Summer and I have been looking around Puerto Rico for furniture since we moved down here. We weren’t necessarily planning on buying anything at the time, but we were getting an idea of what was going to be available to us. Just like in California, there are a lot of junky furniture store that sell poor quality particle wood furniture. Keep in mind, particle wood does not last in the islands. It gets attacked instantly by the high humidity and the ravenous termites.
We found a really cool couch at Rooms to Go as well as the vanity in our bathroom…but I didn’t see any bedroom sets that I liked. I really am convinced that buying a bedroom set from a big furniture company is the wrong path to take. I would love to slowly furnish the house with killer furniture from our travels and explorations of the world. We can scoop up antique mail desks in Rome, hand woven Tibetan rugs from Nepal, authentic statues of Buddha in Thailand and teak furniture from Bali!
POP
That was the little dream bubble popping over my head. There is no way Summer and I will live in a half furnished house for the next 5 years especially since my world travel so far this year has been limited to a 5 day trip to Oklahoma City and a 10 day visit to San Diego for some legal stuff.
OK, with all this said, Summer and I still need to furnish our house. I found a bed online that I like that is hand made out of teak in Bali. It isn’t expensive, but the shipping costs more than our new truck. I don’t necessarily like the head board, but I really like the simplicity of the frame and legs. I think I could build this King Size Platform Bed. Maybe I could find some “How To” instructions online as far as recommendations go on how to fasten the corners and legs on so it is super sturdy.
Teak King Size Platform Bed
Popularity: 42% [?]
That bed is indeed super sick. And, yes, we could easily make it.
Ahh furniture! We sat for a week in 2 plastic Mr Special chairs without cushions and then drove everywhere looking for stuff. We ended up with some not-so-expensive stuff from Berrios. Got a love seat, couch, coffee table and 2 end tables and chair for 798. Small enough for the scale of our house, nice enough, and easy to redo the cushions when they start to smell or deteriorate! The table had to be small but I wanted it to expand when visitors come. It doesn’t matter what you want here, it is all about what there is. We ended up with the perfect set up from Sears, a small table that has a leaf that butterflies up and out so we don’t have to store it somewhere. It happened to be on sale (we only buy things on sale). The way Sears works is that monday might be a “things with engines are on sale” day, and tuesday might be “things with wheels.” Our day was a “muebles” day thank you. That isn’t the end of the story though…do like the locals is what I say, open it before you go. The first try for pick gave us 3 dinged up chairs and a table with no legs. The second try had the same 3 dinged up chairs, one good one and a complete table. I took 3 good chairs from the display floor, the one good one in the box and the table with legs for a complete set! The Berrios furniture was great except …no hardware to put together the sofa! They dropped it off two days later but it was missing a few screws…something is always missing! For a bed with are going with a metal frame, plywood and a 9 inch temperpedic mattress. I am thinking of bamboo flooring on some plywood with some kind of moulding for the headboard and footboard. You’ve got all that wood flooring so why not construct things using it! Use it like a veneer to help tie rooms together!
Furniture… that’s what I’m missing right now. the common areas of Casa de Rob are nicely done, but I’m still sleeping on a futon for lack of a bed.
I have always liked that platform look. Boxsprings just never made much sense to me. Pust make it high enough that you can at least get a dustmop under it There are a lot of good ideas on headboards around. I think I would want some shelves and a light in case I wanted to read in bed but I promise I won’t be reading in your bed when I come to PR.
We bought our livingroom set in San Juan since we could not find anything nice in the Rincon area, but we did find a nice place in Mayaguez, it is located in the left side going towards the mall. But if you want unique looking furniture, you better either make it or order it online ($$$$).
P. S. My husband and I just got back from Rincon, we were there for Storm Olga, that was an experience, we just played scrabble, ate Pernil and drank lots of wine!
Katrina - I wonder if we bought the same table at Sears?! It sounds exactly like ours (and I also only buy things on sale ;)…). I love ours. With the leaf in, it’s perfect for poker! I guess we’ve been extremely luckly with furniture deliveries, though. We’ve had deliveries from Sears, Office Max, Rooms to Go, Rustic Tile, the hardwood place in San Juan, numerous UPS/Fedex/DHL deliveries and so far, no problems.
Robert - Furnishing a house is slow. Unless you have tens of thousands of dollars to blow at one time and can ship things in from all over the world! Plus, you don’t want to buy a bed/couch/desk/etc, just because you need it, you have to be patient and find something that you love. Especially in PR, where choices are limited…
Robin - Good point about the dust broom. Plus, I prefer higher beds. Sleeping with the mattress on the floor creeps me out with all the creepy crawlies here. I can’t wait to put our mattress back in the loft (Which is where you will be sleeping when you visit, you lucky girl, you!)
Rosa - Doesn’t that just figure that a freak tropical storm hits, just when you come to town?! That was a weird storm. I have some cool lightening video that I will post sometime soon. Although, wine and scrabble sounds like fun to me!!!