For those whose businesses depend on tariff policy, it has been a tumultuous time. In recent days especially, manufacturers have faced shifting headwinds, forcing them to adjust course and tack their sails once again.
Yesterday, President Trump announced major new tariffs on home furnishings, targeting:
- Furniture (Initial 25% tariff, increasing to 30% on January 1, 2026.)
- Kitchen cabinets (Initial 25% tariff, rising to 50% on January 1, 2026)
- Lumber imports (10% tariff), going into effect on October 14, 2025
Trump announces tariffs on furnishings and cabinets
This policy ‘refinement’ came after President Donald Trump announced Monday Sept. 29th on Truth Social, that his administration will impose sweeping new tariffs on imported furniture. The announcement drew immediate condemnation from U.S. retailers like Williams-Sonoma and RH, who warn that domestic manufacturers lack the capacity to meet demand without relying on imports.
Shares of many major furniture retailers dipped following the news, and global trade tensions escalated. The Supreme Court is scheduled to review the administration’s use of emergency powers to justify the new trade barriers in November. In the meantime, I am catching up with manufacturers, dealers and designers on how they are acting accordingly and the effects already underway:
Tariff effects on design client budgets
Designers are reporting clients scaling back their furniture budgets due to tariff volatility but, importantly, not their overall budgets – at least for now. This means most of the budget is allotted to architectural details and construction.
Take, for example, the winners of this year’s IDS awards for Interior Designer of the Year: the room categories are broken down by project budget and the winning projects in the highest budget group did not always have the highest quality furnishings as many of those in the category one notch down*. Instead, the highest budgets went towards construction labor, millwork, other hard materials and permanent lighting. For design-build firms, this isn’t news but the degree to which it has intensified certainly is. Furniture costs rose nearly 10% over the past year, widening the gap between build and furnishings spend.
Still, for the luxury market, costs are not the greatest risk posed by the tariffs, uncertainty is. The luxury client continues to be resilient, prioritizing quality and performance, even with increasing costs, notes Joseph Davis, President of Glen Raven Material Solutions Group. But, he cautions, “it remains unclear if or when that resiliency may change.”
Regarding uncertainty, he says, “…Shifts in how tariffs play out make it difficult for companies to make the best short-term decisions, and that uncertainty can effectively “freeze” decisions among manufacturers, retailers, and consumers, slowing down investment and growth across the furnishings industry.”
The bottom line is: The budgets are still there, they just aren’t being spent on furnishings until things calm down. They are, however, being spent on construction, hard materials and red-chip art.
No one does modern like Italy
“No one does modern like Italy,” noted one chain of luxury kitchen showrooms I spoke with, anticipating an aesthetic shift away from modern kitchens when the tariffs hit clients’ kitchen budgets (a 50% increase). As the tariffs stand today, luxury showrooms like theirs are inclined to push their domestic lines of traditional styles of cabinetry because they simply cannot get modern quality at the same price point, domestically. Quality, price, style, time -– these showrooms feel the tariffs make it increasingly true that without an exorbitant budget, you can optimize for only two of those at a time.
And it’s not just Italian modern cabinets, designers and dealers of all sorts are expressing concern that the level of craftsmanship they are used to sourcing abroad in certain categories simply doesn’t exist domestically. Some things don’t exist in America yet – and some things won’t at all. Take brass work, for example, the best of which comes from Belgium and has since the medieval period due to copper and calamine accessibility, and craft passed down through generations. You cannot Operation-Warp-Speed a history with certain materials and crafts. Developing that takes generations, quality [sic] expensive craftsmanship and specific rare earth metals.
Impact on antiques and collectibles
Antiques were initially exempt from tariffs, but as of two days ago that changed too. Domestic dealers like Montage Antiques are sounding alarms. First they were hit by the tariffs on all EU and UK goods, but the 30% tariff on upholstered goods tacked on top forces them to forgo importing foreign frames entirely, wiping out an entire swath of their business. By their very nature, it is impossible to ramp up production of antiques with tariff policy and Americans have a growing appetite for them. American antique dealers – usually small, independently owned businesses running on thin margins – are not competitors of US furniture manufacturers but they are penalized as though they are with the latest round of tariffs.
Read more: Designers and dealers discuss tariffs with the Design Leadership Network on IG
Is anyone happy about the tariffs?
Sure. The American Kitchen Cabinet Alliance applauded the administration’s decision, saying the 50% duty on cabinet imports could enable domestic companies to expand hiring and ramp up operations. Shares of U.S.-based big box furniture makers La-Z-Boy and Ethan Allen rose after the announcement, with analysts anticipating they will capture greater market share.
Advocates argue the tariffs will spur demand for American-made furniture, from large manufacturers to smaller Amish producers, helping sustain jobs and support local craftsmanship. Proponents also say the policy could infuse furniture production with new life in states like North Carolina and Michigan, rewarding companies that focus on quality and sustainable practices.
Even supporters, however, caution that rebuilding U.S. capacity will take years and that consumers will see higher prices in the short term. Most experts remain skeptical that the tariffs will deliver benefits beyond a narrow group of domestic manufacturers. The policy’s long-term impact remains to be seen but there are certain segments of upholstered furniture manufacturing that may be better positioned for growth, according to Davis. At Sunbrella, he sees potential growth opportunities, as about 75% of the fabrics purchased by U.S. end users are already produced at one of their five domestic facilities, and nearly all of their Shade and Marine fabrics are made in the U.S. Most manufacturers, however, are less set up for success.
The new tariff policies do nothing to address what makes most domestic manufacturing expensive — high labor costs, input material costs, complex global supply chain issues and regulatory compliance expenses. The tariffs will, counterintuitively, increase costs for domestic manufacturers dependent on imported raw materials and intermediate goods, including rare earth metals (discussed above) that we don’t have here, have already extracted to exhaustion or those which would be cost-prohibitive to extract domestically.
There is yet another aspect these tariffs are not accounting for…
The Great Wealth Flight
Money doesn’t disappear, it moves. Affluent American consumers, the clientele of interior designers, are leading a record-breaking wave of global migration, driven by political instability, economic opportunity and personal safety, according to multiple reports on wealth mobility trends.
High-net-worth Americans are increasingly securing residencies abroad, as well as citizenships and foreign investments — a phenomenon dubbed the “Great Wealth Flight.” What these reports don’t include are the high earners in the upper middle class also taking flight. While not millionaires on paper, these are folks looking to put down roots and spend their money elsewhere too, and in places where the dollar stretches farther.
This surge in global relocation has catalyzed growth in the interior design industry. As expats invest in homes and businesses abroad, demand has skyrocketed for personalized, culturally adaptable design services that bring a piece of home with them wherever they land. The global interior design market, valued at $291.58 billion in 2025, is projected to grow to $315.78 billion by 2035. Much of this expansion is fueled by expats seeking customized renovations and design solutions blending American aesthetics with local styles and materials. Designers are leveraging digital tools, sustainable practices and international networks to meet the needs of their hyper mobile clients, especially in expat hubs like Portugal, Canada and the UAE, reshaping the future of design worldwide.
- Notably: The highest budget bracket for the IDS Awards is $200k and up for kitchen design, which leaves a lot of variability in budgets at the top segment of the market. If you’re spending $200k on a kitchen, you might still skimp on the furniture. If you’re spending $400k, you’re unlikely to.
