Singapore Expats

Hi, my husband and I are new to Singapore and about to move into our new apartment. The apartment is unfurnished and I wondered if anyone can recommend any good furniture / appliance stores in Singapore (that are reasonable priced)?

We need everything from beds to plates and cutlery! I'm a bit stuck...
Many thanks
Chaela

Ikea is the easiest way to go. Especially if you are not looking to buy heirloom quality furniture that you want to ship home later. And you can just about buy anything there except the appliances. If you are in the East of Singapore, if you go to Tampines you have Ikea and Courts side by side. You can get your appliances at Courts. Between the two, a single half day and lunch at Ikea should just about take care of it. (oh, both deliver as well).

There is an Ikea in Alexandria as well, and Courts are all over the island. I mention Tampines because they are next door to each other. Additionally, Giant is across the parking lots so you can buy your groceries there as well to put into the new fridge.

Thank you, that's really helpful! I'll go and explore

If you want something a bit nicer than Ikea but still not crazy expensive try Taylor B. Very nice stuff and a big selection.

if you aren't too fuss about secondhand, you can try expat auction

But, if you buy 2nd hand, be sure you ensure that it has been well fumigated against bedbugs. (Not talking about just mattresses here) Bedbugs like to hide almost anywhere. I've even seen a guitar case infested with them. Bed frames that have joints can have them in the cracks around the joints. Almost anywhere if it's bedroom furniture.

I am looking for something better than Ikea but not "heirloom" so nothing on Orchard road I know there are places in Henderson but are they any good or reasonably priced?

For reference: I am a tight arse and my wife wants quality so I am looking for something that suits us both.

Try http://www.vhive.com.sg/. On 1-10 average quality scale with Ikea around 3, they are 4-5 (IMHO) and priced accordingly.

The Ref wrote:I am a tight arse and my wife wants quality so I am looking for something that suits us both.

+1

x9200 wrote:Try http://www.vhive.com.sg/. On 1-10 average quality scale with Ikea around 3, they are 4-5 (IMHO) and priced accordingly.

I've not been to a vhive in a long, long time. Obviously the quality of their stuff must have gotten better. Might have to have a wander in there. They've shifted to using MDF now?

I have not been there for a few years too but some of their stuff was better quality than in Ikea for pretty reasonable prices. Not all the stuff, but some. Admittedly they also have (had) extremely sh**ty furniture similar in quality to the cheapest of Giant or the already gone Carrefour.
In Ikea practically everything is of poor quality, even the "higher end" furniture, in vhive, there are like more quality extremes.

My wife bought in vhive some cabinets for her office and they were really good, lasting, and reasonably priced.

Another place to take a look around is Scanteak. Again, this is not a top quality furniture store (I would not recommend to buy anything there for the outdoor), neither the cheapest one but it offers some better balance to the Ikea's offer.

We decided to have our own furniture ca 5y ago and it took us a few good months to roughly complete the task. We are also a price cautious (low-end expats) but we simply wanted to have something that we like and this something should also last a bit longer.

With this conditions it is rather difficult to buy all the stuff in a single place so we just checked around in a number of places and picked up what we wanted. If this matters we prefer rather simplistic, zen-like style.

The major concentrations of furniture shops are (at least 5y ago):
- the Furniture mall (off the Beach Rd)
- the Sungei Kadut district - probably over dozens of shops all together half of them along Sungei Kadut Ave
- Dempsey area shops (already gone)

We were disappointed with the Furniture Mall. It was very expensive for anything we liked over there.

All together this is roughly the list of the places we bought some furniture from:
1) http://unicane.com (abaca sofa and chairs)
2) Scanteak (few minor tower chests of drawers, all teakish, each piece below $100 and most of them looking like they were made by a drunk carpenter)
3) a lot of stuff from Ikea (Beno CD racks, expedit shelves)
4) Furniture Mall (rather expensive, some custom made teak furniture in a place I could not recommend because we almost sued them for the job done and they almost sued me for alleged defamation).
5) Dempsey area, Holland Village, Furniture Mall (minor furniture, side tables etc.)

I can vouch for vhive quality. I bought a computer desk there after comparing between that and Ikea. Same price but better quality (and it has the design I wanted).

As for Ikea, my office chair bought from there has already had a fine crack at the seat after less than a year. But then again I bought it on a sale, so I guess such decision would come back pinching at my bottom (literally!)

I'm not sure if this reflective of Ikea manufactured for Asia or Ikea manufactured in the last 5 years (or both) - but I have some bookcases from Ikea in Canada that are probably 15 years old and still in perfect condition. A desk I bought from Ikea here less than five years ago has already gone to the garbage dump. Rotted basically, in the humidity. Plus shopping there (in Singapore) is profoundly annoying.

Check out Taylor B. They're my new favourite place. And no I'm not on the payroll.

I definitely recommend Taylor B. They have a huge range, good quality and very reasonable prices. The other thing is they only sell what is in stock. I went to dozens of furniture stores when I moved here 6 weeks ago and most that had nice items required around 3-4 months to order and deliver. I was quite disheartened until I found Taylor B!