Furniture - where to get from?

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 12th Mar, '12, 18:48

I need a new bed and a new sofa. Being the luddite I am, then I haven't got the foggiest on where to get them from.

Would like something better than Ikea, looked around there the other day. And to be honest, got no idea on how much these things cost (current sofa is 6+ years old and I think cost $2200 from Barang Barang...but I could be wrong!)

Any other places I should be looking?

canuck · Post by **canuck** » 12th Mar, '12, 19:08

Barang barang is gone, sadly... Bought our sofa from them too...

Try harvey norman.. Or. IMM used to be furniture mall. Now not too sure... There is courts and also a furniture place on upper bukit timah... Although never found anything i wanted there... Or you could try dempsey if you want asian.... Also park lane mall orchard is furniture?

baloo · Post by **baloo** » 12th Mar, '12, 20:22

Barang Barang reopened. Not sure where I saw the store but I was surprised to see it.

canuck · Post by **canuck** » 12th Mar, '12, 20:41

Yer makin funny.. Really? I liked thier stuff, bit dear but....

baloo · Post by **baloo** » 12th Mar, '12, 21:16

Would I lie to you ?

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 13th Mar, '12, 06:59

Just before we left Barang Barang seemed to be morphing into something entirely different - lots of Pimp Chic, IIRC.

I always struggled to buy sofas in Singapore - places like Park Mall seemed to be full of either OTT English country or hideous leather recliner type stuff. I ended up with Ikea with the view that it was relatively cheap and disposable, but went for more classic styles (including the ubiquitous Ektorp!). Two of them went to another forum member when we left, one to a charity, and the sofabed came with us and was given away a few months ago, so they didn't do badly

Bed was custom-made made in Jakarta, so I would say unless you want something sleek and modern go to the Indonesian furniture stores. Mattress came with bed; TBH I figured it would last us a year or so 'til we bought a better one but it's still like new, ten years and several moves on.

edit: And a tip for you: measure your lift before choosing your sofa, including the diagonals. We were convinced by the salesman here that ours wouldn't be a problem, despite being hesitant, and the one I chose would not fit in the lift or up the fire escape. Had to go back and I've never been entirely happy with its replacement.

(The men who had to carry those two sold-on Ikea sofas up 14 flights of stairs would probably agree with this tip.)

Jedi · Post by **Jedi** » 13th Mar, '12, 07:59

Try The Furniture Mall @ Beach Road.

Morrolan · Post by **Morrolan** » 13th Mar, '12, 08:14

Park Mall definitely has some stores with nice modern style furniture, k, not just big leather library monsters. we have bought a lot of stuff from there. it's a matter of searching around.

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 13th Mar, '12, 08:16

It's a long time since I furniture-shopped in Sg, M, I would hope they've moved on a bit.

Beach Road - I couldn't think of that one. Marina Square also?

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 13th Mar, '12, 08:21

Will check out Park Mall and Furniture Mall on Saturday. Anyone want to come sofa shopping with me?

daffodil · Post by **daffodil** » 13th Mar, '12, 08:58

John Erdos has some nice stuff, but on the pricey side - and there are a few new places at Dempsey that do more than just the traditional Asian style but you have to do a bit of walking around.

My Sing sofa was similar to yours, bought from Space , and got my bed custom made at Park Mall though like K recall some hideous furniture there!

Shame I can't make it on Saturday, I love spending other people's money

Tas · Post by **Tas** » 13th Mar, '12, 16:03

like the sofa in the picture. Do they get King Furniture in Singapore, or can import? Majorly expensive but having looked through their show rooms some nice stuff. I like Jardan stuff too, and they're pretty international - but trying to remember if that was the horrible leather couch experience that Kooky had getting made in Melbourne and delivered in Singas?

Morrolan · Post by **Morrolan** » 13th Mar, '12, 16:36

we had a Barang Barang sofa too, but we left it in Australia when we moved back to Sing. Our first one came from Park Mall, looked like the one in FB's pic and was more comfortable than the Barang Barang one.

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 13th Mar, '12, 18:02

Tas wrote:like the sofa in the picture. Do they get King Furniture in Singapore, or can import? Majorly expensive but having looked through their show rooms some nice stuff. I like Jardan stuff too, and they're pretty international - but trying to remember if that was the horrible leather couch experience that Kooky had getting made in Melbourne and delivered in Singas?

Moran. I ordered that from a Moran store in Park Mall, but Barang Barang did sell it too.

"Yes Madam that is from where the cow got stuck on a barbed wire fence"

Scrummy Mummy · Post by **Scrummy Mummy** » 14th Mar, '12, 11:25

Expatauctions?

Alternatively, if you want IKEA prices but with different covers look at Bemz.com - there's a much wider variety of fabrics/colours/patterns and they deliver overseas. You avoid VAT which pretty much covers delivery. We've used them several times as, with kid and cats, I wanted washable covers but didn't want the house to look like the IKEA catalogue.

SunshineAfterRain · Post by **SunshineAfterRain** » 14th Mar, '12, 14:01

We are moving tomorrow and in need of ideas and recommendations to get the sofa and dinning set.

We have looked at Ikea, frankly, don't think we like to get these things there. Have yet to have any time to visit the Furniture Mall on Beach Road but wonder where else we should source for these items; preferably child-friendly furniture and rounded corner (ref: dinning table) etc. Definitely not into overpriced stuff!

Thank you.

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 14th Mar, '12, 15:08

The photo at the top is the Wellington sofa from Barang Barang. They do say extra upholstery is available at the store, so will go in search of a Barang Barang store tonight (supposedly one up in Choa Chu Kang which is near enough).

However, the sofa needs a LOT of upholstery, not just new cushions - the support under the cushions is saggy and therefore would require everything but the frame. Will ask, usually that would be 60+% of the cost of a new one but this IS Singapore (and shipping a few bits of fabric is cheaper than shipping the frame).....or am I being deluded here?

canuck · Post by **canuck** » 14th Mar, '12, 15:36

I think we all had the same sofa, mine's still in good nick, I'll sell it to ya for $1200

Fat Bob · Post by **Fat Bob** » 14th Mar, '12, 18:58

Well, that was a waste of time! Went up to the Barang Barang store at Sungei Kadut and to be honest, unless you are looking for a ex-store piece of furniture, don't bother.

The woman at Barang Barang was pretty useless about the furniture, but at least she told me that there was a new owner, and that she could at least recommend an upholsterer. That's about all the useful info I could get out of her.

For those that want the gossip, those that own Novena (and several other places, I think Natural Living is one too) also own the brand name Barang Barang. So she was saying I should visit their other 11 stores to see if I could find what I want.

The area had a lot of bargain basement places, so if you're looking for a cheap option, that maybe where to go.

Me, I'm off to Courts tomorrow just to check it out (not expecting much) and Park Mall on Fri night. Will see where I go from there!

Scrummy Mummy · Post by **Scrummy Mummy** » 14th Mar, '12, 21:33

My guess is back to IKEA.

Tas · Post by **Tas** » 15th Mar, '12, 07:18

I went to Ikea last week (plus getting lost drama...) I was surprised actually by the quality of some of the sofas there. Some of the more expensive ones, more on par with typical sofa outlet $, were actually pretty good. But was impressed by some of the cheaper ones too. Has been ~6+ years since been into an Ikea, so was pleasantly surprised.

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 15th Mar, '12, 07:34

I think Ikea does sectional sofas quite well. I think where they often fall down is the feet.

In the UK many years ago I bought 2 classic leather sofas from them (that were strangely never in the catalogue, and took months to come as they apparently got lost in Poland but that's another story) but they had really rough block feet so I had my Dad turn and fit some lovely oak bun feet, really brought them up a notch in the quality stakes. Selling them off really hurt but at least they went to a friend that loved them as much as I did (and actually paid me, unlike the friend that got my custom-made wrought-iron bed at a bargain price)...with the benefit of hindsight I should have shipped them all over

Scummy's recommendation for custom covers is another good one; get the bare bones and make it unique.

Hmmm, thinking about it, buying sofas has always been a bit traumatic.

slinky · Post by **slinky** » 15th Mar, '12, 09:42

We just bought a sofa from Ikea a couple months ago. I was initially of the same mind as FB and didn't want to look at Ikea. But after seeing so many way expensive ones for what they were, I decided to have a look. With kids and a cat, I didn't want to spend many thousands of dollars right now. We got one called Kivik with a two seater and a chaise lounge and it's probably about 6 feet across. Be sure to look at the fabric selections online because for some reason they don't seem to have them all in the store (the one I liked wasn't a sample in the store but was actually on a Kivik chair so at least I saw it in person first.) Have to say, the sofa looks pretty good for Ikea and it's nice & comfy too. Easy to get in and out too since it comes in pieces. The other thing I was somewhat impressed with is the way they do the covers - you can't really tell it's a removable cover, so that's a plus for me.

Possum · Post by **Possum** » 15th Mar, '12, 15:05

I saw the perfect sofa (50% off) for you this week at the IMM mall. Its like 3 Goldclass chairs (complete with cupholders between them) in a slight curve...about 280 long. If I had a bigger basement I would get them along with a pinball machine and a giant screen

Kooky · Post by **Kooky** » 15th Mar, '12, 15:52

I was just browsing for bedroom seating and came across this

http://www.freedom.com.au/furniture/sof ... -graphite/

edit: It's a shame Freedom is not in Sg, it's just a small step up from Ikea IMO. Shit customer service, however.

edit again: Actually that's not fair to Freedom, I think they're a bit further up than that but still reasonably-priced.

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