groups. Despite supporting diversity, they did have a racist marketing email last year. I cannot find a profile for QVC on OpenSecrets.
What they have: Almost any kind of furniture for living room, dining room, bathroom, outdoor and bedroom including mattresses. They also have a specific dorm section, home decor, lighting, rugs, mirrors and art, bedding, and upholstery fabric for sale by the yard!
Price Range: $$$, even small accent tables start around $200
Where to shop: Online or in-store
My thoughts: It’s pretty insane to me that they sent a racist email in 2024 with “You’ll love this bag longtime”, so I can’t fully recommend them.
Article: If you’ve listened to a podcast, you’ve probably heard an ad for Article Furniture (I’m looking at you, MFM fans 🙂). I don’t recommend these guys because there are a ton of quality issues. Article is privately owned and venture-capital backed. They do not have a clear diversity program and do not have a profile on OpenSecrets.
Zinus: Publicly traded on the South Korean stock exchange with Hyundai Department Store Co. LTD owning 38% of shares. Zinus has spent $80K on lobbying in the last two years but Zinus has not reported what bills or specific issues they were lobbying for, which seems weird to me.
AllModern, Joss & Main, Birch Lane, Perigold: Owned by Wayfair, which I do not recommended. Full Wayfair details here.
Important Caveat: I’m still trying to figure out the best way to determine if a company is supporting Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. I don’t want to encourage boycotting companies only because they’re Israeli, as not all Israelis support the war, the same way not all Americans support Trump. But these two companies have potential strong ties to Israel that I wanted to highlight.
Houzz: Founded by a husband and wife team, Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen, and funded through venture capital. Tatarko and Cohen immigrated to the US from Israel. They still have strong ties to Israel, acquiring Israeli startup IvyMark and have a development team office in Tel Aviv. I don’t know their stance on the Israel-Hamas war specifically, but in this interview Adi Tatarko talks about how she got involved with students at Stanford University after October 7th to combat anti-semitism. Again, not exactly sure if that was in good faith or as a way to quiet pro-Palestinian sentiment.
Poly & Bark: They are owned by Geshem LLC, according to this class action lawsuit that was dismissed last year. I can’t find much on Geshem LLC, but there is Geshem Partners which is an investment firm. It makes sense to me that the Geshem Partners investment firm would make Geshem LLC specifically for Poly & Bark ownership, but I can’t confirm that and could be wrong. Geshem Partners did write an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal last year promoting Israeli investment, but again I’m not 100% confident that they’re the actual owners of Poly & Bark. Either way, Poly & Bark’s quality seems to be hit or miss so I don’t recommend them in general.
Hope you found this helpful. I will likely do a Part 3 in the future as there’s so many furniture companies!
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