Can U Buy Good Furniture Near Udon Thani?

The sofa set we purchased from my previous post is made of fabric and have zippers on all the cushions. Easy enough to remove the coverings and wash & dry at home. They've been through the wash/dryer numerous times and are holding up nicely after about 18mos of having the sofa.

Also, I do regret not shipping our furniture from the US when we made a house hold move shipping mostly personal effects. If I could do it all over again I would.

It's easy to get good stuff made in Bangkok, but you'd probably have to search a bit harder here.

Someone mentioned a shop that makes their own stuff. I would take a photo of what I wanted in there and see if they could knock something up for you.

Marmite The Dog wrote:It's easy to get good stuff made in Bangkok, but you'd probably have to search a bit harder here.

Someone mentioned a shop that makes their own stuff. I would take a photo of what I wanted in there and see if they could knock something up for you.

How much deposit will you leave?I have not had any good luck with deposits in Thailand.If you don't get exactly what you want or you have a complaint about workmanship,do you think you will get your deposit back?

I don't like being a captive customer to someone that figures you have to take it if you order it!!

Hopefully,if you are going to have custom furniture made,you have checked out other customers before you hand out the deposit!

Yes, one does have to be careful about ordering and paying deposits. Often things don't arrive when agreed, or delivery is delayed. I've had that with Index, one month turned into 2 months. Or they are delivered with marks or imperfections. That's common in LOS. They don't seem too bothered or have high standards locally. I've experienced that too.

That said, I did order a proper wooden wardrobe from the place behind Global House. I picked it from a brochure, after the guy explained and compared it to other similar wardrobes he had in stock. I had to pay a large deposit, (because it was ordered specially) but it did arrive when agreed, was assembled by the delivery staff, had no marks or damage. I was very impressed and pleased with it. Indeed it exceeded my expectations.

So you pays your money and takes your choice, as they say. You would be wise to be cautious though.

My wife says she has tracked down an Udon chap who will make custom furniture and will draw up designs first for approval and discussion. I am out of the country but he told her he can email the designs to me if I want to speed up the decision and then we get a quote from that. Not sure if his talents stretch to sofas and the like but we will see.

I am fed up with the particle-board crap from Index and elsewhere, so looking for some decent sized wood kitchen cabinets as well as a wooden custom-built wall storage unit for the lounge and the girls bedroom. I may even get a pier-type bar unit as I have a long, t-shaped lounge/living area and that would help fill the void. I will keep you posted if he is any good.

On another matter, the good Thai electrician I found last year has taken up employment overseas so I am buggered with some additional sparkies work on the house.... bugger!

You will find a wider selection in Bangkok. They can ship it up to Udon if not delivering it directly in Udon. We bought out kitchen counters and cabinets in Bangkok, and it only cost us a couple thousand baht over the price to have it installed in Bangkok.

A friend has a leather couch and love seat, and I have never experienced the "sticky problem" that I had imagined leather would have around here. And they didn't have air conditioning in the living room, either.

Thanks guys for the updated info. and Ricki I was wondering about the cabinets you mentioned as well.I really don't care for the concrete cabinets around here or on coolhouse website and would like to buy pre-made wooden cabinets like you can buy at all HomeDepot type stores in the U.S. Is that you are referring to?It seems strange that almost everything you buy in the U.S. seems to be made in China including portable heaters and you can't seem to find them here and if you do the price is alot more and they would most likely have the right voltage than in the U.S.-go figure! On the cabinets how did you find them in Bangkok by just looking there or was there a website as I would really be interested in them1Thanks,SammyG

(Tried to send this to sammyg via PM but apparently, the server did not cooperate)

Decor's Choice in Udon has a pretty good selection of high-end cabinets, including some wooden cabinets, if I recall correctly. Here is the URL for their website:

http://www.decorschoice.co.th/

Our kitchen cabinets, stove, oven, sink etc. came from a company called Metalite. The cabinets are powder coated aluminum and they have a large selection of sinks, stoves, etc. They had (and maybe still have) a showroom in MBK Shopping Center in Bangkok, store #5C-28-29, 5th floor, telephone 0-2620-9308, and they also two other stores in Bangkok when we did business with them three years ago.

Thanks Rick got your reply and info. appreciate it!My wife says now she remembers a factory in NongbuaLamphu that also makes wooden cabinets also will check on them too! SammyG

Well, I've been looking some good furniture for my new build home. Well, for you try to visit some store that are selling some furniture like index living mall. I guess that is near in your location or maybe try to search in the internet to know some store that are near in you.

I have nothing but good words to say about Decor Choice. They did our entire kitchen to US standards. The cabinets are the same kind that you would ORDER (not the knock down that you assemble yourself) from Home Depot or Lowes. All the cabinet fronts are solid KILN DRIED wood with a polyurethane finish. They will lay out everything for you on a computer and give you a print to study before going ahead with the order. Their factory is up this way but a majority of their business is in BKK, Pataya, Phuket etc. When I asked them to make sure the cabinets had a "toe kick" (indented space at the bottom of the cabinet) they knew exactly what I was talking about. They will stand behind their work 100% no questions asked. They have a display of kitchen cabinets in Home Mart on the ring road for you to get a first hand look. They are not cheap but they are good and know what their doing.

On the subject of good wood furniture. Something to consider if you are thinking about buying wood furniture for your air conditioned house. The wood furniture made around here is made from wood which is NOT kiln dried or maybe kiln dried a bit. If you install that furniture/door/window frames in a house WITH air conditioning the wood will warp and eventually split as the air conditioning will remove the moisture from the wood. To the best of my knowledge there is no fix other other then to replace it. Another thing to look for is whether or not the wood has been sealed on ALL sides and not just the face side. If the wood is kiln dried correctly and sealed on all sides it will last a lifetime. From my experience if you want quality wood furniture and are willing to pay for it then head directly to the government certified factories in Chiang Mai making the stuff or go to BKK to buy it.

I know a couple of people that rave about the wood furniture they have bought in Tha Bo!I have always bought cheap assembled type stuff,so have no personal experience other than seeing the negatives results of others that have bought untreated or dried furniture.I can testify about ''shrinking'' door jambs and window frames in my rented house though