Furniture tariffs hold at 25% as bigger hikes are delayed a year

The White House has delayed a scheduled increase in tariffs on furniture, kitchen cabinets, and vanities by a full year, pushing the higher rates from January 1, 2026 to January 1, 2027. The reprieve keeps the current 25% duty in place rather than letting it climb, and the administration framed the pause as room for continued trade negotiations on wood products, Supply Chain Dive reported.

What the rates actually are

The 25% Section 232 tariff has applied to imported upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets, and vanities since October 14, 2025. Without the delay, furniture products were set to rise to 30% and kitchen cabinets and vanities were set to double to 50% at the start of 2026, according to the National Association of Home Builders. In its statement, the White House said the President is delaying the increase given ongoing productive negotiations regarding the imports of wood products, to allow further negotiations with other countries to occur. Some trading partners, including the United Kingdom, Japan, and the European Union, have already negotiated exemptions from the duties, per Supply Chain Dive.

The tariffs rest on Section 232 national-security authority, the same mechanism used for steel and aluminum. The administration's investigation concluded that reliance on foreign timber and lumber could undermine domestic producers and damage defense and construction capabilities, which is the legal foundation that lets these duties survive even as courts strike down tariffs built on other authorities; the Supreme Court's IEEPA ruling and the refund process it opened explicitly leave Section 232 untouched. The NAHB, which represents homebuilders, has kept pushing for building-material exemptions, arguing that the duties raise construction costs and home prices at a time of strained housing affordability. That puts furniture importers and homebuilders, two very different constituencies, on the same side of the lobbying effort.

How brands are responding

Public companies in the category have already shown what adjustment looks like. Lovesac is executing a tariff mitigation plan built on price increases, supplier diversification, and supplier concessions, per Supply Chain Dive. La-Z-Boy raised prices after the initial 25% tariff took effect, but executives indicated they expected to hold current pricing even if duty rates climbed further, effectively absorbing the next increment rather than passing it on. Between those two postures, every importer in the category is making the same choice: how much goes to price, how much to the supplier, and how much to margin.

The uncertainty alone is reshaping sourcing decisions, with importers continuing to shift volume toward Vietnam and other Southeast Asian producers and away from China. The country-by-country exemptions add another wrinkle: with the UK, Japan, and the EU negotiating their way out of the duties, the tariff map now varies by origin in ways that can flip the economics of where a given product line should be made. For furniture brands, the tariff is now one of the largest swing factors in landed cost, and the threat of a near-doubling on cabinets has been pushed to 2027 rather than removed. A one-year window does not hand suppliers a stable cost base; it gives them twelve months to decide where to manufacture before the question returns, and twelve months of negotiations that could move the answer again in either direction.

Why it matters: When a duty of this size can move 5 to 25 points on a year's notice, retail pricing has to be able to move with it. Furniture sells on thin marketplace margins, and a brand that cannot reprice quickly when costs jump either absorbs the difference or loses the Buy Box to a competitor who adjusted faster. The Lovesac and La-Z-Boy examples show there is no single right answer on pass-through, but both depend on knowing landed cost precisely and being able to act on it across every channel at once.

What it means for our partners: Pricing agility matters more than ever, and that is far easier to execute through a single accountable channel than across a field of resellers all reacting at different speeds.