For the past four years, Henrik Svendsen has spent his days selling furniture with a modern sensibility.
By opening his Merriam furniture store, My Home Contemporary Furniture, Svendsen said he hoped to fill a gap in the local market for customers who wanted a modern touch to their homes.
Now those customers will have to look elsewhere.
That’s because Svendsen is closing his store due, in large part, to the uncertainty and rising costs created by President Donald Trump’s new tariff policies, which he says have made it too difficult to keep his store afloat.
My Home Contemporary Furniture will close its doors later this year, right after its lease at its Merriam space ends.
My Home Contemporary Furniture is at 5400 Antioch Drive
- Before opening My Home Contemporary Furniture, Svendsen already had several years of work as a furniture maker under his belt.
- He opened My Home Contemporary Furniture at the start of 2021.
- Svendsen also owns and operates furniture manufacturing company Boliya USA, which makes and sells contemporary furniture for other retailers.
Svendsen says tariffs are the main reason for the closure
In the months since his inauguration in January, Trump has introduced a sometimes-dizzying series of announcements regarding new tariffs, or taxes assessed on imported goods.
A 10% tariff went into effect in early April for nearly all goods imported into the United States. Significantly higher levies — up to 145% — are being placed on Chinese imports.
In the meantime, higher country-by-country tariffs — what President Trump referred to as “reciprocal tariffs” — that the administration unveiled earlier this month have been temporarily paused.
President Trump has justified the tariffs by saying they will help rectify historic trade imbalances the U.S. has with other countries. In China’s case, the White House says slapping higher tariffs on imports from that country in particular is meant to strengthen American industry and protect national security from over-reliance on Chinese goods.
Whatever the justification and long-term consequences, business owners like Svendsen are starting to feel the impacts now.
The tariffs have hit the furniture industry particularly hard, causing stores like My Home Contemporary Furniture to raise their prices to meet the rising costs of furniture they bring in from China.
According to the Washington Post, more than 50% of the furniture in the United States is imported from elsewhere. And Svendsen said he doesn’t see that changing any time soon.
“(The Trump administration) are coming out and saying that there’s going to be a lot of production moving back to the U.S., but it takes years to build a furniture factory,” Svendsen said. “We don’t know what will happen in three years or eight months.”
Even when Trump put a 90-day pause on some tariffs, Svendsen said it became too difficult to live in the uncertainty.
“I can’t plan on signing a long-term lease not knowing what my prices are,” he said. “I knew it would be bad, but I did not know that it would end up being this bad.”
While other furniture stores and companies have raised their prices, Svendsen said he ultimately didn’t want to pass on his own rising costs to his customers.
“I’m surprised how little the regular consumer knows about the tariffs,” he said. “I think more and more people are going to realize it, because (their furniture) is going to cost more.”
The store has roughly three months left
The store’s lease at its Merriam space ends on Aug. 1. After that, it will close its doors, Svendsen said.
Until then, the store is offering up to 50% off on select items as operations wind down.
After My Home Contemporary Furniture closes, Svendsen said he’ll keep operating his furniture manufacturing company — though that company faces a lot of the same uncertainties as the store does.
Ultimately, though, things won’t be the same without the day-to-day interactions with customers in his store, helping them pick out the modern furniture pieces they were looking for.
“They had a need, and we could provide (what they wanted),” Svendsen said about his customers. “Now they will have to go somewhere else.”
Want more local business news? Daiso, Japanese home goods store, to debut in 2 Johnson County spots
