Furniture

[juliesteve&joe]

Hello again- wnating to pick brains again please.

We are in the process of getting quotes for moving our stuff from here in NE(england) to andalucia.

I(being a girl!!!), thought it was an ideal opportunity to throw away lots of old furniture and buy buy buy when I got there. However a friend has just told me that furniture id really expensive over there, compared to the Uk

Is this the case?

[Moving Soon]

I found when furnishing my house that the choice is not as wide as in UK, and cheap furniture really does look cheap and nasty, whereas you can find some decent things in UK at reasonable prices, especially in 'discount' or 'outlet' stores. Guess you have to weigh that up against the cost of getting things moved out, whether the stuff you currently have needs replacing anyway, and whether your present stuff would fit/look right in your new house. A lot of what I have in England is antique and would look all wrong in my Spanish house so I will be disposing of it before we move.

[redsoxbrit]

If you have relatively new and /or decent furniture bring it with you. Not only is furniture expensive here but the choice is limited. Think of the time and expense of finding items to match and worse, the despair of not being able to! I too did question the cost of shipping our furniture but I am so glad I did it as not only would it have been nigh on impossible to find similar, it really helped (especially the children) with the settling in process. Bring what you can as it's lovely to have familiar things around you and can help keep you sane - if you eventually find you don't need everything you can sell it at a car-boot sale.

[juliesteve&joe]

Yes you are probably right- just getting over excited at the prospect of buying new things!!!
Will bring more of our own things than we anticipated I think!
Ikea probably isnt as handy to get to as it is here for must haves!

[Shukran]

We brought some furniture over from the UK and they're still in store until we move into our new house. Other things that required updating anyway, were disposed of in England and bought new here. It depends on what you're looking for, but it wasn't an easy task for us to find exactly what we wanted here as we really dislike the Spanish taste in furniture. We did bring our brand new super king size bed though (and full sets of bedding).

[pete_l]

Ikea probably isnt as handy to get to as it is here for must haves!

Oh it's not too bad - there's one in Seville and one in Murcia, and 2 in
Madrid. You should be able to get there and back in a day ':D'

I did find (at the Murcia one, only opened in march) that you are limited
to buying what they have, not necessarily what you want. For example,
beds: They had some bases for the bed I wanted, but no matresses.
I went back the next day and found a base/matress combination that
worked, but wasn't the one I was after, so I compromised.
I'd advise taking an english IKEA catalog, they didn't seems to have any
(in any language) when I was there.

Depending where you are in Granada, one big limitation is getting stuff
delivered. If you're reasonably close to a large town with "big" shops, then
fair enough, if you're out in the boonies like me, you're on your own.
Personally, I'm finding it quite hard to spend money in Spain. I'm too
far out to get stuff delivered and the shops don't have stock, so I can't
take it away with me.

Pete

[Solysombra]

Hello again- wnating to pick brains again please

At the risk of sounding snobby I'll make my pitch, if you have half decent furniture in the UK,, take it with you Spanish furniture both in design and quality (especially the former) leaves an awful lot to be desired, we are moving over there in Sept and have decided to bring almost all our existing furniture with us, last time we were there we could only find what my wife described as anorectic beds because they were only made for very thin people!

[juliesteve&joe]

And what about any decent antique furniture-much of it about?

[Solysombra]

Plentry of antique shops around, be prepared to haggle though, you can certainly get some very good, old furniture in Spain if you look around

[paulellis]

Sounds like you are moving just down the road from us (Tapia)

You may want to go to 'furniture city' (Lucena). It's about 45 mins inland from Iznajar (follow the road to Rute, then just keep going!). I understand where people are coming from re quality, but if you are prepared to look around, you can find vast choice there. We just fully furnished our main bedroom for less than 1000 euros and I have to say, more than pleased with the quality.

Let me know if you want any further details

Paul & Jo

[El Cid]

We totally furnished our new house in Spain with Spanish furniture and the range of choice and prices beats anything we have seen in the UK.

You just have to get out and look for it.

Most decent furniture in Spain is sold from catalogues in furniture shops. There is a vast range to suit any price and taste - just don't expect to see it displayed in full in a shop.

Personally I wouldn't touch Ikea - MFI with a different accent!

Sid

[juliesteve&joe]

I just find IKEA great for throw away must haves, but it is good to know there is some good stuff out there. We certainly wont be aversed to go out hunting for it either- thats part of the fun, though Im sure my husband would disagree.

I had heard Lucena was good for furniture- may be the 1st place to start.

We will bring essentials and anything reasonably new, but I am finding it incredible how many boxes personal nick-nacks take up!

Did you guys use an english removals company when you went. We had a quote from Robinsons which was extortionate. but premiermovers seem to be reasonable. Any advice greatly appreciated!!

[kexon]

Hi, we used Britannia,in jan of this year,the quote was reasonable and they adjusted their price to fit in with other quotes,so you can haggle,they stored our goods for three months,free,with no probs,arrived the day they were supposed to also.Unfortunately the driver did decide to ignore my advice to park on the hardstanding and parked in the sand,consequently the van sank and we had to marshall help from our new neighbours and farmers with tractors,to get him out,which was a bit of a trial for our faltering spanish,but we got it sorted,and despite this, all my stuff arrived fully intact not even a chip or a break!!

[paulellis]

Try Phillipa on [email protected]. They have a depot in Spain but are a UK-based company. Best quote we obtained & seemed to know what they were talking about. They transport to Spain, store in their own depot free of charge until you give them a delivery date

Paul & Jo

[heathxxx]

We decided to bring all our stuff with us. We've also advised my parents to do the same when they also move over shortly.

Alot of people have asked us "why", but we had alot of antique furniture we had restored ourselves and we considered irriplaceable.

I would not say that Spain is generally a "furniture" country, like you would find France or Italy are. Good quality furniture is generally expensive, but bear in mind when people offer suggestions, that everyone has different tastes and ideas of "quality" In my opinion, even flat-pack furniture is not as cheap as you would expect, although kitchen furniture is reasonably priced.

Alot of our furniture is made from wood. Generally wooden furniture of decent quality is expensive here.

[Susi]

Shukran
Have you bought any SuperKingsize bedding here? The only place I know is Dunnes but I went yesterday and they only had one set in a really boring design.

[Roz]

We have found Movers International of Preston to be very good and were surprised how inexpensive they were.

[juliesteve&joe]

Thanks for all advice and suggestions.

Taking up the kitchen theme. Fitted kitchens? Are they easy to come by? I dont mind painted wood, but not just plain wood.

[Shukran]

Shukran
Have you bought any SuperKingsize bedding here? The only place I know is Dunnes but I went yesterday and they only had one set in a really boring design.

No, we bought them in the UK and brought them with us as we'd heard they weren't easy to come by in Spain. I believe they sell super king bedding in the Linen Store in Albox and also in Gill's in Mojacar but I'm afraid I don't know anything about the Granada area at all. A quick scan through a local (to Granada) paper at the adverts may help.

We bought our bedding from Dunelm Mill in the UK and I know you can order stuff on the internet. If they don't deliver to Spain, could you get them delivered to a friend/relative in the UK and they can forward it on. They have a wonderful choice and I can highly recommend them.

[Shukran]

Thanks for all advice and suggestions.

Taking up the kitchen theme. Fitted kitchens? Are they easy to come by? I dont mind painted wood, but not just plain wood.

You can get a selection of ready-to-assemble kitchen packs in Leroy Merlins. I've seen a finished kitchen that, for a small charge, was assembled by them and it was very good.

However, have you thought of having a kitchen made locally? These can sometimes work out as cheap and made to your complete specifications.