SportyPorty

Hi Guys,

We've just put a deposit on a new-build apartment near Palma and hope to have the keys in August. For us it will be a holiday home for now, with a view to spending most of our time there upon retirement.

When we take possession, we will need to completely furnish it. Beds, sofas, curtains, tv, fridge, washing machine, as well as all of the smaller items, cutlery, toaster, lamps etc.

I have Googled and found that there is an Ikea, Carrefour and also a shopping centre (Porto Pi) within a short distance, which may provide a valuable source of the things we need.

Is anyone familiar with the area and knows of any shops, maybe further afield even, which we should also consider. Quick delivery of items such as beds would obviously be an advantage, as we may end up sleeping on inflatables for a few nights!! We will have a car, so anywhere within a reasonable drive is fine (or even a longer drive if it's worth the effort).

We obviously have plenty of time beforehand, so if we can plan out our shopping trips by checking the websites of these shops, it will save us a lot of time.

Thanks in advance.

amideislas

We've found IKEA beds to be pretty damned good, especially for the price. You have a decent selection at the IKEA in Palma from cheap to posh, although it's amongst the smaller IKEA shops I've seen, and they just don't carry everything in stock. But they stock quite a bit of stuff.

Carrefour is a good place to get appliances and other things for the home, although you can get even better deals if you shop around. I've found "Expert" to be very expensive in general - I'd avoid them. Media Markt near the Ocimax has some good deals occasionally, and you can even get some bargains at El Corte ingles - ocassionally.

One place will have, say, a posh toaster for €49, whilst another place will sell exactly the same thing for €14.99. There's no one place that has all the good deals all the time. Chinese shops usually have a lot of bargains on many common things (much of the stuff is the same you buy from anywhere else, just without the brand name), but again, not necessarily. You have to shop around.

Having said all that, you should take a trip to the poligonos and shop around there. Poligono Son Castelló just outside Palma has hundreds of specialty shops. Not all are cheap, but many have things you just won't find at Carrefour. It's worth a trip. 5 Minutes by train from Plaça d'Espanya.

You might want to consider 2nd hand for some things. It's amazing how cheaply you can get great stuff - even nearly new or new. Try segundamano.es

There are a few second hand shops too. Try the one in Poligono Son Noguera near LLucmayor. Segunda Mano Llucmayor. It's German, but they speak English fluently. They often have very useful things like fridges and kitchen equipment, tables chairs, etc at really cheap prices. They will also negotiate - a bit.

Welcome, and Good luck. Feel free to PM me if you need help.

-ami

mikelincs

You can, or at least could, find shops that will do a furnishing package, and that will include everything you need as a starter for your home, right down to the cutlery. It won't be the best quality, but should do while you are just using it as a holiday home, as that is the sort of home these packages were designed for. You can then replace with better as and when, gives you time to look round for jsut what you want without panicking.

johnnyone

Follow Ami's advice and you should not go wrong. Although we are on the mainland what Ami suggests is what we did, apart from a three piece we had delivered from the Uk.
The thing we did notice is the disparity in pricing for similar items from shop to shop. So it does pay to shop around. Although we did buy from some of the chain shops we found the local retailers much more helpful and not always that much more expensive. Good Luck.

SportyPorty

That's great, thank you very much for the advice all. I will certainly check out the links and locations. You are, I'm sure, already aware of the high initial costs, I will certainly be buying budget items where possible, and then better quality once established. The exception being beds and sofas. I think it's better to invest a little more and get something comfortable. I don't mean high-end merchandise, just not bargain basement. Really getting excited now that we have committed and paid the deposit. Still a bit frightening though!

rammy100

As someone who has completely furnished an apartment, I recommend that you don't buy bargain-basement for anything. It's a false economy and you'll end up replacing it sooner rather than later.

Mid-range IKEA stuff is fine for most things but I would treat yourself to a few top range things from other shops (things that matter - it's a coffee machine for me that does it), otherwise the whole place looks just like an IKEA showroom!

Have fun,

Dave

Canadachic

Hi ,
Would also say to use Ikea for most things and go mid range or higher if possible.
For beds you could try Bob the Bed in Santa Ponsa ....they have a facebook page or you can google them for details.
Its an English company , not cheap, but ok, but they have a good range of quality beds .
We did not use Bob the Bed the first time we bought our beds and regretted it as for us it was a case of "buy cheap buy twice ".

good luck in Palma ....I lived there for two years before moving to the South West of the island and loved it ...

amideislas

Bob the bed does offer quality English beds (but damned expensive!). We originally invested a small fortune in a bed from there. But later, we bought beds from IKEA for guest rooms and found they were every bit as comfortable ( even more so), easier to move and assemble, but at a fraction of the price. We've since put the posh expensive bed in the guest room and sleeping on the IKEA.

By the way, one person suggested avoiding second-hand things because it will not last. Well, Mallorca is unique in that it attracts a lot of wealthy inhabitants who buy holiday homes that they end up using for 3 weeks per year. We've found that many come here, spend a fortune on their furnishings and appliances, and either remodel or update routinely, or it seems some change their mind for whatever reason and sell it all off.. often at a fraction of what they spent. Many things hardly used. We've bought lots of posh stuff second hand and almost all of it is in perfect condition. Good deals to be had. Sometimes it needs a clean up, but you can get some stuff very cheap.

IamStu

I think I´m just echoing others here.
We furnished our apt mostly through Ikea for one simple reason.
We simply couldn´t find "nice" furniture that wasn´t extortionately expensive!
Aswell as the fact that IKEA deliver!
Granted, we almost left the place one Saturday afternoon and almost headed directly to the divorce lawyer but we made it out alive!

SportyPorty

Thanks to everyone for their valuable input so far. I think we've sourced outlets for pretty much all of the large items for our apartment, but almost all of the smaller stuff will have to wait until we come out in July/Aug.

One thing that's proving more difficult is finding a sofa-bed. We've done quite a bit of research on the internet and we've found a few outlets (OK Sofa's, Bob the Bed (Mucho Dinero!!), Muebles la fabrica, Ikea and some more, the list is at home at the moment) But none of them seem to have what we had in mind. As this is going to be used on a daily basis whilst we are in Mallorca, it needs to be a sturdy model. Weve looked at shipping from the UK, but I think we can rule that out in view of the cost. Unfortunately, an Ikea model we had shortlisted in the UK, isn't available in Mallorca Ikea...

So, can anyone recommend a sofa-bed supplier/shop/outlet in Mallorca. We did narrow this down to Palma, but due to lack of availability, I think we will need to widen our search.

Sorry for asking the same question again, but we will be needing this item from day 1, and I'd like to have some idea where to go when we arrive rather than running around like a headless chicken!

Thanks in avdvance

amideislas

Take a trip out to Manacor, the "ciutat de muebles". Not only are there endless furniture factories, but seemingly endless furniture shops as well.

The reason I mention it is that most of the furniture is made locally, and many of the shops will be happy to have something made to your specifications at reasonable prices - simply because the factories where they source them are right down the road.

...or stop into one of the many furniture factories and ask...

SportyPorty

Many thanks amideislas. I will certainly research that, and visit when we arrive. I wonder what their turnaround times are?

I can see us spending the first fortnight sleeping on airbeds.... Whatever, it'll be great just to be in our own place there. Really looking forward to it now. Cheers

amideislas

Well, again, manufactured locally, there's no shipping, so I'd have to reckon reasonably quick. Most have big lorries to deliver, too, so that shouldn't be any problem.

But again, try talking to a small furniture factory directly. You may be pleasantly surprised (there are so many little fabrica de muebles in Manacor back streets it's a little shocking). Bring a simple drawing with (metric) dimensions, and have some idea of the fabrics and colours you prefer. I hope you are somewhat fluent in Spanish :-)

SportyPorty

I managed to find some other good household/furniture stores in Mallorca with websites to browse and most deliver too -

Brico Dept...

Bauhaus

Leroy Merlin

OK Sofas

Conforama

Carrefour

All have stores around the Palma area....