furniture in spain
#1
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 4
furniture in spain
can anybody tell me where to buy furniture for our appartment in the alicante guardamar area. Or is it just as cheap to buy in the UK & ship it out there Thankyou in advance
#2
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Posts: 28
Re: furniture in spain
Originally Posted by stirldecor
can anybody tell me where to buy furniture for our appartment in the alicante guardamar area. Or is it just as cheap to buy in the UK & ship it out there Thankyou in advance
You either love Ikea or hate 'em, but they are very useful for good design @ reasonable cost, especially if you have a whole house to furnish.
Other than that, Spanish furniture generally seems to be good value with all types/styles available.
We will be selling all our furniture as a) shipping it over will be far too expensive and b) chances are what we have now either won't fit or won't be right for Spain.
It's a good excuse to start again - and to go shopping!
#3
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Re: furniture in spain
Originally Posted by C-Cat
Don't know if this is of interest but I've just found out that Ikea are opening a new branch in the next month or two in Murcia (apparently just off the A-7.) This is probably about an hour's drive from where you are.
You either love Ikea or hate 'em, but they are very useful for good design @ reasonable cost, especially if you have a whole house to furnish.
Other than that, Spanish furniture generally seems to be good value with all types/styles available.
We will be selling all our furniture as a) shipping it over will be far too expensive and b) chances are what we have now either won't fit or won't be right for Spain.
It's a good excuse to start again - and to go shopping!
You either love Ikea or hate 'em, but they are very useful for good design @ reasonable cost, especially if you have a whole house to furnish.
Other than that, Spanish furniture generally seems to be good value with all types/styles available.
We will be selling all our furniture as a) shipping it over will be far too expensive and b) chances are what we have now either won't fit or won't be right for Spain.
It's a good excuse to start again - and to go shopping!
#4
Just Joined
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 28
Re: furniture in spain
Originally Posted by stirldecor
Thats great news because we were thinking of going to madrid Ikea to purchase furniture. So if what you say is true we may well try this new branch. Thanks for the info C-Cat
http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/7074
Also, if you go up to
http://www.ikea.com/ms/es_ES/index.html
and click on the 'Trabajar en Ikea' link, you will see that there is a job vacancy for the new Murcia store (no, not suggesting you apply for it, but at least it proves there is a store due to open there soon!)
I'm very chuffed, as we had planned to get all our stuff from one of the Barcelona branches - this one will be much, much nearer.
I only found out about it by chance because I'm trying to improve my truly dreadful Spanish by reading Spanish websites.............!
#5
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Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 83
Re: furniture in spain
From experience and that of a few others here "up north" :
You can buy here what you can buy in the UK and you get the bonus of being able to buy some lovely old (but not necessarily cheap) furniture as well.
We sold most of our furniture and when we got here were unpleasantly surprised by the prices. Things certainly aren't cheaper, and a lot of stuff is more expensive.
Ikea - we are in an Ikea free zone so can't compare - they'll probably be a safe bet unless you move to Mallorca where prices can be up to 30% more than in Barcelona.
For basic stuff like tv stands (for some reason tv stands are worth more than gold in some stores), display units , beds etc some of the big chain Hypermarkets are good choices and you'll save quite a bit although the selection will be a bit basic.
Strangely a lot of the stuff you could get in the UK ten years ago from (think MFI) is available here but very expensive.
Bed linen, towels, curtains etc - can be very expensive and limited in choice - if you like shiny orange, purple or seventies patterns then you'll be in luck. No real reason for this that I can see as I've yet to visit a Spanish friend who is in to shiny orange or seventies throwbacks.
Argos catalogues are passed around here like they were an original version of the 10 commandments, written by Moses himself.
Obviously my idea of cheap will be different than someone elses and with Alicante at least you'll get probably 10 times the stores to choose from and browse through at your leisure.
You can buy here what you can buy in the UK and you get the bonus of being able to buy some lovely old (but not necessarily cheap) furniture as well.
We sold most of our furniture and when we got here were unpleasantly surprised by the prices. Things certainly aren't cheaper, and a lot of stuff is more expensive.
Ikea - we are in an Ikea free zone so can't compare - they'll probably be a safe bet unless you move to Mallorca where prices can be up to 30% more than in Barcelona.
For basic stuff like tv stands (for some reason tv stands are worth more than gold in some stores), display units , beds etc some of the big chain Hypermarkets are good choices and you'll save quite a bit although the selection will be a bit basic.
Strangely a lot of the stuff you could get in the UK ten years ago from (think MFI) is available here but very expensive.
Bed linen, towels, curtains etc - can be very expensive and limited in choice - if you like shiny orange, purple or seventies patterns then you'll be in luck. No real reason for this that I can see as I've yet to visit a Spanish friend who is in to shiny orange or seventies throwbacks.
Argos catalogues are passed around here like they were an original version of the 10 commandments, written by Moses himself.
Obviously my idea of cheap will be different than someone elses and with Alicante at least you'll get probably 10 times the stores to choose from and browse through at your leisure.