The work aims to review the progress and hot frontiers of furniture design research in China and abroad. Based on the methods of bibliometrics and knowledge map, 3 156 Chinese articles and 341 English articles collected by Web of Science were combed and summarized by CiteSpace and Bibexcel software. There were differences in discipline basis, research strength and cutting-edge trends in the field of furniture design in China and abroad. The number of foreign furniture design research literature is stable, while the Chinese furniture design research literature is developing rapidly and has certain advantages in quantity. Chinese high-yield journals mainly come from light industry and handicraft industry, while foreign journals mainly focus on the field of architecture. The research teams in China and abroad tend to be scattered, and there are few connections between institutions. Foreign furniture design research has a strong reality orientation, which is reflected in human factors and bionic ecology, while Chinese research pays more attention to the systematicness of furniture design theory, industry and discipline construction. It is expected that the future development of furniture design research in China will further highlight the vanguard role of core journals and high-yield institutions, strengthen cooperation and exchanges in China and abroad, and continue to serve people's needs based on national strategies.