Fast Furniture Is out—Shop These 7 Sustainable Brands Instead
Don’t worry, a sustainability expert says you can still shop at IKEA.
Courtesy of Noho
There’s a culprit responsible for mountains of waste in our landfills: fast furniture. Much like the clothing from fast fashion brands such as Shein and Forever 21, fast furniture is designed to be cheap and mass-produced, and it has plagued our environment for decades. Consumers tend to abandon these pieces within five to 10 years, and since they’re so poorly made, they’re more likely to end up in the trash than be sold or repaired.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, over nine million tons of furniture in America end up in landfills every year. Fast furniture can also harm the environment through the sourcing of materials, shipping of materials and products, unethical human labor standards, and limited options for recycling and replacements, says Ashlee Piper, sustainability expert and author of Give A Sh*t: Do Good. Live Better. Save the Planet.
When it comes to the biggest fast furniture producers, many point to IKEA as the top culprit, but Piper isn’t so quick to condemn the Swedish furniture brand. “I think IKEA is almost unfairly low-hanging fruit,” she says. “I would not put IKEA in the same category as Wayfair or Amazon because IKEA actually has made good on a lot of their promises.”
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In their latest Sustainability Strategy, IKEA vowed to become “circular and climate positive” by 2030 by only using recycled or renewable materials. And if you’ve ever purchased an IKEA product, you’ve probably seen their Flatpacks, a more sustainable packaging design popularized by the brand.
Courtesy of IKEA
But the best eco-friendly strategies, Piper says, are upcycling your current pieces or thrifting used items. “The secondhand market is absolutely booming,” Piper adds. She says 98% of everything she owns is secondhand, and she works with clients to create eco-friendly home design without sacrificing style.
Piper’s advice is to start with the pieces you already have. Many times, a tightened screw, new upholstery, or a fresh coat of paint will give an item the upgrade you desire. Piper recalls one client who didn’t know what to do with a mid-century credenza. Instead of throwing it away, they gave it a repair and used it as a baby changing table, then a media center, and now a makeshift pantry.
“They’re so many options if you just expand your mind beyond what the manufacturer might say an item is,” Piper says.
If you’ve exhausted the options for your current furniture, there is still a bustling secondhand market and plenty of sustainable furniture brands to try. You can start with our seven picks below.
Sustainable Furniture Brands
Kaiyo
Kaiyo is an online marketplace that takes the hassle out of buying and selling secondhand furniture. Their mission is to keep great furniture finds out of landfills, and since their founding in 2014, they’ve saved over 6.5 million pounds of furniture from being thrown away. On the buy side, Kaiyo lists used pieces from top brands at a discount, and they inspect, clean, and deliver each item with white glove service. On the sell side, Kaiyo handles everything from pickup to listing to sale. If you’re looking to purchase or sell luxury pieces, Kaiyo is the safe, reliable, and eco-friendly way to go.
Noho
This New Zealand chair manufacturer has a commitment to sustainable production and long-lasting items. The designers from Noho took principles from ergonomic office chairs and applied them to seats made for the home. All of their light, stackable chairs are made from sustainable ingredients like castor beans, old carpets, and recycled fishing nets—and they still retain a sleek modern style. Noho is also a certified B Corporation, which measures a company’s environmental and social impact, and Piper herself owns one of their chairs.
Burrow
The key to Burrow’s sustainability: modular design. To prevent consumers from tossing their furniture each time they move, the award-winning brand designs their pieces to move with them. All of the brand’s items are designed to be simply assembled, easily shipped, and effortlessly expanded. If your nomad lifestyle is the reason you’re purchasing fast furniture, try Burrow’s modular collection instead.
Fernish
Another solution for nomads is furniture rental company Fernish. Similar to Rent the Runway, Fernish rents high-end pieces to customers for as long as they’d like to keep it. Their solution to fast furniture is to prevent purchases altogether, and they saved 268 tons of furniture from going to a landfill in 2023. They currently offer free delivery in New York City, Southern California, Seattle, and San Francisco.
Thuma
The founders of Thuma set out to create a platform bed that combined functionality, minimalism, and luxury design—while being environmentally friendly. The beds made by this San Francisco company are Greenguard Gold Certified, which means they met intensive chemical emissions standards and won’t diminish your indoor air quality. Thuma uses repurposed rubberwood for all of their products, they ship items in recycled cardboard, and they work with One Tree Planted, so a tree is planted for each bed, headboard, nightstand, and dresser sold.
Hoek
Similar to Burrow, New York furniture brand Hoek designs all of its pieces with modularity so they’re easy to assemble and move. They say you can put together their tables and desks in one minute with their “Snap-Lock” system. No tools or instructions, just snap the legs into place. Hoek is also on a mission to reduce plastic waste and builds most pieces with HDPE, a material made from 100% post-consumer content like recycled milk jugs.
Parachute
This bedding and furniture brand based in Venice, California is certified carbon neutral. Beyond the label, Parachute explains their carbon offset projects, ethical manufacturing and responsible materials certifications, and their commitment to social equity. They’re transparent about their goals for the future, and they maintain a commitment to durable, quality products.
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