EXCLUSIVE TO MERIT FURNITURE DUNCAN
Island Living Collection
Canadian-Made • Custom-Order Sofas • Inspired by Vancouver Island, Made for You.
Discover custom-order sofas inspired by the places we call home. Choose your fabric, personalize your comfort, and enjoy Canadian-made craftsmanship.
A Canadian-made sofa is built and upholstered in a Canadian factory, with more than half of its direct manufacturing cost spent in Canada. At Merit Home Furniture on Vancouver Island, the makers' own words confirm two Canadian builders among our sofas: Decor-Rest in Woodbridge, Ontario, and the made-to-order side of Island Living in Burnaby, BC. Between them they make 66 of the sofas we list: all 45 Decor-Rest sofas, plus the 21 whose listings say Island Living made to order.
Island Living also sells an in-stock range, made overseas for Island Living, and none of it is Canadian-made upholstery. Neither are the Ashley and La-Z-Boy sofas on our site. Which brands qualify can change by line and even by listing: EQ3, for one, says "not everything we make is made in Canada".
Which sofa brands are made in Canada?
Sofa brands that say they build in Canada include Decor-Rest, Island Living for its made-to-order range, EQ3, Elran, Brentwood Classics, Kavuus, Montauk and Birchwood. Palliser is a Canadian company as well, and the last row shows what its own pages say about where the building happens.
| Brand | Where the maker says it builds | Sofas at Merit |
|---|---|---|
| Decor-Rest | Woodbridge, Ontario. Founded in Toronto in 1972 | 45 |
| Island Living, made to order | Burnaby, BC. Established in 1959 | 21 |
| Island Living, in-stock program | Made overseas, by what Island Living runs as an offshore division. Not Canadian-made | 13 |
| EQ3 | Custom upholstery made at its Winnipeg HQ; says not everything it makes is Canadian | None |
| Elran | Calls itself a Montreal-based maker of recliners and stationary furniture, founded in 1967 | None |
| Brentwood Classics | Made-to-order sofas for over 40 years, from a Concord, Ontario address, with a Made in Canada logo on its site | None |
| Kavuus | Delta, BC, since 2009. Says its pieces are "crafted entirely in Canada" | None |
| Montauk | Upholstery handmade at its Montreal factory | None |
| Birchwood Furniture | Calgary, Alberta. Building furniture in Alberta since 1978 | None |
| Palliser | Began in Manitoba in 1944. Opened operations in Mexico in 1998. The pages we read don't say which sofas are built where | 2, at our Port Alberni and Campbell River stores |
Each row comes from the maker's own website, read in September 2026 (EQ3's re-read in October), except the Island Living in-stock row, which comes from our own listings. A maker can change where it builds, so for a given sofa the label on it, or the maker's answer, settles the question.
Decor-Rest and Island Living sofas compared: price, frame, foam and warranty
Prices are from Merit's live listings on October 16, 2026, before applicable taxes. Construction and warranty terms are from each maker's own pages.
| Decor-Rest | Island Living made to order | Island Living in-stock (imported) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sofa prices at Merit | $1,349 to $4,249; six more quoted in the store | Quoted by phone or in store | Quoted by phone or in store |
| Frame | Air- or kiln-dried North American maple or birch | 1 1/8 inch kiln-dried solid wood, soft and hardwoods | Kiln-dried hardwood lumber and plywood |
| Seat foam density | 1.9 lb on 35 of our 45; 2 to 2.5 lb on nine | 2.0 to 2.75 lb, in a choice of firmness | 1.8 to 2.25 lb |
| Frame warranty | Lifetime limited (the normal useful life); parts only after year one | Lifetime, pro-rated over 25 years | Lifetime, pro-rated over 25 years |
| Seat foam warranty | 5 years limited | One year in the warranty's opening line; lifetime, pro-rated over 25 years, in its foam clause and FAQ | 1 year |
| Cover warranty | Fabric 1 year, leather 2 years | Fabric 1 year | Fabric and leather 1 year |
| Cover choice | Hundreds of fabrics and leathers, by Decor-Rest's count | More than 400 fabrics kept in stock | The covers named on each listing |
The made-to-order foam row carries two terms because Island Living's own warranty page states both, in different paragraphs. Island Living sends warranty questions through the store that sold the sofa, so that is a question to put to Island Living through us before ordering.
The Decor-Rest 2382 in the photo is 76 inches wide and carries the lowest Decor-Rest sofa price on our site.
Decor-Rest or a made-to-order Island Living: which Canadian sofa suits your room?
Decor-Rest suits a buyer who wants leather, a reclining sofa or the lower starting price. A made-to-order Island Living suits a small room, because most styles also come in a shorter apartment size, or a buyer who wants a sofa bed. Either one is a special order unless the exact sofa and cover are already in stock.
Decor-Rest, built in Woodbridge
Ten Decor-Rest sofas on our site are also priced in leather, and three recline. Widths run from 70 to 94 inches. Each seat sits on 8-gauge sinuous springs (S-shaped wire springs), five to a seat, with an extra sling spring on Decor-Rest's sofas and loveseats. Decor-Rest upholsters in fabrics from around the world, by its own description, so the building happens in Woodbridge while the cover can come from anywhere. The whole Decor-Rest range adds the matching chairs and loveseats.
Island Living made to order, built in Burnaby
The apartment sizes run 69 to 80 inches long, against 77 to 100 inches for the full sofas. Five list sofa-bed versions, and 14 list Island Living's Feathersoft cushions, standard on the Courtney and optional on the rest. These are fabric styles, and Island Living's FAQ says fabric styles stay in fabric. Island Living also won't change a piece's physical dimensions, so sizing means choosing among its set pieces.
The Island Living Wildbrook in the photo is one of the five with a sofa-bed version. A Canadian-made Island Living sectional is put together from frames like it: 17 of the 21 made-to-order sofas list sectional pieces among their sizes or options. Two made-to-order styles, the Coombs and the Courtney, are listed with sectional configurations too.
More people now walk in after buying furniture online once. They want to sit in the frame and get the size right, and some tell us they won't buy a sofa unseen again. A made-to-order sofa is built after you order it, so the sitting and the measuring belong before that point.
Is every Island Living sofa made in Canada?
No. Only the made-to-order Island Living sofas are built in Burnaby; the in-stock ones are imported. Among the sofas we list, the Canadian Made tag appears only on Decor-Rest and made-to-order Island Living. A few listings from those two lines don't carry it, so the program named in a listing's wording is the surer check. A made-to-order Island Living page says the piece is made to order in the fabric you choose. An in-stock page says it comes from the Island Living in-stock program and names the covers it ships in.
Price won't tell the two apart. The in-stock Island Living Fairfield leather sofa costs more than the sofa version of any made-to-order Island Living we list. The in-stock pieces can't be customized the way the Burnaby pieces can. Both Island Living programs share one collection page on Merit's site, so the tag and the wording on each listing are the things to check.
What does "Made in Canada" mean on a sofa?
The Competition Bureau will generally not challenge a "Made in Canada" claim when three conditions are met. The last substantial transformation happened in Canada. At least 51% of the total direct costs were spent here. And the claim carries a qualifier, such as "Made in Canada with domestic and imported parts". "Product of Canada" is stricter, at 98% of those costs.
The Decor-Rest 2789 in the photo is priced in both fabric and leather on our site.
Direct costs are the materials and the factory labour. Overhead counts only when it relates directly to making the piece and can reasonably be allocated to it; general overhead usually doesn't. The Bureau calls a transformation substantial when what comes out is "new and different goods" from what went in, and it gives no sofa example. On an upholstered piece, building and covering the frame is the likely candidate. An imported cover or recliner mechanism still counts toward the 49% that can be spent abroad.
Three more points from the Bureau change how a showroom reads. None of the three Acts behind its guidelines requires a sofa to show a country of origin. A maple leaf or a flag can be "just as forceful" as the written words. And "Designed in Canada" is a claim about one step, the design, and says nothing about the factory.
The same label rules apply to bedroom furniture and mattresses, and Canadian-made furniture on Vancouver Island covers both.
Is Ashley furniture a Canadian company?
No. Ashley Furniture Industries is a family-owned American company with a history dating to 1945 and a facility in Arcadia, Wisconsin. Its trade website places its manufacturing and distribution centres in the United States and Vietnam. Of the sofas Merit lists, 46 are Ashley, and we don't describe any of them as Canadian-made. A separate guide covers where Ashley builds its furniture.
What makes one Canadian-made sofa more comfortable than another?
No brand holds the title of most comfortable sofa in Canada. Comfort comes from how the seat fits your body and what the cushion is made of, and both show up on a spec sheet before you sit down.
Seat depth and seat height decide the fit. A seat that is too deep leaves shorter legs dangling, and one that is too shallow leaves a tall person perched on the front edge. Our Decor-Rest pages list seat depths of 21 to 25 inches and seat heights of 17 to 19 inches. The Island Living pages give the overall depth instead, 33 to 42 inches on the made-to-order sofas.
Foam density is the next number to read. The Polyurethane Foam Association measures it in pounds per cubic foot. It also says firmness is independent of density, so a dense cushion can still feel soft. Density tracks support and wear: higher-density foams "typically offer better physical properties including support and durability," in the association's words. A 2.5 lb seat is likely to keep its feel longer than a 1.9 lb one, though it needn't feel any firmer on the first day.
The floor sample misleads in one direction. Island Living's FAQ says a new sofa's cushions can feel firmer than the floor model's, because floor samples soften over months of handling and testing. Yours soften with use too. It is one of the ways a floor sample can differ from the sofa that arrives.
When a Canadian-made sofa is the wrong buy
A Canadian-made sofa is the wrong buy when the budget is tight or the date is fixed. At Merit, half of the Ashley stationary sofas we list are priced at $1,049 or less. The median Decor-Rest sofa is $1,599, and a made-to-order Island Living usually costs more.
Waiting is part of the price. A Decor-Rest sofa is ready for pickup or delivery in 8 to 10 weeks. A made-to-order Island Living takes 6 to 8 weeks, or 2 to 3 if Island Living has it in stock in Vancouver. An Ashley sofa takes 4 to 6 weeks. If a special order slips past its date, you get loaner furniture from us at no charge.
A special order is a commitment too, and a Decor-Rest or made-to-order Island Living sofa goes in with a 24% deposit. Exchanges are encouraged up to 30 days and handled case by case, even where a maker takes nothing back.
Where the sofa facts and prices come from
- Competition Bureau Canada, the 51% and 98% tests for origin claims on goods, checked September 2026.
- Competition Bureau Canada, consumer tips on Made in Canada claims, checked September 2026.
- Polyurethane Foam Association, The Importance of Density (In-Touch, Vol. 1 No. 2), checked September 2026.
- Decor-Rest company timeline, Decor-Rest story and fabrics, Decor-Rest construction details and Decor-Rest limited warranties, checked September 2026.
- Elran, about the company, Brentwood Classics home page, Kavuus home page, Montauk, made in Montreal, Birchwood Furniture Manufacturing and Palliser brand values and timeline, checked September 2026.
- EQ3, about us and its Winnipeg upholstery, checked October 2026.
- Ashley Furniture Industries, company site and La-Z-Boy manufacturing plants, checked September 2026.
- Merit Home Furniture's live product listings and delivery page, and the owners' written answers of September 16, 2026, checked October 16, 2026.
Seeing a Canadian-made sofa at a Merit showroom on the Island
Merit has four showrooms on the Island, and Courtenay and Comox are served from the Campbell River store. A call before the drive will tell you which Decor-Rest and Island Living sofas are set up at the store you have in mind. Bring the room's measurements and the width of every doorway and elevator between the truck and the room. When we write up a made-to-order sofa, the measurements go on the invoice, and we ask you to measure again at home before it's final.
Merit backs the maker's warranty on these sofas: we order the parts and arrange the repair. Accidental stains, rips, tears, cuts and burns aren't covered. SmartOne from Zucora, our extended option, runs up to five years from purchase and sends someone to the house for repairs. Any of these sofas can carry it.
From the Duncan store, delivery across the Island is $150 with assembly, and Gulf Islands delivery reaches some islands, with the details on a call to the store. Booking and old-furniture removal are covered in the delivery and setup details. In Duncan, ask for me.
Call the Duncan store, (250) 746-5527
Other guides to buying Canadian are gathered on the Canadian-made guide page.