Prepare to pay more for furniture and home remodels under new tariffs

Fresh tariffs on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities recently announced by President Trump on social media could cause already high prices to rise even further, and deter some Americans from embarking on home renovation projects.

Mr. Trump on Thursday said his administration will levy a 50% tariff on all imported kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and "associated products," plus a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture from abroad.

Preventing what he called the "flooding" of such goods into the U.S. is a matter of national security, the president added. Both sets of tariffs will kick in Oct. 1, he said. "It is a very unfair practice, but we must protect, for National Security and other reasons, our Manufacturing process," Mr. Trump wrote.

Prices for living room, kitchen and dining room furniture — much of which is imported — rose 9.5% from August 2024 to August 2025, the latest CPI data shows, driven by Mr. Trump's country-based tariffs, according to economists. Furniture and bedding also rose 4.7% over the same period, and 2.8% for household furnishings and supplies.

If the new levies go into effect, furniture makers will feel the hit, and some will likely pass the costs on to consumers, industry analysts told CBS News. The sectoral tariffs could also hinder business activity and growth, they added, as companies wait to see if tariff policies change and defer investment decisions.

"Higher prices are an inevitable consequence of these tariffs," Zak Stambor, a retail analyst at market research company eMarketer, told CBS News. "People undergoing bathroom or kitchen renovations are in a tough spot right now because there was so little warning. The costs of those things will now be higher, and people might not have already bought them because they were waiting for permits."

Low-income consumers will feel the squeeze the most, not just because they have less discretionary income but because lower-cost furniture sold in the U.S. tends to be imported from Southeast Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia and India.

Some higher-end furniture is manufactured in the U.S., and therefore less exposed to tariffs, according to Telsey Advisory Group managing director and senior retail analyst Cristina Fernández. She said retailers will have no choice but to raise prices on imported goods once the tariffs take effect.

"They are trying not to raise prices too much ahead of holiday season. But they can't absorb 30% tariffs on top of other tariffs that are already in place," she told CBS News. "They'll have to pass through pricing, probably in the form of a double-digit price increase."

The White House did not respond to CBS News's request for comment on analysts' claims the tariffs could drive up prices or inhibit business investment.

From retailers' point of view, the levies could make investing in new inventory a riskier and more difficult proposition, according to Stambor, as costs and consumer demand could shift.

"Retailers' only certainty is that uncertainty is here to stay. What's true today very well may not be true tomorrow and that makes life incredibly challenging," he said.

Naturepedic, an Ohio-based maker of organic mattresses and bedroom furniture, said it had been planning to launch an upholstered product line in late 2025 or early 2026, including headboards. However, as of Thursday, it is reconsidering that expansion.

"We are having to go back to the drawing board a little bit," Naturepedic Chief Growth Officer Arin Schultz told CBS News. "We might drop it if it doesn't make sense, even though we're pretty far along in the process."

Of the tariffs announced on Thursday, he said, "If they could turn around and not do it, that would be great."

John Mercer, head of global research at Coresight Research, a provider of retail industry insights, doesn't expect all manufacturers to pass on all tariff-related costs to the consumer, and says some will likely take steps to mitigate the impact.

Firms with larger inventories will be able to sell through what they have in stock before implementing any price hikes, while on-demand furniture makers may have to raise prices sooner, rather than later, he said.

Mr. Trump has promoted tariffs as a way of reducing trade deficits with other nations and bolstering domestic jobs in manufacturing.

Mercer, however, doesn't expect the levies to compel makers of upholstered furniture and cabinetry to quickly move production to the U.S.

"Generally, that's not easy, and it's more expensive," he said. "There is a reason why companies have offshored production, and that's because because it's traditionally much cheaper."