There is a shop kind of like IKEA in AsiaWorld at Nanjing and TunHua, I think on the 5th floor. Perhaps it is not new, but I don’t remember ever seeing it anywhere before. They have very nice hardwood Asian furniture and leather sofas which are more attractive than most I have seen elsewhere. As well as many working house type things b ut nicer. The prices are also excellent. CHECK THIS PLACE OUT! By the way, I found out it is a homegrown Taiwan brand, but I would have never known. Very impressive. Huge shop too.
Anything would be better than IKEA. You can’t walk in with a particular purchase in mind, walk straight to it, and walk straight to the counter for a time-efficient purchase. Instead, you’re committed, against your will, to a lengthy, winding tour of the entire store :fume: , and even after finding your product, you’ll search in vain for hours for an exit. I refuse to shop in a trap like that. And God forbid if there should ever be a fire.
I am so goddamn unimpressed with B&Q. They installed a brand new air-con that was broken and their installation partners did a messy job. The manufacturer had to come to my place to fix both fuck-ups. I am not sure if I would use them in the future.
Dragonbones: I totally know what you are saying! Learn the shortcuts. There are loads of doors that cut the time down. Look for them. They even have a map to show you the shortcuts. Also go through the restaurant side and up the stairs to go directly to the second floor.
Do you realize that hardwood is VERY likely to have been ripped off from Indonesian or other endangered rainforests - and it’s even illegal? Because people buy it, the orangutan could go extinct in the wild within the next ten years or even fewer - and many many other species. I think if we want to prevent disasters like that from happening, we have to be very very careful of what we buy. Here’s a website to help: http://www.orangutan.com/index.htm
IKEA particle board with plastic vaneer gets thown out and fills an ever increasing amount of landfills. I read that in Taiwan within two years all of the landfills will be full in Taiwan and they have to incinerate the trash which will cause global warming. Two years is about how long the average particle board product from Ikea lasts.
Remember to buy pine not particle board.
By the way, I think PIIN has many products made from wood that is not endangered as well. I do remember camphor furniture there as well.
Piin is owned and run by the same guy who owns Workinghouse. Piin has great stuff for the kitchen and also a very tasteful selection in cloth things like tablewear etc. and rugs, pillows and stuff. With the furniture I’d be careful, most of the stuff I saw were pseudo antiques made in young non-hardwoods, they look great, but after some time in the ever changing humidity and temperatures in Taiwan they will develop cracks etc. as the wood still “works”. I agree with Hobart on the sofas, nice designs and good prices compared to other real-leather sofas we’ve seen, they also have this fake suede stuff that looks very authentic, but is much easier to maintain & clean, I forgot what it’s called. We have decided to forgoe any decision on new living room seating until our boys have stopped smearing their food, candy, playdo, paint etc. into our setee …
Nice shop but I didn’t find the prices that reasonable but then I have no money. They just opened a store at the huge failure of a mall Winddance here in Hsinchu - it’s pretty much the only such store in town. The few times I have been in the store the staff far outnumbered customers so I don’t expect it to be in business here for very long.
Did you buy from the B&Q on Muxing Road on the way to Xindian? I hope not as I want to buy an air-con from them for my study and I do not want to have my walls look like shit.
I like my own method. I go in past the cash registers and go backwards. The smaller accessories are on the second floor, not too far from the counters if you use the shortcut doors.
But where do you think they grow those trees? Where rainforest used to be probably. Also, I think anything from Indonesia needs to be carefully checked out. Does R&D Imports have anything to do with PIIN?
As far as buying wood in general goes, teak is endangered, as is mahogany. That’s not surprising when you think of how many people have liked it for so long. It’s not only rainforests that matter and besides, Indonesia is not the only place where there are rainforests or where the environment is being degraded at an alarming rate. Basically, any wood from unsustainable sources is a big no-no. And how many people actually check where the wood came from? Apparently if it’s FSC certified, it’s okay, but I’ve never seen this myself. Check if it’s certified.
Europa, What about the particle board furniture from IKEA? I guess we are not sure about that either, or the pine wood might come from virigin forests in the Laplands of Skandanavia. Hmm…guess we will all have to buy plastic furniture.
By the way, I only mentioned breifly that PIIN might have had some hardwood furniture. At least it looked that way, but I didn’t have time to check it out, closely. They have lots of other things there as it is not just a furniture store.
Six of one, isn’t it. I just find it funny that the trend of western-style stores that sell ‘exotic, asian-influenced’ home furnishings like Pottery Barn and Pier One has found its way here, to Asia, where these influences are supposed to be endemic. The irony is just too great. But hey, I found some great miso bowls there last week.
Not a bad place. Good for buying accents and knicknacks and such. Much better layout than IKEA and better quality and design. Like an upscale Working House.
I didn’t find much of the furniture any cheaper than you can get around town at other shops. The 3-seater leather coach was about $80,000.
The small fake-suede (if that’s the material) sofas and chaise lounges were nice and they were inexpensive, being around $6-8000 a piece. Would like to get one but with cats…
X-pet, were you talking about those small sofas (one set was mauve) when you mentioned the fake-suede? You said they would be easy to clean and maintain. Can they be washed? Treated, if scratched?
Good place to go for vases, throw rugs, boxes, bedsheets, dshes, bamboo curtains, small wicker pieces, small desks, cabinets, coffee tables, kitchen stuff, etc. For better furniture, and a much wider selection, there is a place near Qizhang MRT station. Mostly solid teak pieces with good designs. Asian but not fake antique looking.
for an exit. I refuse to shop in a trap like that. And God forbid if there should ever be a fire.
