7 Best Furniture Stores in Chicago: Top Picks for Every Style
Chicago runs more furniture showrooms than almost any city its size, spread across neighborhoods from River North lofts to Southwest Side bungalows. That range makes finding the best furniture stores in Chicago less about locating a shop and more about matching a store’s price point, delivery timeline, and design services to your actual apartment or house.
This guide compares seven Chicago furniture stores, from custom upholstery houses that have served the city since the early 1900s to family-run showrooms built around fast, no-hassle delivery. You’ll also find a buying checklist covering budget, measurements, and the weather-related quirks of furnishing a home in the Midwest.
1. Room & Board (River North)
You can browse American-made sofas, sectionals, beds, and dining sets across three floors at Room & Board’s River North showroom. The company builds more than 90 percent of its furniture domestically, and the Ohio Street location uses full room settings rather than isolated pieces to show you how everything works together.
Design associates here work free of commission, so you can ask about fabric swatches, customization, and sizing without a sales push. The store keeps a large in-stock selection alongside made-to-order options, which matters if you need a piece before a move-in date rather than the eight-plus weeks some custom orders require.
Rating: 4.4 (153 reviews)
Location: 55 E Ohio St, Chicago, IL 60611
Contact: +1 877-396-4068
Website: Visit Website
2. Walter E. Smithe Furniture & Design (Lincoln Park)
Walter E. Smithe has sold furniture in the Chicago area since 1945, and its Clybourn Avenue showroom leans into that history with custom upholstery as the core of the business. You can select frame styles, fabric, and finish combinations for sofas and sectionals, then work with an in-house designer to plan the rest of the room.
The company runs about ten showrooms across Illinois and Indiana, so if this location doesn’t have the fabric or configuration you want, staff can often source it from a sister store. Because much of the inventory is made to order, ask for a written production timeline before you commit to a delivery date.
Rating: 4.0 (112 reviews)
Location: 2009 N Clybourn Ave, Chicago, IL 60614
Contact: +1 630-285-8000
Website: Visit Website
3. Toms Price Home (Lincoln Park)
Toms Price has operated in the Chicago area since 1908, and its Clybourn Avenue store carries custom furniture, rugs, and home decor alongside a free in-store design consultation. You can bring room photos or measurements to a designer and leave with a full furniture plan rather than piecing one together yourself.
Reviewers consistently mention working with a single sales consultant through the entire process, from fabric selection to delivery coordination. That continuity helps when you’re furnishing more than one room at a time, since you won’t have to re-explain your style preferences to someone new at each visit.
Rating: 4.7 (16 reviews)
Location: 2111 N Clybourn Ave, Chicago, IL 60614
Contact: +1 773-799-8025
Website: Visit Website
4. Roy’s Furniture (Lincoln Park)
Roy’s Furniture is a family-owned Sheffield Avenue store known for custom sectionals, sofas, and USA-made construction. You can choose your own fabric, including for accent pillows, and the store’s designers will walk you through frame and cushion options before you order.
Custom pieces typically take six to eight weeks, though some customers report faster turnaround. Delivery covers Chicago, the surrounding suburbs, and areas just across the state line, with pricing based on order size, distance, and how many flights of stairs the crew has to manage.
Rating: 4.4 (479 reviews)
Location: 2455 N Sheffield Ave, Chicago, IL 60614
Contact: +1 773-248-7878
Website: Visit Website
5. Crate & Barrel (Lincoln Park)
Crate & Barrel’s North Avenue store sits close to the brand’s original Chicago roots and stocks furniture, lighting, and home accents across every major room category. The showroom lets you see full dining, living, and bedroom sets staged together, which helps when you’re trying to match pieces rather than shop one item at a time.
Because Crate & Barrel is a national chain, its return policy and delivery windows are more standardized than what you’ll find at a family-owned shop. That consistency is useful if you’ve shopped the brand before and know roughly what to expect, though custom upholstery orders still carry the longer lead times common across the industry.
Rating: 4.2 (521 reviews)
Location: 850 W North Ave, Chicago, IL 60642
Contact: +1 312-573-9800
Website: Visit Website
6. Milwaukee Furniture (Wicker Park)
Milwaukee Furniture has served the Wicker Park area since 2001, with a showroom carrying sofas, sectionals, mattresses, recliners, and bedroom sets at prices aimed at first apartments and full-home refreshes alike. The store stocks Ashley Furniture lines among others, so you can compare a familiar brand’s quality against smaller, local sellers in one visit.
Delivery runs a flat $79 in many cases, and reviewers note next-day or two-day turnaround on in-stock items, a real difference from the six-to-eight-week waits common with custom orders elsewhere on this list. If speed matters more to you than customization, this is where to start.
Rating: 4.7 (281 reviews)
Location: 1341 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
Contact: +1 773-292-1000
Website: Visit Website
7. The Furniture Place (Ashburn)
The Furniture Place serves Chicago’s Southwest Side with a warehouse-style showroom covering living room, dining, and bedroom furniture, including power-reclining sectionals and sets with built-in USB charging. Reviewers highlight fast delivery and a sales team that doesn’t push add-ons you didn’t ask for.
The store’s size lets it carry more floor stock than a boutique shop, which can shorten wait times if you find something you like on-site rather than special-ordering a fabric or finish. Ask about current promotions when you visit, since the store rotates deals on specific sectional and dining collections.
Rating: 4.7 (359 reviews)
Location: 8027 S Cicero Ave, Chicago, IL 60652
Contact: +1 773-912-6183
Website: Visit Website
Also read: 10 Best Furniture Stores in Austin
How to Choose Furniture That Fits Your Chicago Home
Chicago homes range from prewar walk-ups with narrow stairwells to high-rise condos with strict elevator booking windows, so the right furniture depends on more than style. A little planning before you shop saves you a return trip, or worse, a piece that won’t clear your building’s freight elevator.
Set a Realistic Budget
Total your budget before you visit a showroom, and include delivery, assembly, tax, and any fabric upgrades along with the sticker price. A sectional listed at $1,200 can run closer to $1,400 once delivery and a protection plan are added.
Spend more on pieces you use daily, such as sofas, mattresses, and dining chairs, and save on side tables or decorative accents. If you’re also shopping for lighting or accessories, guides like 5 Best Lighting Stores in Los Angeles and 5 Best Home Decor Stores in New York City show what similar shops charge for finishing touches.
Measure for Older Buildings and High-Rises
Measure your room, then measure every doorway, hallway turn, and stairwell between the street and that room. Chicago’s stock of century-old two-flats and greystones often has narrower stairwells than newer construction, and a sofa that fits the room can still get stuck on the way in.
For high-rise deliveries, check with your building about freight elevator reservations and delivery time windows well before your furniture ships. Many buildings require a certificate of insurance from the delivery company, so confirm the store you’re buying from can provide one.
Match Materials to Midwest Weather
Chicago winters bring dry heat indoors that can crack certain leathers and loosen wood joints, while humid summers do the opposite. Ask about frame material and finish before you buy, and request care instructions for leather or performance fabric.
Radiator placement matters too. Keep upholstered furniture and wood pieces a few feet from steam radiators and baseboard heat to avoid warping or drying out fabric over a full heating season.
Delivery, Returns, and Design Services in Chicago
Delivery fees, return windows, and design consultation policies vary by store, and the gap between a family-owned shop and a national chain can be significant. Confirm these details before you pay, especially for custom or made-to-order furniture.
What to Confirm Before Ordering
Ask whether your item is in stock, on order, or made to order, since that distinction can mean the difference between next-week delivery and a two-month wait. Get the estimated delivery window in writing, and ask whether the store calls ahead before scheduling.
Review the return policy for standard and custom pieces separately. Custom orders, including anything with a chosen fabric or finish, are often final sale once production starts, so confirm that before you approve a swatch. If you’re furnishing with a new mattress too, the return rules can differ again, similar to what’s outlined in guides like 5 Best Mattress Stores in New York City.
Custom Orders and Lead Times
Custom orders typically run six to twelve weeks depending on the manufacturer, with some stores quoting shorter windows that can still slip during high-demand seasons. Get a written quote listing every selection, including fabric, finish, and any design fee, before you place a deposit.
Deposits on custom furniture are usually nonrefundable once the order enters production, so request fabric samples and confirm your choices carefully. If you’re comparing options across furniture markets, guides for Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, and New York City show how lead times and delivery fees shift from one city to the next.
White-Glove Delivery for City Living
Standard delivery may leave furniture at your building’s entrance, while white-glove service typically includes placement, assembly, and packaging removal. Confirm exactly what’s included, since some crews won’t move existing furniture or carry pieces up more than a set number of stairs.
Give the delivery team accurate details about parking, loading docks, and elevator access ahead of time, particularly for high-rise or street-parking-only addresses. Inspect every piece before signing off, and photograph any damage right away so the store can address it while your order is still fresh in their system.
Supplemental Information
- The stores in this guide span River North, Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, and the Southwest Side, so you have options within a short drive no matter which part of Chicago you live in.
- Custom-order lead times across these stores generally run six to twelve weeks, while in-stock items at value-focused stores can arrive within a few days to two weeks.
- Delivery fees ranged from a flat $79 at smaller shops to fees calculated by distance and stair count at custom furniture houses.
- Four of the seven stores, Toms Price Home, Roy’s Furniture, Walter E. Smithe, and Room & Board, offer in-house or free design consultations, useful if you’re furnishing more than one room at once.
- If you’re weighing the best furniture stores in Chicago against options elsewhere, the linked city guides above cover Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Austin, and New York City using the same rating and delivery details.
