All About the Furniture

All About the Furniture!

A little background about furniture:  Tom and I love furniture.  North Carolina is the center of the American furniture industry, and we had some absolutely amazing furniture stores.  We built a very traditional, Southern-style house and furnished it with antiques and traditional furniture.  When we sold the house and downsized to a condo, we switched to a more contemporary furniture palate.  Again, we love furniture!

I am typing this on Saturday, March 7, 2015.  We’ve been in our apartment for just over a week now.
 

At about 1:20 this morning, our entire area lost power.  It was restored at about 10:30 this morning. 

Since we had no electricity this morning, we decided to take the bus into “El Centro” (downtown) to order our new furniture.  (We first stopped at a popular coffee shop for cups of cappuccino and mocha, of course!)  We then walked to Colineal furniture store – a very expensive store that sells furniture more in-tune with our tastes.  We’ve walked through their stores many, many times.  We only noticed very wealthy Ecuadorians and other ex-pats shopping there.   Our transaction was very much like doing so in the US: we walked around the giant showroom, measured, discussed fabric options, product availability, delivery timelines, etc. – ALL IN SPANISH!   We used our credit card (after calling the bank to make sure they wouldn’t reject a very large charge in a foreign country!) to earn a few thousand miles!

We picked out a sofa, two chairs for watching TV, and a sideboard.  The sofa and sideboard were in-stock; therefore, they will be delivered late next week.  Well, “scheduled” to be delivered!   The chairs are being made, and they are due in about 40-days.

We bought just the sideboard to this "Kraven" collection (in clear glass)

We bought this "Vissia" sectional in a linen pattern rather than leather

We bought two of the "Tessin" chairs on the right (in a brown ultrasuade)

Earlier this week, we bought a small bench for outside our front door (to sit on while putting on shoes) and two mahogany armchairs for the living room. We also replaced the two balcony bistro chairs. 

The Shoe Bench

Close up of the Shoe Bench

We are also replacing the curtains at the kitchen window and the balcony doors with day/night shades to match the rest of the condo’s window treatments.  Window treatments are a fraction of the cost in the US!  In true Ecuadorian fashion, the shop owner failed to show up for the scheduled measuring (two appointments he’s missed.) We then contacted a different shop…….and viola – we have the coverings ordered.   She spoke perfect English (lived in Washington state) and even showed up early for the appointment……………….EARLY……….IN ECUADOR!!

Now…….in Ecuador………   Furniture stores and shops are everywhere – we even have a little shop at the end of our street.  It was from this little shop that we bought the bench and mahogany chairs. 

Much of the Ecuadorian furniture is made right here in Cuenca.  There are two distinct styles here:  modern, clean-lined furniture, and the more traditional Ecuadorian-style furniture.   To our American eyes, the Ecuadorian style of furniture is way too over-stuffed, way too orange/brown, and way too “flamboyant” for our taste.  It seems the style is saying, “Bigger and over-stuffed is better, and I can afford the biggest and the brightest!” There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of middle ground in the furniture here.   Furniture here (in styles that we like) is comparable to US prices. 

As you recall, we bought our place fully furnished.  We sold the existing living room furniture pieces to friends here in Cuenca.  It was good stuff, and very comfortable – just not our style.  We love all of the existing bedroom and office pieces; therefore, we will be keeping all of it.   Eventually, we’ll switch the master bed to a king-sized bed.  We’ll then move the master queen bed to the guest suite, and move the queen guest suite to the 3^rd bedroom/office……maybe.

Another item that we were searching for is a small end table lamp for the guest room.  It seems most Ecuadorian homes are lit with only overhead lighting – not much in the way of table lamps.  The lamps we saw in the shops were very expensive ($150+)  We found a small lamp at a lamp store near the condo for $47.  Nothing fancy at all – would have cost about $15 in the US.  Most small lamps seem to be designed for children’s rooms, so we were happy with this simple design.

Who would have thought finding such a simple, little lamp would be difficult!

Eventually, we want to switch out the existing living room lamps with something more of our style.  It appears that we will have to buy them while back in the US!

UPDATE:  Colineal delivered the furniture about an hour early - very un-Ecuadorian!  As they unwrapped the sofa, I noticed that they brought the correct sofa – but in the wrong color!  Back to the truck it went, with assurances that the correct sofa would be delivered later that day. They called me to tell me that sofa would be delivered at 3:45 the next day. 

I informed the security guards at our front desk of the delivery time. All is good.  ……and then the guards called me later to tell me (in Spanish) that the elevator was going to be down for maintenance and inspection from 3-5PM.  Looks like the delivery guys would have to carry the sofa up 8 flights to our condo!  The building’s day porter followed them up the stairs to make sure nothing was damaged – he keeps the building looking like new, and is very proud of his work!

Fortunately, the sofa arrived about an hour earlier than scheduled; therefore, they were able to use the elevator for the smaller piece of the sofa.  The larger, heavier piece had to be carried up the stairs.   A few $2 bills as tips made the delivery guys extremely happy!  The supervisor practically squealed with excitement when he saw the crisp $2 bills!

The condo is being painted as we speak.  I'll soon be posting photos of the "after" product.