Importing furniture from Italy, what happens after the order

Importing furniture from Italy sounds like a job for a freight company, and part of it is. The rest is paper. Giorgetti builds each order in Meda, in Brianza, and a finished sideboard or sofa then crosses the Atlantic, clears customs and rides a truck to your street. We handle that route for buyers across the United States, and this guide lays out each step so the numbers in your quote make sense.

Built to order in Meda

Your piece does not sit in a warehouse waiting for you. Giorgetti builds to order, so the clock starts when you confirm the wood, the finish, the fabric or the hide. A Charlotte sideboard in Canaletto walnut with a Portoro marble top is a different job from the same cabinet in walnut alone, and the workshop plans it that way. Your quote carries the lead time Giorgetti gives for your version. We do not print a standard one because none exists.

Giorgetti has sold into the United States for a long time. The company says it shipped semi-finished pieces here in the twenties and has exported finished collections since the sixties. The route is old, and the paperwork on it keeps changing.

The tariff code

Customs sorts furniture by code under chapter 94 of the tariff schedule. Seats and sofas fall under 9401. Cabinets, tables, beds and most other furniture fall under 9403. Your broker picks the exact line for each piece, and that line sets the duty.

An Adam sofa and a Charlotte sideboard in the same shipment can carry two codes. That is normal, and it is one reason we quote the whole order at once.

Duty, fees and the importer of record

European furniture pays an import duty on arrival, plus a merchandise processing fee and, for sea freight, a harbor maintenance fee. We leave the rates out of this page on purpose. They moved several times in 2025 and 2026, and a figure printed here would be wrong by the time you read it. Your quote states the rates in force for your shipment, confirmed with the broker.

Someone has to be the importer of record, the party that answers to customs for the entry. Your quote names who holds that role for your order. A trade client with its own customs bond can import in its own name.

Labels and declarations

Three rules touch most Giorgetti orders.

• The Lacey Act declaration. Each shipment with wood in it needs a declaration of the species and the country of harvest for each wooden part. Giorgetti works walnut, ash, maple, beech and pau ferro, and a single Adam module can hold poplar plywood in the frame. Giorgetti supplies the data and the broker files it.
• TB 117-2013. Upholstered pieces sold in the United States carry a permanent label stating that they meet the California flammability standard, and whether the maker added flame retardant chemicals. A sofa, an armchair, a pouf and an upholstered headboard all need it.
• Proposition 65. If a material passes a chemical threshold under the California rule, the seller shows a warning. Most sellers apply it nationwide.

Composite wood panels also fall under a federal formaldehyde rule, Title VI of the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the maker certifies them. None of this is your job as the buyer. You should still know it exists, because a seller who cannot answer these questions is a seller to avoid.

Size decides the crate

A crate runs a little longer and wider than the piece inside it. The widest Adam sofa Giorgetti lists runs to 370 cm, a little over twelve feet, and the Charlotte sideboard reaches 285 cm. Those numbers matter twice: once for the freight bill, and once at your door, where a long crate has to turn a corner in the hallway.

Modular sofas help here. Adam arrives as modules that you join in the room, so no single box has to carry the full length. The tall Charlotte highboard stands 160 cm high and 132 cm wide, and it needs a clear path from the truck to the wall where it will stand.

Delivery to the room

After customs, the shipment moves by truck to a local carrier who brings it inside. Tell us about stairs, elevators, narrow doors and the floor the piece goes to. White glove delivery, with the crate opened and the piece placed, costs more than delivery to the curb, and for a marble topped cabinet it is worth it. Sales tax follows the rules of the state that receives the piece.

Four things we need from you

A clean quote needs four things: the pieces and their sizes, the finishes and fabrics, the delivery address with a ZIP code, and a note on access to the room. Use the form below. We reply with a written quote that lists the price of each piece, the lead time from Giorgetti, the shipping and the import costs as they stand that week.