The 15 best furniture stores in Montreal to give your home a glow up

For this Winnipeg-headquartered company, a Canadian approach to modern design translates to clean and simple concepts with a natural color range. You won’t find anything too flashy or extravagant on display at its St. Laurent location, save for the odd Marimekko pillow or statement armchair. Instead, tan leathers and teak woods dominate the collection, erring toward timeless and natural versus trendy and edgy. Most items are choose-your-own-architecture, which means you can customize everything from threads to size, shades, and finishes.

With a workshop in Mile End and a boutique on St. Laurent, this brand has carved out a niche in Montreal’s design community with handcrafted furniture made from certified North American hardwoods. Mostly Eastern Black Walnut, American White Oak and Quebec Maple lumbers are sculpted with traditional techniques into unembellished pieces that show character through subtle bends, coves, and insets. Full sets come together in the showroom with lighting from Lambert & Fils, bedding from Laduvet Nordique, ceramics from Cylinder Studio, and other hand-picked suppliers.

Overlooking Parc Lahaie on St. Laurent, this cozy, two-floor shop teems with trinkets and furnishings of the vintage and rustic variety. Squeeze through carefully cluttered aisles and up the wooden staircase to the top level where lightly distressed grain-leather sofas, brass-finished bar carts, jute braided poufs, and other items can be found. Home accents and accessories like Palo Santo smudge sticks, cocktail kits, and vegan leather goods from Matt & Nat tempt from every nook and cranny.

With the experience of running high-end boutique Periphere and its affordable cousin Domison under their belts, brother-and-sister team Thien Ta Trung and My Ta Trung double back to basics with edb. Visit the Saint Laurent exhibition room or website to scope out edgy sectionals, panoramic couches, and interlocking benches—designed with an eye to versatility. Can’t decide between velvet emerald or tweed charcoal? Swappable slipcovers and interchangeable tabletops make it easy to give pieces a fresh look or second life without breaking the bank.

This collective showcases the work of its 20 local designers in two showrooms, one on the South Shore and one in Mile End. Visits to the latter are coordinated by Bipède, an interiors outfit whose projects include custom loungers for Fogo Island Inn and the award-winning stylings of Café District in Deloitte Tower. The design duo’s vegan leather sling armchair, Tattoo, is currently on show and online, along with beachy outdoor benches by OD., mid-century modern tables by Victor Bernaudon, and an array of other sustainably made works.

Visitors to Beau Mont restaurant, Frank and Oak, and Crew Collective Café will already be familiar with De Gaspé’s minimalist approach to design. Bent on practicality, the online retailer’s residential and business lines feature sit-to-stand desks, super slender entryway consoles, and collaborative tables alongside basics offered in neutral palettes. All materials are sourced locally and made in an atelier in near Montreal’s Garment District with an emphasis on sustainability. For every piece sold, 50 trees are planted with the help of EDEN Organization.

Head into the Zone’s Plateau or Westmount location for eclectic home essentials good for small pads or sprawling six-and-a-halfs. Since opening in 1980 in an old repair shop, the brand has been a go-to for Montrealers in need of apartment therapy. From statement-making armchairs to understated dining sets, the catalogue blends contemporary, midcentury, and cottage styles with a dash of spunk. Don’t skip the kitchen section, which has kid-in-a-toy-store appeal for grownups, and tons of eco-friendly goodies like beeswax food wraps and emplette market sacs.

Posh meets mid-century modern at this furniture boutique in Griffintown. Since 2009, the shop’s showroom floor has featured top Canadian brands like G Romano, 2Loons, and Createch with select international imports. Sculptural dining sets, marbled home accents, and plush loungers offer a mixture of drama and luxury, with features that can be tailored and made-to-order right down to feathers or memory foam and cat-friendly upholstery. For a quick fix, condo packages bring together furniture bundles at discounted prices.

Located in Little Italy, this general store features a curated selection of homeware, apparel, and accoutrements hand-selected by Christian Bélanger and Pierre Martin, the pair behind the eponymous interior design label. Like a real-life mood board, the boutique assembles a collection of the team’s favourite finds, from orange mushroom-shaped table lamps by Artemide to tall taper candles from Denmark-based ester & erik. With more threads and objets d’art than furnishings, it’s a rare spot to hunt for treasure.

When she founded Maison Corbeil in 1973 with her husband Raymond, Colette Corbeil laid the groundwork for an interior design dynasty that now counts multiple locations and brands. Her sons Éric and Stéphane now oversee affairs from the flagship in Rockland Centre. Spread across two floors, the sprawling gallery stages high-end furnishings room by room, placing Scandinavian styles from Furninova and Conform next to St. Jerome-made designs by Trica. Don’t miss Espace Collete, a section curated by the founder herself and inspired by the now-closed Colette boutique in Paris.

Headquartered in Mile End, this furniture and mattress retailer sells its gear exclusively online. With a promise to match prices of Canadian companies, affordability is a key selling point, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t frills to be found. A mishmash of styles are on offer, from Persian-style rugs to comfy sectionals with built-in recliners. Clever storage nooks and a solid range of folding screens, futons, adjustable desks, and craft stands and especially roommate and small space friendly, too.

Created by the Maison Corbeil family, the Must brand encapsulated enough must-haves that it spurred its own lifestyle and decor boutique. With urban condo dwellers in view, its base in the old Henderson Barkwick factory favours the bold and trendy with an accessible mix of industrial, deco, and modern styles to pick from. Beyond decor, home theatre gadgets from Fillion Électronique, baked goods from Bête à Pain, and bouquets from Prune les fleurs make Must a one-stop-shop. For some assisted DIY, look out for culinary and floral workshops, too.

Dubbed Emerging Designer of 2017 by Dezeen, Gaelle Le Couster wants furniture to be as fun as a WHAM bop. Her David Mazel Tov chair and lounger made waves in the design world with its lifeguard-inspired high seat that—at 6’9, tows the line between absurdity and practicality. Playful forms contrast with plain treatments that let maple wood grains and rattan cane patterns sing. The chair, and Tina Burner coffee-slash-ping-pong table, are available online or at the studio in Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie.

This tiny Little Italy boutique may be better known for its jewelry, but it also stocks a small-but-mighty array of gems for the home crafted by local and international artists. Pop in for ceramic vases and planters by MPGMB, Talia Silva, Œil Noir, and Atelier Make. Or opt for more elemental steel pots by Jacques Gallant and hand-blown glass vases by Brook Drabot Glass. Seal the deal with an ink or illustrated print and a grab little bling for yourself on the way out.

Steel can be a little heavy metal for some, but Mathieu Domingue Trempe wields the alloy to minimalist effect. Handcrafted in his Villeray workshop, stools, shelves, and brackets are formed from pencil-thin lines and smooth sheets into lightweight shapes. Orders can be made online, and visits are available by appointment, but traces of his custom handiwork can also be found around the city, from the tubular clothes rack at Boutique Unicorn to the black-windowed partition at David Brown Tattoo and shelving at Mimi & Jones vegan diner in Mile End.