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If you are in the market for the best quality, solid wood furniture made in the USA, there are many great brands to choose from. Furniture Fair offers two best brands in the good, better, best ranking system.
We will be looking at Smith Brothers and Stickley Furniture, two high-quality brands with their own brand stories centered around quality and American manufacturing. Each brand has unique features and benefits, letting you get the best furniture for your needs.
You might be wondering what makes each brand the best and how they compare to each other. If you are curious about how Smith Brothers and Stickley furniture compare, this article is for you. We will review both brands and how they differ from each other so that you can decide if they are right for you.
Made In: Berne, Indiana
Available At Furniture Fair: Yes
Good, Better, Best Ranking: Best
Smith Brothers’ origins in furniture-making going back to 1926, and their brand is known for high-quality, solidly constructed furniture.
All Smith Brothers Products are manufactured right at home in beautiful Berne, Indiana, and the company employs over 500 people to make high-quality custom furniture.
Smith Brothers frames are built from solid hard-rock maple, a dense hardwood that holds tremendous pressure without splitting. Hardrock maple helps prevent your furniture frame from twisting while ensuring that the frame lasts a long time.
Smith Brothers also feature a drop-in coil seating suspension for each cushion, a feature that isn’t available from most upholstery brands. Rather than one unit in a couch setting, Smith Brother’s drop-in coils have an individual unit for each seat, providing better support.
Another unusual feature offered by Smith Brothers is a spring front edge. Sofas and chairs receive the most concentrated pressure around the area right below your thighs as you get in and out of a seated position.
A spring front edge allows more support and gives to that edge, which can help extend the life of both the cushion you are seated on and the frame of the piece itself.
Customization doesn’t get much more detailed than with Smith Brothers. The details are up to the customer, and with Smith Brothers, those details are many. Smith Brothers manufacturers use materials like hardwood maple, steel coil springs, high-quality foam, unique textiles, and top-grain leathers in their construction.
Smith Brothers produces over 2,100 pieces of upholstery every week. The large volume of production is even more impressive when you consider the 800 fabrics and leathers that are available. Smith Brother’s leathers are selected from the finest top-grain leather and made to maximize your furniture’s comfort and style.
The Smith Brothers staff selects Smith Brothers fabrics for their durability, style, and high textile quality levels. Fabric swatch options for custom chairs feature multiple patterns, colors, and textures, giving the customer many choices with many available in flow matching, meaning the patterns align more evenly on the furniture frame.
In addition to customizable upholstery, Smith Brothers also features self decking, where the hidden parts of a piece, such as the undersides of cushions, also match the upholstery material. Self-decking helps the piece look uniform and offers a way to obtain extra fabric, should you need to have a highly visible section repaired.
Many Smith Brothers products have customizable features, such as custom arms, custom cushions such as dacron, foam, or polyfill, leg style options, and skirt options for fabric upholstered sofas. The Smith Brothers catalog features over 30 frame options.
Smith Brothers is an excellent brand for anyone who wants high-quality US-made living room furniture with exceptional support cushions and solid construction.
Made In: New York & North Carolina
Available at Furniture Fair: Yes
Good, Better, Best Ranking: The Very Best
Stickley’s motto is based on an old Flemish craftsman’s phrase that means, ”to the best of my ability.” Stickley has been making furniture under this motto since 1900.
Gustav Stickley marked his product with the phrase to assure clients that Stickley furniture was of the finest quality, every piece made with honor, integrity, and pride.
Stickley is a brand brought out of the Arts and Crafts movement shortly after the Industrial Revolution. The furniture designed by Gustav and others was focused on building furniture for life, furniture that is passed down from generation to generation.
More than 90% of Stickley’s traditional and modern style products are still made by craftsmen in upstate New York and North Carolina workshops. Honesty and integrity of construction are essential tenets of Arts & Crafts furniture and traditional building methods.
Stickley products feature “overbuilt” construction methods including, Mortise and Tenon Joinery, Splining, Dovetailed Cross Rails, tongue and groove glue joints, pinned chair joints, ship lap planking, bracket foot construction, quadrilinear posts, and quarter rounds, just to name a few.
The Stickley seating suspension system uses an eight-way hand-knotted method to support the cushion. The hand-knotting process is an old-school practice that very few furniture companies still do since it requires more time and effort.
Another option Stickley provides that is rare in the modern furniture industry isseating cushion materials. Stickley offers four different options, which are down-filled, spring with down, 1.8 density foam, or foam with a down wrap.
In addition to seating fill and style, Stickley also offers customizable cushion backfill, allowing you to create a depth of seating tailored to your preference. Also, Stickley upholstery uses flow matching, meaning all sides of your chair will match the fabric pattern.
Stickley’s “100s collection” offers the rare ability for the customer to design their sofa by the inch, meaning that if you need a very specific design size for your sofa, Stickley can have one made to that particular size.
The upholstery and leathers used to cover Stickley frames are selected to be top-of-the-line, with an old-world style designed to last and look even better with age.Top-grain leather upholstery is aniline dyed so that a rich patina will develop over time.
Since 1900, the Stickley philosophy has been “living in harmony with nature.” The company’s focus on durability, quality, efficiency, and long-term results permeates the management and manufacturing process.
The business complies with strict federal, state, and local environmental regulations and is a proud member of the Sustainable Furnishings Council.
Stickley furniture is a brand that values legacy, quality, and craftsmanship, and its collections are some of the highest quality furniture on the market.A well-crafted piece of Stickley furniture will gather cherished memories and last through to the next generation.
Now that you know a little more about the two best quality furniture brands featured at Furniture Fair, let’s look at the pros and cons of each to have a better idea of how they compare.
Smith Brothers benefits include made in USA quality with careful attention to detail. On top of made in USA quality, Smith Brothers is also produced locally, which helps your money support local businesses and economies.
The company uses materials like hardwood maple, steel coil springs, high-quality foam, unique textiles, and top-grain leathers in its construction. Smith Brothers also features performance fabric upholstery options, making the brand a bit more family-friendly.
Smith Brothers also offers a vastly detailed level of customization, allowing you to build a sofa, sectional, loveseat, or chair from the frame up. When it comes to custom options and selection choices, Smith Brothers is a great option.
Stickley benefits also include made in the USA quality, with most of their parts also sourced from within the USA. However, while still located within the USA, Stickley is manufactured in New York rather than locally.
A brand that values legacy, quality, and craftsmanship, Stickley collections are some of the highest quality furniture on the market. While more limiting than Smith Brothers, their custom options have an elite level of old-world quality and insane attention to detail.
With Stickley, the quality goes even beyond the best level and into a type of furniture that your descendants will proudly own generations from today. While not quite as family-friendly as other brands can be, there is no doubt that Stickley’s quality is nearly unrivaled.
Now that you know some of the significant differences between Smith Brothers and Stickley, you might be wondering which of the two brands will work best for your home. The answer depends on whether you are prioritizing the highest quality or the most customizable options.
Smith Brothers is the brand to go for if you want as much control of your custom furniture as possible. With over 800 fabrics and leathers available with flow matching and a custom building system that gives you even more options for the look of your piece, Smith Brothers lets you get high quality and customization to your specific look.
Stickley is the brand to buy if you want heirloom furniture with a rich history of handcrafted methods, combined with the absolute highest quality materials sourced from the United States, with a value that will only increase with everyday use.
Now that you know the pros and cons of each brand, as well as a broad overview of the features and benefits that each furniture brand offers, you will be better prepared to decide which brand may be suitable for your needs.
Remember that Smith Brothers is exceptionally customizable with a wide range of styles, fabrics, leathers, and custom frame options. Remember that Smith brothers is a bit more family-friendly with their upholstery and features.
Don’t forget that Stickley has an almost unmatched level of attention to detail and a masterful level of quality with a price tag to match. Remember that Stickley emphasizes old-world quality and techniques carried over from the arts and crafts movement.
If you are looking for the best quality custom furniture to put in your home, consider checking out Furniture Fair. Located throughout the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Louisville areas, Furniture Fair carries the best quality custom home furnishings from Smith Brothers and Stickley.
Schedule an appointment to test out each brand for yourself, or view the extensive collection of customizable furniture available online. Your next dream living room may be closer than you think!
