In Business: Lonesome Cottage Is Country’s Largest Rustic Furniture Manufacturer

Hotels, resorts, and homes across the United States are furnished with rustic furniture made right in Pequot Lakes at Lonesome Cottage.

“We’re the largest rustic furniture maker in the country. We supply furniture to about two to three hundred furniture stores around the country. We also outfit a lot of hotels, lodges, waterparks, restaurants around the country,” said Lonesome Cottage owner Brandon Andersen.

Lonesome Cottage was established around two decades ago and was bought by Brandon and Jill Andersen in 2003. It has since grown from a small, retail store to a large, national producer.

“We started here locally in Pequot Lakes as a retail business and grew to now, most of what we build gets shipped out all over the country to national parks, and lodges, and mountain homes and other furniture stores,” explained owner Jill Andersen.

Lonesome Cottage produces a variety of rustic furnishings using cedar, hickory, reclaimed barn wood, and pine.

“The cedar logs come from the extreme Northern Minnesota area. The hickory logs come from the Mississippi, Tennessee area and then our reclaimed barn wood comes out of old tobacco barns down in Kentucky,” Brandon Andersen explained.

For the Andersens, it is the crafters of the furniture that make Lonesome Cottage special.

“What makes us unique is our awesome craftsmen. We have such a great team of people who work so hard and are just a great group of people,” said Jill Andersen.

“Every one of them’s specialized in a particular area and they get really proficient with it and we’ve got a great team,” added Brandon Andersen.

Lonesome Cottage has grown from a small store to supplying furniture to national parks and renowned hotels across the country, and they hope to keep growing in the future.

“The future looks really bright for Lonesome Cottage and I expect that we’ll continue to grow like we have the last 15 years,” said Brandon Andersen.

“It’s kind of exciting. It’s kind of glamorous to say you get to supply things like Yellowstone National Park or Mammoth Caves is another one, but it’s kind of fun and exciting,” Jill Andersen said. “You never quite know where it’s going to go.”

The Lonesome Cottage Furniture Company showroom is located on Patriot Avenue in Pequot Lakes and is open Monday through Saturday until 5:00 p.m.

Contact the Author Rachel Johnson

racheljohnson@lptv.org