Hey Forumosa. I’ve just acquired a lovely, huge, but (basically) unfurnished place. I am looking to build a reasonably nice apartment up from scratch.
There’s my bedroom, a second bedroom I’ll probably be using as an office, a guest bedroom/weird entertaining space (the sliding screen room, you’ve probably met one before), living room, kitchen, and ex-kitchen utility room. There’s a mattress, wardrobe, smallish cupboard, and standard bathroom and ktichen fixtures, and aside from that it’s pretty bare.
Where to you go to buy what, in what order, to get this place done up in a hurry for relatively cheap? My aesthetic tends toward all things MUJI-ish, but their furniture is hilariously expensive.
Oh, and I should expand to say that I will not just need furniture. Any/everything one would need for a basic, functional apartment space is welcome. So linens, pots and pans, etc. belong here, too.
I would go to www.tealit.com or forumosafieds first and see who is selling all of their stuff because they are moving. There are always some steals on some nice stuff there. I guess if you like ugly, cheap stuff you can go to IKEA, but all the stuff you can get from others used on TEALIT all came from IKEA anyway. SO you save money that way. PErsonally, my wife and I go to the tiny local furniture stores. YOu can haggle on the price, the location is convenient, and the stuff has more class. You know the ones, the ones with furniture stacked to the ceiling. Anyway, it really just depends on what you want to spend, how long you plan to be here, and what your taste is. HOMY has some decent stuff, too.
If I were you, I wouldn’t buy new stuff unless you plan on being here for more than 2 years. Good luck.
I’ve been decking out the girl’s room a few bits at a time. I’ve been to several local second-hand wholesalers, where I determined that their offerings are A) shit, and B) not actually very cheap.
B&Q have a great range of decent-enough fixtures and furniture for half what identical stuff would cost at IKEA (and thereby a tenth what you’d pay anywhere actually fashionable).
I am planning to be here at least two to three years.
So far I haven’t found a local furniture place I’ve been all that taken with (I can’t get into the overwrought dark wood thing), but I’ll keep looking. I’ve stopped in and asked now and again, but the prices always seemed hilariously inflated. I’ll keep casting around, though. Thanks.
We’re getting our sofa from Hola, maybe not the cheapest at 30,000 but I figure a sofa costs you about 5,000 NT a year. So if you spend 10,000 it will last you or 2 years.
But Ikea is definitely cheaper and pretty good quality. Other than that i would look around the Neihu (assuming you’re in Taipei) shopping area where B&Q, Hola and whole bunch of furniture shops are.
We always got our (second-hand) furniture from Xiamen St. in Taipei…just front up there and there are plenty of sofas, chairs, office furniture, appliances, and miscellaneous unsavory looking bits for sale at low prices. Get the delivery guy from one of the places to take the whole lot to your apartment for the same fee and Bob’s your uncle. I know I’m weird but I can’t imagine spending NT$30,000 for a couch no matter how nice it is (especially since I have a cat, so anything in leather becomes a mega-scratching post…) NT$6-7K for a living room set is more like the Xiamen St price range, maybe a bit more if you like actual style.
The first thing you should do is buy yourself a Design and Architecture Magazine, or check out some online.
Minimalistic.
So, once you have done that, you will realise that a good quality bean bag, and decent LCD TV on the wall and one of those chrome arc lamps is all you need.
House of Living Art aka HOLA (co-located with B&Q)
Piin (Asiaworld complex, also houses IKEA)
And the furniture streets in Taipei:
Nanchang Rd., north of Heping Rd. (Guting area)
Wenchang Rd., parallel to Xinyi Rd. between Dunhua and Guangfu Rd.
I beg to differ regarding the quality of their furniture. IMHO it’s crap.
[quote=“Truant”]The first thing you should do is buy yourself a Design and Architecture Magazine, or check out some online.
Minimalistic.
So, once you have done that, you will realise that a good quality bean bag, and decent LCD TV on the wall and one of those chrome arc lamps is all you need.[/quote]
Ha ha ha, I’m on the verge. To be honest, if the place had fewer rooms and larger open spaces, I’d probably be doing very nearly that. As it is, it’s got all these little nooks begging for SOMETHING, otherwise they’ll look dead bare. But I’m definitely the type to go for that sort of thing.
I’m leaving and I’d be more than glad to donate a stinky towel to your cause! 