Solid Wood Furniture, Bed, Draws, Tables

[Cromarty]

Dear Chiang Mia'ians

My family and I are coming to your beautiful city this weekend and one thing we plan to do is to purchase some nice solid wood furniture to have sent back to Bangkok. I have hired a car so were are mobile. Can anyone recommend a good area to visit to get some nice pieces. We would like traditional style, older bits if possible, definately nothing that Index sells.

Friends have said to take the road outside the airport away from the City and there is a whole area of furniture places, is this correct and a good place?

Much obliged

Cromarty.

[sparrow]

Dear Chiang Mia'ians

My family and I are coming to your beautiful city this weekend and one thing we plan to do is to purchase some nice solid wood furniture to have sent back to Bangkok. I have hired a car so were are mobile. Can anyone recommend a good area to visit to get some nice pieces. We would like traditional style, older bits if possible, definately nothing that Index sells.

Friends have said to take the road outside the airport away from the City and there is a whole area of furniture places, is this correct and a good place?

Much obliged

Cromarty.

ban tawan is where your friends are talking about I think. Alot of nice teak stuff. They close about 5 pm so best to go in the morning before it gets too hot.

[Puwa]

*Ban Tawai, Hangdong district south of the city.

[Cromarty]

Much obliged to both of you. The wife an I are really looking forward to getting some nice stuff, I just hope the lack of a Thai speaker doesn't hinder us too much.

[SamSipEt]

Much obliged to both of you. The wife an I are really looking forward to getting some nice stuff, I just hope the lack of a Thai speaker doesn't hinder us too much.

No not hinder provided you don't mind paying Farang prices

Ban Tawai is quite spread out so don't be shy about stopping at places to window shop, get some prices and move on. I find a pencil and paper useful to keep track of who is selling what for what. Once you get to the main shopping area there are a lot of handicraft shops but do wander around and you will still find some furniture of varying quality for sale. It is easily possible to spend all day at this and still not visit all of the places.

Good luck!

[noise]

Much obliged to both of you. The wife an I are really looking forward to getting some nice stuff, I just hope the lack of a Thai speaker doesn't hinder us too much.

To get the best prices without speaking Thai, I recommend several things:

1. Like Sam SipEt said, visit many places, take lots of careful notes (after 5-10 shops, notes that made sense in shop #1 no longer mean anything), and, most importantly, also ask to go see their factories. Some of them have gigantic warehouses near by full of stuff already made, most of it different than what is in the show room (1000sq ft showroom vs a 50,000 sq ft warehouse). We and our friends have gotten some of our best pieces from the warehouses.
   
2. Be prepared to spend several days, letting the sellers know you live in Thailand and, therefore, have the time to look slowly, want to see what all is out there, and that you want to buy several pieces. If you find some stuff you like and have the time, come back a couple of days in a row. Many tourist show up one day, buy, and are gone. Locals get better prices by repeat shopping; you can try it by repeat visits, specially for that item you really like but is really too expensive. Who knows how far you can get them to come down?
   
3. When negotiating price use coming back for more furniture in the future to try for a lower price. Maybe tentatively select something you like but don't want to buy just yet and then talk to the seller about ordering it via email/fax, etc. Get their web site, brochure, etc.
   
4. Discuss shipping after selecting pieces and agreeing to a price.
   
5. There are a lot of shippers in Ban Tawai; visit them and see what their prices are so as to compare with what the furniture sellers tell you are shipping costs.
   

[JuniorExPat]

Dear Chiang Mia'ians

My family and I are coming to your beautiful city this weekend and one thing we plan to do is to purchase some nice solid wood furniture to have sent back to Bangkok. I have hired a car so were are mobile. Can anyone recommend a good area to visit to get some nice pieces. We would like traditional style, older bits if possible, definately nothing that Index sells.

Friends have said to take the road outside the airport away from the City and there is a whole area of furniture places, is this correct and a good place?

Much obliged

Cromarty.

My wife is a past master at negotiating with the manufacturers in Ban Tawai and elsewhere, so much so that we have she has a little export business based on her talents. Please feel free to PM me if you would like an English speaking Thai "personal shopper" to accompany you. She is very good at discretely making the commission/kickback process transparent to buyers and using that to get the best prices whilst still making, and declaring, a fee for herself.

JxP

[Cromarty]

fantastic advice, thanks guys. I'm in my hotel room with the kids wide awake so I think we will have breakfast then drive down. Thanks for the offer JP, I only saw your post today, if I don't get anything today I will get in contact.

I don't want to rush this, we can always pop back up, it is straightforward from where we are in BKK. I've got a race tomorrow but I can do a repeat visit on monday before we return.

I love Chiang Mai, it's got a lovely feel to it. We ate at the falafel last night when we got here, great place.

cheers!

[Mapguy]

*Ban Tawai, Hangdong district south of the city.

Yes, indeed. Batawai is indeed the place to go. You will find different styles and quality.

I would like to give the highest recommendation to Insorn Norkaew, maker of very well-designed quality pieces. He will also make custom pieces for you. And he will stand in back of his work. We had an overlarge guest clumisily crack an arm on a chair, and Khun Insorn fixed it for us at no cost.

His showroom is in central Bantawai. Contact him at 01-993-4423

[Cromarty]

just a quick update. I thinks we went to every furniture shop and all the liitle stalls in Ban Tawai on Saturday, exhausting! Just as you turn off the main road was gold triangle, we found them very exspensive, They had anice bed but wanted 25,000 for it. Same side just further down was a chinese reproduction shop which we liked and will return to today. Slightly further down across the road there are a numbe of places, we got good info and like the designs of Sri Som Suk. They quoted 12,000 for a bed, a 3 door wardrobe for 19,500 and a chest of drawers for 11,000. 2 or 3 shops before this had a nice bed for 15,000 and table and chairs for 20,000. I think we are going with these 3 shops.

I was suspicious of a shop along the road to the right, big place, Nantiya décor, no prices but codes on them and she tapped furiously on the calculator to get a price, every piece (chinese) she said was 50years old even though they had 5 or 6 of one style and it was built to house a TV and dvd player!!

Back again shortly even though I'm aching after the adventure race

Edited May 19, 2008 by Cromarty

[gobs]

Hi Cromarty,

Just an idea...

There is a fair of furnitures coming soon, nothing about INDEX or so. If I remember well it begins on the 23rd of May and closed something like the 6th of June.

This fair is settled behind the TESCO-LOTUS at the north of CM, a big area in the hudge flower market.

You can find many many different styles of solid wood furnitures... and more, like solid wood sala(s), these "little houses" you can see here and there in some thay gardens.

In this fair you have also furnitures of prisonners workshops: solid wood furnitures, "thay classic style", at good prices.

For example, last year, I was interested in a dining set from this workshop: one square table, 1,20 m x 1,20 m and 4 chairs (all varnished solid wood). Good building, nice hand made (so sometimes some little differences in details between the 4 chairs... but for my part I do like hand works: hands are not machines!), heavy solid wood, for the price of 7,000 Bahts...

Unfortunately, when I came back on the tomorrow to buy this set, it was already sold! But may pen ray: 2 months later, from a prisonners workshop too, I found a larger table in solid big-big wood and classic thay style with 6 chairs for 10,000 Bahts...

Hope can help...

Cheers,

Gobs