Best degree programs for Furniture Finishers, ranked by enrollment
1 college programs and 7 schools train Furniture Finishers. Compare graduates per year, cost and pay, $44,540 median wage, 14,480 U.S. jobs. Federal data.
1 college programs at 7 schools train furniture finishers, graduating 56 people a year (IPEDS completions). The largest is Furniture Design and Manufacturing. The job pays a median of $44,540 (BLS OEWS May 2025).
About furniture finishers
Shape, finish, and refinish damaged, worn, or used furniture or new high-grade furniture to specified color or finish.
Fields of study that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level, the tier our program pages are built on. Numbers are graduates per year.
1 degree programs that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are College Scorecard figures for people who finished the program, reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. That is a different measurement from the occupation-wide wages further down this page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 48.0702 | 56 | 100.0% | 7 | $26,594 | $18,142 |
Top 7 schools by graduates into this job
Counting every feeder program a school offers, not just its largest one.
| # | School | Graduates / yr | Top feeder program | Grad rate | Net price | Acceptance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhode Island School of Design Providence, RI Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 31 | Furniture Design and Manufacturing | 89% | $41,764 | 19% |
| 2 | North Bennet Street School Boston, MA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 11 | Furniture Design and Manufacturing | 90% | $35,199 | — |
| 3 | Villa Maria College Buffalo, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 7 | Furniture Design and Manufacturing | 31% | $14,260 | 87% |
| 4 | Minneapolis College of Art and Design Minneapolis, MN Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 3 | Furniture Design and Manufacturing | 51% | $24,998 | 48% |
| 5 | California College of the Arts San Francisco, CA Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 2 | Furniture Design and Manufacturing | 61% | $40,041 | 91% |
| 6 | Massachusetts College of Art and Design Boston, MA Public · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Furniture Design and Manufacturing | 69% | — | 76% |
| 7 | Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester, NY Private not-for-profit · 1 feeder programs | 1 | Furniture Design and Manufacturing | 70% | $28,133 | 67% |
What furniture finishers earn
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
Top-paying states
Top-paying metro areas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Where the jobs are, state by state
Pick a state for in-state pay, the schools there, and the programs they run.
| State | Median pay | Jobs | Concentration | Schools | Graduates / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Massachusettslimited | $56,300 | 340 | 1.01× | 2 | 12 |
| New Yorklimited | $48,340 | 1,000 | 1.10× | 2 | 8 |
| Minnesotalimited | $48,640 | 340 | 1.23× | 1 | 3 |
| Californialimited | $49,080 | 1,010 | 0.60× | 1 | 2 |
Skills and tools
From O*NET, the U.S. Department of Labor's occupational database. Importance is a 1 to 5 scale.
What they do day to day
- Brush, spray, or hand-rub finishing ingredients, such as paint, oil, stain, or wax, onto and into wood grain and apply lacquer or other sealers.
- Fill and smooth cracks or depressions, remove marks and imperfections, and repair broken parts, using plastic or wood putty, glue, nails, or screws.
- Smooth, shape, and touch up surfaces to prepare them for finishing, using sandpaper, pumice stones, steel wool, chisels, sanders, or grinders.
- Remove accessories prior to finishing, and mask areas that should not be exposed to finishing processes or substances.
- Remove old finishes and damaged or deteriorated parts, using hand tools, stripping tools, sandpaper, steel wool, abrasives, solvents, or dip baths.
- Treat warped or stained surfaces to restore original contours and colors.
- Select appropriate finishing ingredients such as paint, stain, lacquer, shellac, or varnish, depending on factors such as wood hardness and surface type.
- Mix finish ingredients to obtain desired colors or shades.
Skills
- Monitoring3.1
- Active Listening3.1
- Critical Thinking3.1
- Speaking3.0
- Active Learning2.8
- Reading Comprehension2.8
- Learning Strategies2.5
- Writing2.4
Knowledge areas
- Production and Processing3.3
- Mechanical3.0
- Design2.9
- Education and Training2.8
- English Language2.8
- Customer and Personal Service2.7
Abilities
- Near Vision4.0
- Visual Color Discrimination3.9
- Arm-Hand Steadiness3.8
- Manual Dexterity3.6
- Control Precision3.5
- Visualization3.4
Core activities
- Getting Information4.1
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems4.0
- Inspecting Equipment, Structures, or Materials3.9
- Handling and Moving Objects3.8
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events3.7
- Performing General Physical Activities3.7
Tools and technology
hotmarks an O*NET hot technologyHow to get in
How to become a Furniture Finisher
Job zone 2 of 5 · SVP Below 6.0- Typical entry education
- High school diploma or equivalent
- On-the-job training
- Short-term on-the-job training
Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
Some occupations may need little or no previous experience; others require several months to a year of experience. For example, landscaping and groundskeeping workers might require very little training or previous experience, while agricultural equipment operators can benefit from on-the job training.
Ranges from a few days to one year of on-the-job training.
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 1 majors mapped to Furniture Finishers1 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 48.0702Furniture Design and Manufacturing
Related careers
Jobs O*NET identifies as close to this one, with their own pay and outlook.
Common questions
What degree do you need to become a Furniture Finisher?+
High school diploma or equivalent is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Furniture Design and Manufacturing, which awarded 56 degrees in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming a Furniture Finisher?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Woodworking. Together they graduate about 56 people a year.
How much do furniture finishers earn?+
The median is $44,540 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). The middle range runs from $32,160 at the 10th percentile to $61,020 at the 90th. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for furniture finishers growing?+
BLS projects a -3.3% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, decline, with roughly 2,000 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career?+
7 institutions reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do furniture finishers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Sprayer, Finisher, Lacquer Sprayer, Furniture Finisher among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 51-7021.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024-25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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