Buying Amish Furniture: What the Big Box Stores Won’t Tell You

Amish furniture is exploding in popularity right now! You’ve probably seen the ads from the big box stores – they’re adding Amish offerings to their conventional furniture line-ups. “Why?” you may ask. It’s because the conventional furniture store are just now finding out what our furniture experts have known for years – Amish furniture is a best buy for quality and options while being proudly Made in America.

Quality

Over the past few decades, there’s been an increased emphasis on price over quality. However, following the housing crash and recession in the late 2000s, we’ve seen more & more backlash against budget goods with short life spans. People are realizing that they’ll always need furniture – why buy a dining table that will fall apart in two years, if you can buy one that will last 20 years or more?

Bench-made with top quality at every step: All joints, gears, slides, and other construction elements are implemented with precision and tested for performance.

Options

At most furniture stores, your options are pretty limited. You may choose from a number of different sets, but how many choices do you get? Usually, they’ll only offer one dresser size, or bed style, and rarely do you get to choose your finish. And forget slight modifications – when furniture is factory-made in Asia and shipped overseas, it’s already packaged and sitting in a warehouse somewhere, just waiting to be purchased.

In the hands of our Amish craftsmen, hardwood is carefully chiseled, carved, and sanded into a stunning design.

Conversely, Amish furniture is not only built-to-order, but it’s also hand-crafted, meaning there’s a multitude of options available. Things like wood species, stain, and hardware (knobs & handles) make a huge difference in the appearance of your furniture, but there’s nearly endless options & upgrades for both the appearance and function of your furniture. See 50+ Ways to Personalize your Amish Furniture for examples.

Made In America

We are proud to carry only American-made furniture. Quality is a part of it – made in America products are typically manufactured at higher standards than many cheap imports on the market. But beyond that, buying American-made products is one of the best things you can do to support the USA economy. Your money stays here in the US A and helps to create American jobs. And it’s more than just our Amish craftsmen – a purchase from The Amish Home also supports American lumberyards, tool and finish suppliers, shipping companies, and so much more. Furthermore, it’s good for the environment. Importing goods from overseas is wasteful – think of the unnecessary petroleum usage. Plus, many overseas manufacturing plants aren’t held to the same environmental standards as American goods, meaning that their processing is often dangerous and heavily polluting.

A note from Jonas, one of our bedroom builders

Why buy from The Amish Home?

Before you buy from the big box stores, we think it’s well worth your time to take a trip up to visit our showroom in the mall at Pittsburgh Mills. We’re Pittsburgh’s leaders in heirloom-quality Amish furniture. Unlike the popular conventional stores that have added maybe two or three Amish craftsmen to their showroom, we’ve specialized in only Amish furniture for 15 years now. We know our builders on a personal level; we have met their families and in many cases have visited their workshops and sometimes their homes. We’ve worked with this unique community for a long time, so we know the best ways to communicate with them to satisfy our customers’ needs. Our staff members are a great resource to help you understand the benefits of our high-quality furniture, as well as the available options and custom capabilities that our craftsmen can provide.

One of our cabinet builders, Ivan, works out of this shop on his family’s property.

Notice the generator – there are no power lines connected to this building.

Speaking of our craftsmen, would you believe we have established relationships with 50 different Amish builders from Holmes County, Ohio? Most conventional stores carry only two or three. All our builders are part of the Ohio Hardwood Furniture Guild, which is a unique community in that they all largely work together and support each other. The biggest aspect of this is standardized wood species offered in a selection of 30 certified stains. This means you can mix-and-match furniture from various builders and have it all finished together as a set. For example, you may choose to match a bed from one builder with a dresser from another, or perhaps you want a desk in your dining room to match your table and chairs. We display nearly every certified combination of wood species & stain on full-sized furniture pieces in our showroom.

We Carry ONLY Genuine Amish Furniture

Recently, a shopper came in to look at dining room furniture. As we talked, she mentioned that she had been to one of our competitors who was selling Amish furniture that was built in Canada. Being familiar with the store and its brands, our staff knew exactly what line she was talking about. It’s a good furniture brand, solid wood with custom capabilities, but it’s not Amish. This same store carries an “Amish Highlands” bedroom set that’s actually made in China. They display these collections along with their genuine Amish furniture, knowing that the Amish name is helping them sell inferior products.

“Congratulations! You have made a fine choice”

High quality Amish furniture is an investment. Make sure you’re getting what you paid for. Stores that specialize in only Amish furniture, like The Amish Home, are your best bet to guarantee that you’re buying genuine Amish furniture.

We Offer Straightforward Pricing

I recently visited one of Pittsburgh’s biggest furniture chain stores to see their selection of Amish dining furniture. You know the store that has an unbeatable sale every weekend – I won’t name names. I was blown away by what they had printed on their price tags. All Amish dining chairs had a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $800 per chair, but this store was able to offer the “incredible deal” of 50% off, or $400 per chair. That was just the base price – they were also running deals for 20% off plus 15% off plus X amount free furniture plus financing, etc etc etc. The point is, unless I had actually gone through the entire sales process, I would have had no idea what I would actually pay for this furniture.

At The Amish Home, we try to keep our pricing clear for everything. Our tags list prices for our most popular wood species, along with relevant options, with a highlighted price indicating the display model exactly as it is shown. We don’t invent “compare at” prices or try to convince you to act now for an amazing deal. We also carry products in a much wider price range – for example, our simplest dining chair styles start at $170 in oak, while our more ornate styles can cost up to $500 in cherry.

You can find a chair to suit your style and budget in our huge selection

And not only do we keep our pricing straightforward, but we try to keep it fair, too. We don’t carry huge inventory or overhead, we don’t have a big advertising budget, and we keep all our processes pretty streamlined. No one would call our furniture “cheap” or “bargain,” but if you look at our reviews – check out our Merchant Circle, Yelp, and Facebook pages – you’ll see our customers all say the same two things: high quality, reasonable prices.

Thinking About Visiting?

We can’t wait for you to stop in! Check out our How to Buy page and our Frequently Asked Questions to help plan your visit, or email or call 724-895-3805 for more information. We hope to see you soon!