Furniture rental space gains a new player with launch of The Everset

GDS Holdings founder and CEO Gavin Steinberg builds single-family homes in Park City, Utah, a town east of Salt Lake City that’s a magnet for skiers and tourists. The homes he builds are primarily second homes or vacation homes that he furnishes before selling because, as he put it, “[buyers] want to just be able to come with their suitcase and start enjoying the home.”

But being a native New Yorker who has many times endured the hassle of moving in the city, he realized renters in New York and Park City homeowners have something in common.

“You should be able to show up with your suitcase and start living and not deal with the other stuff,” he said. “That thought really applies to the rentals too.”

This was the genesis of The Everset, a furniture rental company Steinberg is launching today in New York City along with furniture retailer Jonathan Mitrani and designer Megan Hopp.

The company offers individual pieces of furniture or complete curated sets for living rooms, bedrooms, and dining rooms. You can also design your own set. Subscriptions for the furniture run from 3 to 14 month terms, or for 24 months, and customers have the option of renewing, swapping, or returning the furniture at the end of the subscription.

Each of the three team members brings key experience to the company. Steinberg has an extensive background in multifamily management in New York City, and he’s leveraging preexisting relationships with developers and property managers to provide a seamless transition for tenants who want to rent their furniture.

Mitrani is the president and owner of Brooklyn furniture retailer Flamingo Furniture, which gives the company a pipeline to inventory. Hopp, winner of the Bravo reality show Best Room Wins, runs her own interior design firm and has curated furniture packages for The Everset with a modern aesthetic that borrows from midcentury and Scandinavian styles.

“In selecting these pieces, we were highly influenced and inspired by clean lines and natural textures,” Hopp said. “Our collection displays a use of color in specific moments to complement a neutral, yet bright palette. As such we have designed a cohesive catalogue that can be mixed and matched to create a style to suit a wide variety of customers and their varying needs.”

The Everset is the latest to jump into the furniture rental space but likely won’t be the last. The startup Feather launched in April 2017 and currently operates in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Orange County. Fernish, which also launched in 2017, operates in Los Angeles and Seattle. Ikea is currently testing a furniture rental service in Europe, but is targeting offices first instead of residences.

The companies like to highlight the ease and convenience of their respective services, but they’re also trying to capitalize on growing awareness of the amount of furniture waste added to landfills of every year. While there’s no accurate data collected on furniture waste annually, the EPA reported in 2009 that 9.8 million tons of furniture were thrown away and that furniture was the least recycled form of waste.

The Everset has a partnership with Habitat for Humanity through which the company will donate used furniture to the nonprofit for selling to low-income families.