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Mennonite vs. Amish Furniture: What's the Difference?
Mennonite and Amish furniture share roots going back to 1693. Here's how the two traditions differ, where they build in Ontario, and what matters when you buy.
Mennonite and Amish furniture come from the same religious family. The Amish split off from the Swiss Mennonites (then called the Swiss Brethren) in 1693 over how strictly to apply church discipline. Both traditions still build solid wood furniture by hand. The real differences today are where the workshops are and what each name means on a price tag. The way a good piece gets built is much the same. In Southern Ontario, "Mennonite furniture" usually points to workshops in Waterloo Region and Wellington County. "Amish furniture" is the more common term in the United States, especially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.
We get this question a lot at our showrooms, usually from someone who saw both words online and assumed one had to be better than the other. Here's the honest answer, from a store that has worked with Mennonite builders in Ontario since 1993.
Where the two traditions split
Both groups trace back to the Anabaptist movement of 16th-century Europe. The name "Mennonite" comes from Menno Simons, a Dutch church leader who helped organize the early communities in the 1500s.
The Amish came later. In 1693, a Swiss-born elder named Jakob Ammann pushed the Swiss Brethren in the canton of Bern to practise stricter shunning of members who'd been excommunicated. A minister named Hans Reist and others disagreed, the meetings broke down, and Ammann's followers became known as the Amish.
That's a disagreement about church life, not about furniture. Nobody in 1693 was arguing over dovetail joints. The woodworking traditions on both sides grew out of the same rural, farm-based way of living, which is why the furniture often looks so similar today.
How the two communities came to Ontario
Mennonites were here first. In the spring of 1800, Joseph Schoerg and Samuel Betzner arrived on the Grand River with their families from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. By 1828, that settlement had about 1,000 members. Waterloo Region still has the largest Old Order Mennonite population in Canada, especially around St. Jacobs and Elmira.
The Amish followed in 1824, when Christian Nafziger, who had come from Bavaria, arranged land in Wilmot Township for Amish families. More Amish settlements came later in the 20th century. Aylmer, near Lake Erie, was started in 1953 by families from Ohio and Indiana, and the Milverton area in Perth County is now the largest Amish community in Canada.
So both traditions are part of Ontario's history, and they've lived side by side for 200 years. In the furniture trade, though, the Mennonite workshops of Waterloo Region and Wellington County are the ones that shaped what Ontario buyers mean by "Mennonite furniture."
The side-by-side
| Mennonite furniture | Amish furniture | |
|---|---|---|
| Religious roots | Anabaptist, named after Menno Simons (1500s) | Anabaptist, split from the Swiss Brethren in 1693 |
| Where it's mostly built | Waterloo Region and Wellington County, Ontario | Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana; smaller communities in Ontario |
| Common woods | Oak, cherry, maple, walnut, pine | Oak, cherry, maple, walnut, pine |
| Construction | Solid wood, traditional joinery | Solid wood, traditional joinery |
| What the label guarantees | Who built it, not how | Who built it, not how |
The last row is the one most buyers miss. Neither word is a certification. There's no inspector checking that a piece sold as "Amish" or "Mennonite" was built a certain way.
How the furniture is built
Construction is where the two traditions look most alike, and where the real quality differences show up from one shop to the next. A well-built piece from either community usually shares four things:
- Kiln-dried solid hardwood. Freshly cut lumber holds moisture. Wood that isn't dried properly before it's built into a table will shrink, crack or warp once it's in your home.
- Joints that hold without relying on screws. Mortise-and-tenon joints on tables and chairs, dovetailed drawers, and breadboard ends on tabletops so the top can move with the seasons without splitting.
- The same wood all the way through. The species you see on the surface runs through the whole piece, so a scratch can be sanded out instead of exposing particleboard.
- A finish applied by hand. Several coats, sanded between each one, rather than a single sprayed coat.
At Penwood, those four are the standard our builders work to on every piece. We walk through each step in The Making of a Penwood Piece.
Quality: is one better than the other?
No. Both traditions produce excellent furniture, and both have builders who cut corners. The label tells you who built the piece. It doesn't tell you what's inside it.
If you're comparing pieces, ask these four questions instead of asking which tradition made them:
- Is it solid wood all the way through? Some pieces sold as "Amish-style" or "Mennonite-style" are veneer over particleboard. Our guide to solid wood vs. veneer vs. particleboard shows how to check before you buy.
- What species is it? Oak, cherry, maple and walnut each wear differently. A soft wood like pine dents more easily than hard maple. See our wood species guide.
- How are the joints made? Look for dovetailed drawers and mortise-and-tenon joints rather than staples or cam locks.
- Can you name the builder? A store that buys through a broker often can't tell you which shop built your table.
Watch for the word "style"
"Amish-style" and "Mennonite-style" are the labels to read twice. Adding "style" usually means the piece copies the look (the plain Shaker lines, the breadboard ends, the turned legs) without being built by anyone from either community. Some of it is factory-made with a printed wood-grain finish.
That isn't always a bad buy, but it's a different product, and the price should reflect it. If a listing says "style," ask where the piece was built and what it's made of. A store selling real handcrafted furniture won't mind the question. We'd rather you ask it at our counter than find out five years later when a drawer front starts to peel.
Why "Amish furniture" shows up so often in Ontario searches
A lot of Ontario shoppers search for "Amish furniture" because that's the term they've seen on American websites and TV. The U.S. Amish furniture industry is large and well marketed, so the word travels.
That doesn't mean the furniture has to come from across the border. If you live in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area, there's a strong chance the solid wood furniture you're looking for is being built a couple of hours away, in a Mennonite shop near Elmira, St. Jacobs or Wellesley, or in the townships of Peel and Mapleton in Wellington County. Buying from closer to home also means shorter shipping, and it's easier for a builder to match a stain or repair a piece years later.
Where Penwood fits
Penwood works directly with more than 20 Mennonite craftsmen in Waterloo Region and Wellington County. We don't buy through brokers, and we've visited every workshop in our network. Our page on Mennonite furniture in Ontario explains how that network works and what each region is known for.
Our builders use kiln-dried solid hardwoods: oak, cherry, maple, walnut and pine, finished by hand with a choice of more than 25 stains. Most of our customers order custom pieces, choosing the wood, stain and often the dimensions so the furniture fits the room instead of the other way around.
If you've been searching for Amish furniture, we'd suggest one thing: come look at the joinery before you decide. Open a drawer and check the dovetails. Run your hand along the edge of a table and look for a veneer seam. Our Morriston showroom is the closest to the workshops and is an easy drive for shoppers coming from Guelph or Cambridge. We also have showrooms in Oakville, Ancaster and Collingwood.
Questions we hear about Mennonite and Amish furniture
Is Mennonite furniture the same as Amish furniture? They're closely related but not the same. Both come from the Anabaptist tradition and both build solid wood furniture by hand. The Amish separated from the Swiss Mennonites in 1693, and the two have run separate communities ever since. In Ontario, most of what's sold as "Mennonite furniture" comes from Waterloo Region and Wellington County.
Is Amish furniture better quality than Mennonite furniture? Neither tradition is automatically better. Quality depends on the wood, how it was dried and how it was joined. Ask whether the piece is solid wood throughout and how the joints are made, rather than which community built it.
Are there Amish furniture makers in Ontario? Yes. Ontario has Amish communities, the largest around Milverton in Perth County, and some of them build furniture. Penwood's furniture, like much of the handcrafted furniture sold in Southern Ontario, comes from Mennonite workshops in Waterloo Region and Wellington County.
How long does Mennonite furniture last? With reasonable care, for generations. Solid hardwood with joinery that doesn't depend on screws can be re-glued, sanded and refinished, so a scratched tabletop or a worn finish is a repair, not a replacement. We've seen Penwood pieces from the 1990s come back to a showroom for a touch-up stain, not to be replaced. Particleboard furniture usually can't be refinished at all.
How is Mennonite furniture different from IKEA furniture? That's a bigger gap than the one between Mennonite and Amish. We compare the two in Mennonite Furniture vs. IKEA: What's the Real Difference?.