retrav1K

I am looking for a good quality (but not overly expensive) Indonesian furniture maker .. to ship ggods back home (which I can arrange). Any suggestions -- need a full house ..bedrooms, living rooms, etc.

I will be in Indonesia in a few weeks time and am prepared (prefer) to travel to the factory/source (whether in Surabaya, Solo,etc)

Thanx,

l etoile

I bought some beautiful mahogany furniture from an artisan in Ubud and had them shipped home. The shop's called Taro, I believe, and the owner/artisan is Rai. The workmanship and design is far better than what you typically find in the area. The shop is on the road to the Aman resort there. He does very beautiful things, including doors with inlaid woods. A friend of mine just furnished his whole home in Ubud with pieces from Rai - beautiful. I wish I had bought more.

retrav1K

What were the prices like for main pieces ?

Appreciate the recommendation

l etoile

Chairs that I'm not really sure how to describe (they're all wood but they're not dining chairs, they're more living room chairs when a cushion is added) we're US$150 each before shipping and fees associated with that. (Rai has a pretty good shipper too who was less per cubic meter than other shippers we had priced in Indonesia.) The large mahogany loungers were about $300. I wish I could remember the rest of the prices. The furniture was reasonable - getting it home however cost us twice again as much. Fortunately, it looks like you're a bit closer. Rai's email is [email protected] I don't know if he has a scanner, but if he does perhaps he can email (or even snail mail) you some pictures so you can get an idea if his things are something you'd be interested in.

I don't know if you need light fixtures but there's a wonderful lighting store in Kuta that's fairly new. I could give you the name of that too.

Morrissey

The problem with visiting Bali is that you see so many beautiful, inexpensive things you want to buy, but then face the difficulty of getting them home!

retrav1K

I am purchasing a house in Western Indonesia (an island near Singapore) ... need good quality furniture ... not happy with what I see locally .. have heard Surabaya, Solo and Bali were much better quality at reasonable prices

So .. shipping is not as big a factor as if I wanted to send to USA or Australia.

If I find the right supplier, I may have friends also interested, so we may ship a full container (or 2?)

l etoile

Isn't that the truth! I thought the shipping and fumigation charge would be the end of it - wrong! I was getting faxes every other day there for a while for an extra $150 for storage, forklift fee, document prep fee - you name it they hit me with it. It got to where I would cringe everytime a fax came. I almost decided to abandon the furniture and then figured they'd probably send me some huge bill for having done that. In the end, I'm glad I got it all and it was still cheaper than I would have paid here. I think going with a full container is the way to go because many of the fees would have been the same no matter how much stuff I had.

Darren

If you don't mind my asking, how did you get around the ownership laws? Are you Indonesian or did you arrange it in some other way?

retrav1K

House ownership by foreigners in the Riau province is 100% legal .... special provisions apply. Can't OWN the land - but neither do the locals ....it is long-term renewable lease (cheap) from local govt authority


We also incoroporated a PMA (Foreign Investment Co. 100% owned) for our investments -- we may do more property renovation/development projects in the area.

Ping me if you want more info ...

Darren

I will do that some time, thank you. I don't have the means to do it right now but it's something I have looked into before.