Furniture At Home Pro

[wallacern]

Working on furnishing our house in Bang Saen.

Went to Pattaya Friday and looked at leather sofa, love seat, and chair being sold as a set at Home Pro for about 60,000 Baht. It was on the 1st floor near the food court. Any inputs on this?

Upstairs there was more leather furniture displayed and also some that looked like leather, but said leather/PVC. Any idea what that means?

We will make another trip to Pattaya next week. Fridays trip was just a quickie as we had to pick up some people and return to Bang Saen.

Any ideas or advise would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

[DrFisher]

PVC means poly vinyl chloride and I’m guessing they mean it looks like leather but it is not. I have found and bought a lot of furniture from small shops at ½ the cost of home pro and the quality is just as good for the most part.

[simcity]

leather = leather

PVC= plastic look like leather

i container a leather sofa , i have two , left one in australia and took the same one to bangkok

after 5 year the bangkok one is crack and do not look good anymore ! the australian one still perfect !

i will not look to buy a leather item for here

[Jai Dee]

Unless you're planning to put the leather/PVC lounge setting in a fully air conditioned environment, you might want to reconsider and opt for a fabric one instead.

Leather/PVC does not breathe as well as fabric, and in the hot and humid climate we have here, is susceptable to mold and mildew unless the air in the room is dried out by air conditioning.

Fabric is also more comfortable to sit on IMO.

Just my 2 satang...

[suiging]

Home Pro is a fantastic place for ideas ( and a cheap good quality lunch in the food court ), however often what you see is " out of stock " and if you have the time, a fair amount of their range can be sourced locally at a discount.

[Rimmer]

I've seen some leather/PVC furniture around town and some of it was explained as having leather seats and back and PVC sides, both surfaces looked the same to me so dunno, I came away confused but it could be a way of keeping down the material cost. Try the smell test on different parts of the item. Leather smells like leather and PVC smells like... well PVC

[barryofthailand]

I think th op is talking about the second floor in front of Home Pro where they often sell leather sofas from Bangkok via a road show. The better place to shop for furniture leather or look a like leather your choice is the Eastern Home Center on Sukhimvit south pattaya. They have leather sofas for about 40,000 baht or you can get a cheaper brand sofa look a like leather for half that price and they both come with two easy chairs. Very nice furniture their. Have a look.

Another thing about stock in Home pro is nothing is kept in stock in Pattaya. Nothing big I mean, it all comes from bangkok, and their is a two to three day delivery lag because of this. I know, I wanted to purchase a refrigerator with same day delivery. Cannot do.

Barry

[monty]

Think the shop you're talking about might be Stephano Cho Sofa's.

A bit expensive, but they have some style's you wouldn't find easily over here (English styles)

The bloke designs them (well copies them I guess) himself and produces around here somewhere....

Bought a set of him and pretty happy with it!

Oh, and his indicated prices are negotiable by a pretty good margin, so all in all acceptable price for what you get...

Edited July 15, 2006 by monty

[wallacern]

Thanks to all for the replies and advise.

My living room will not be air conditioned so maybe I should look more at the cloth fabric. Sure would like to own some nice leather though.

Will look at the smaller shops as advised.

If any of you can provide directions to the smaller shops I would appreciate it since I don't know the Pattaya area very well and have only been driving in LOS for a week.

I have no idea how the motorcycles manage to miss my front bumper.

Thanks again,

Mike

[djinn]

I've seen some leather/PVC furniture around town and some of it was explained as having leather seats and back and PVC sides, both surfaces looked the same to me so dunno, I came away confused but it could be a way of keeping down the material cost. Try the smell test on different parts of the item. Leather smells like leather and PVC smells like... well PVC

I second this.After some month you will have a difference in color between the leather part and the PVC part.

If it is quality you want (but expensive) go look Decorum.I payed around 100 000 for my lounge and it is perfect.In Belgium same quality would cost 250 000 bahts (I checked)

My belgian leather lounge is 27 years old and is still in very good condition (have to spend for quality,costed about 150 000 bahts in 1980)

[expatgaz]

A couple of points, PVC is cheap crap however you look at it.Leather is Leather.There are usually good stalls upstairs in Big C which have examples and catalogues, prices tend to be good.There is also a Leather Factory not to far out of Town, another big one outside BKK..

[mike100]

I bought two sofa’s and a single recliner in fabric from Stephano Cho a few weeks ago. (Caltex model)

As Monty said, not cheap (for Thailand,) but excellent quality and extremely comfortable.

Pondered over the leather and fabric choice for days, but chose the fabric in the end due to the extra comfort level. Stephano told me the fillings were silicon based.

Mike, I have a link for his website, if you would like it drop me a PM.

Cheers,

Mike.

[wallacern]

Thanks again to all for the advise.

All the relatives and friends are here for the weekend and they all have there own ideas on what we should buy.

I have no idea how it will end up. I keep telling them that we need to check several more shops before buying. However, TIT.

( I have to go through all this again to buy a car, but that will be another topic.)

Thanks again,

Mike

[The Dan Sai Kid]

Thanks to all for the replies and advise.

My living room will not be air conditioned so maybe I should look more at the cloth fabric. Sure would like to own some nice leather though.

Will look at the smaller shops as advised.

If any of you can provide directions to the smaller shops I would appreciate it since I don't know the Pattaya area very well and have only been driving in LOS for a week.

I have no idea how the motorcycles manage to miss my front bumper.

Thanks again,

Mike

35 degrees + leather + bare skin - no a/c = not the most comfortable seat!

[Phil Conners]

Leather easily get moldy if you're not using a lot of aircon. Go for textile. Most of the sofa "exhibitions" on around Pattaya (Big C, Carrefour etc) are Stephano Cho. We also got a sofa there, not perfect but ok for the price.

If you're after European style high quality I think the best shop is Index (Sukhumvit east side) but pricey.

[suiging]

I,m with the above on Index. Good quality but at a price. In the new pile I'm throwing up in the beautiful Pong, wife and I loved a kitchen set up in Index. We were quoted a price which would even make Bill Gates wince, told my Thai builder who promptly went along forgot to mention he was representing Farang thus was given a 30% discount on the spot.

It tends to work that way just about everwhere here, get a Thai friend to do the biz after you and yours have made a choice, then nine times out of ten you will be in pocket.

[wilko]

I have an chair and foot-stool that has both leather & PVC panels...or as the salesman said..

"some bit plastic, some bit cow"

I have to say that I have repeatedly been able to find the same items cheaper elsewhere than Home-Pro....I also find there customer service leaves huge amounts to be desired. Try index for cheap home pro type stuff....

The shop on Pattaya North with the Index sign is not only consistantly cheaper than home pro, (30% on one identical side board) but is also cheaper than Index on Sukumvit.

Edited July 17, 2006 by wilko

[wallacern]

Thanks again for more advise. Wife seems to be slowly cutting me out of the loop on the furniture buying. Have seen some stuff I liked at index. Our beds and closets (is that what they are called?) are from index.

Dining room table is from home pro. Sorry I paid their high price. Have seen very similar table and chairs cheaper at other stores including index.

Thanks,

Mike

[wilko]

Wife seems to be slowly cutting me out of the loop on the furniture buying

Probably just as well if you were thinking of buying a "love seat"

[chuckd]

I bought a five piece sectional leather sofa a year ago and am very happy with it.

I got it from the open air furniture store located between Index and Siam Country Club Road, 50 meters before the intersection.

I paid 40,000 for it but it takes two weeks to manufacture.