Singapore Expats

Hi Everyone

We have recently moved to Singapore and were looking at doing up our house. Part of that is buying furniture.

Some folks here suggested that we look at buying good teak furniture from Indonesia and getting it shipped here.

Anyone here has any experience of that and recommendations.

Unless the price differential is significant for the same quality, I would prefer to buy from SIngapore but would be good to get your insights.

Thanks so much.

There are many type of teaks . Not sure how many but we have Burmese Teak for our 3 feet round coffee table> The teak wood is slotted in small pieces to make the table top and Meranti on the four legs. Still with us for almost 20 years now. I paid $500 then . I also had a 5 feet Round Dinner table with similar replica as the coffee table. I paid $2.5K then.
Bought it at IMM Jurong East. DO not bother to buy it from Indonesia as it can be dodgy at times. Buy it locally . At least there will be some recourse if everything goes to custard. Teak is expensive. Pine is cheaper and good. IKEA is one place you can look for it.

"Good" and "Indonesian Teak" do not automatically go together.
In fact most wood furniture from Indonesia is junk!
There are some gems to be found, but you have to search hard, know your stuff and willing to pay the price.
If you are not prepared for this, you are better advised to go to IKEA!

beppi wrote:If you are not prepared for this, you are better advised to go to IKEA!

If you only expect the furniture to last a year or less...there are exceptions, though.

I have a table and a chest of drawers to show for it.

nakatago wrote:

beppi wrote:If you are not prepared for this, you are better advised to go to IKEA!

If you only expect the furniture to last a year or less...there are exceptions, though.

I have a table and a chest of drawers to show for it.

IKEA stuff is good enough for most standard purposes - and normally does last a while.

The usual low-quality Indonesian Teak "junk" lasts much less than a year. Seriously!
(And don't even think of bringing it to a temperate country: It will crack and fall apart faster than you can spell "low humidity"!)

beppi wrote:

nakatago wrote:

beppi wrote:If you are not prepared for this, you are better advised to go to IKEA!

If you only expect the furniture to last a year or less...there are exceptions, though.

I have a table and a chest of drawers to show for it.

IKEA stuff is good enough for most standard purposes - and normally does last a while.

The usual low-quality Indonesian Teak "junk" lasts much less than a year. Seriously!
(And don't even think of bringing it to a temperate country: It will crack and fall apart faster than you can spell "low humidity"!)

that IS bad!

With rare exceptions, most Java Teak furniture made in Indonesia is made from green teak (not kiln dried) therefore when taken into an airconditioned or low humidity climate, it shrinks and cracks, splits and breaks glue joints and will loosen any type of dovetail or other wedged type of joints. Not good.

We bought and custom made ordered a number of teak furniture in Singapore and practically nothing was the way it supposed to be. This include changes to the design (use of thinner boards instead of requested thicker, wrong color, boards cracking after less than one year). So you never know.

Thanks ti everyone for their comments. Quite helpful.
We decided to source furniture from within Singapore itself rather than go to Indonesia. At least we will have recourse to people incase things dont work out well!
We are now looking for rosewood furniture. Any suggestions from where we can get some furniture. Value for money furniture options will be quite welcome.
Many thanks
Rahul

Hi Rahul, are you open to purchasing used furniture?

http://usedfurnituresingapore.net/used- ... re-stores/

logo1234 wrote:Thanks ti everyone for their comments. Quite helpful.
We decided to source furniture from within Singapore itself rather than go to Indonesia. At least we will have recourse to people incase things dont work out well!
We are now looking for rosewood furniture. Any suggestions from where we can get some furniture. Value for money furniture options will be quite welcome.
Many thanks
Rahul

You could also check out The Helping Hand. It's a VWO that helps in the rehab of former drug addicts and reintegration into society; the teakwood is imported from Indonesia but all the furniture is handmade locally... Good to do a bit of charity at the same time as you do up your home

You should take a look at this site's furniture classifieds section:
http://classifieds.singaporeexpats.com/ ... php/cat/39