'Best Places to Buy Furniture' Montevideo

Copeland from C-Town Hero (Contact Member) - 04/11/07 22:14

I am in the market for some furniture for my new apartment. What are the best places to buy upscale furniture in Montevideo?

Comment #1 Elizabeth26 from Dazeville (Contact Member) - 04/12/07 00:27

Yes, I really like to shop when I visit different places. I heard that Walmer in Pocitos Rambla has very nice pieces. Good luck!

Comment #2 raven from over the moon (Contact Member) - 04/12/07 03:08

There is a good post about a place to buy furniture in the shopping section of the forum. It even includes a link to a store that might have a good selection. I inlcuded the link.

• Buying Furniture

Comment #3 Mary from From Down Under (Contact Member) - 04/12/07 12:34

I think I need to look into purchasing some furniture. The website you provided has some great pieces.

Comment #4 DaConciousChick from Over the Rainbow (Contact Member) - 04/12/07 16:41

I heard that you can find some good deals on furniture. I think I will visit some of the furniture stores because I don't really visit furniture stores when I'm on vacation. I don't think I will be buying any furniture until I move into a house.

• www.iexplore.com/dmap/Uruguay/Shopping

Comment #5 Irv in Pocitos from Montevideo, Uruguay (Contact Member) - 04/23/07 18:05

We furnished our apartment mostly from Divino.. avda Italia.. You'll find a very large selection (by Uruguay standards).

It's not boutique furniture, but they do have some very nice stuff.

My wife and I went to lots of places but found this had the best selection.

There are number of upper end stores on Rivera about 10 blocks from 18 de Julio - between it and Artigas... You'll also find a number of lighting places there too. You cant miss them..

We also found a few nice places near Punta Carretas shopping.

Puntoluz for electrodomesticos (appliances).

Too bad they closed down Viva in the mall. IMHO it had the nices home accents in the city. On a positive note, the closeout sale was great :-)

As for good deals here, they're usually poorly made... Chinese or worse.. (yes, there is worse)... If you're very, very careful with your furniture, they will last a long time. But if you're not, 3-4 years is tops.

Several years ago, one of our friends got a great deal on a nice sofa from a store on 18 de Julio. Some time later, she was the horrified mother of 10's of thousands of unamed insects. The filling was definitely nog NEW material. Caveat emptor.

Comment #6 Alice (63.176.159.107) - 09/25/08 12:07

Yeah, Walmar in Pocitos has some nice furniture... but they are not nice on your wallet!

Comment #7 Billy (63.176.159.82) - 11/14/08 11:54

Have you considered buying online. Ebay is a site that has all kinds of stuff to buy online.

Comment #8 Billy (63.176.159.92) - 02/07/09 20:25

It seems that Walmer is the best most choice of people around Uruguay. Better check that one out.

Comment #9 Joel (63.176.159.31) - 07/17/09 19:10

Yes, buying on line is the best option. Trasnportation is expensive though. Cheers!

Comment #10 Elaine (1) from Ireland (Contact Member) - 07/19/09 10:12

I definitely agree with Irv on this one - BUYER BEWARE! Because import taxes are SO high in Uruguay furniture is very expensive. This can make us think that it is of high quality but really a lot of the stuff is really cheap and badly made stuff from China with a lot of tax and add-on costs that make it way overpriced for what it is.

There are literally hundreds of furniture stores (basic style stuff) and household stores along 8 de Octubre street. There's some really nice places around Pocitos and Punta Carretas areas but be prepared to pay!

If you're a big furniture fan and you plan to make Uruguay your home then I would really recommend visiting some of the big ferias (markets) and remates (re-sell places). Here you can find some great antiques and original pieces that will a little TLC could be really beautiful and add character to your new home.

If you're hoping for an equivalent of Ikea or Argos (or whatever the flat-packed furniture company in your home country is) then just forget it, it simply does not exist.

Comment #11 Arlean from United States (Contact Member) - 08/25/09 18:12

Has anyone shipped furniture from the U.S.? The furniture market doesn't sound very encouraging as I read these comments. Would it be best to send furniture by ship as personal items when I have the chance?

Comment #12 Elaine (1) from Ireland (Contact Member) - 08/26/09 10:29

Arlean I think most people ship a big container when they move here...I think the initial cost is big, but the extra cost of increasing weight or size doesn't seem much.

Personally if I were planning on settling here long-term I would bring furniture with me or else be willing to really search for (and refurbish) old stuff here.

Comment #13 Patrick from Rural east Colonia departmento (Contact Member) - 04/28/10 07:29

"Comfy chairs and sofas"

If you decide to bring a container, I'd strongly advice the inclusion of comfy chairs and sofas. They are the two items that I've failed to find down here.

Comment #14 Marina from Buceo (Montevideo) (Contact Member) - 04/28/10 13:36

"On Canelones"

Hi Copeland,

I was on the bus coming home yesterday from the Ciudad Vieja to Buceo and my bus took us down Canelones. There were tons of furniture stores all up and down that street...nice ones. Almost seemed like a "furniture district". Worth driving around there, I think, but the prices are probably pretty high there.

Good luck!

Marina

Comment #15 Lee from Pocitos (Contact Member) - 04/28/10 14:01

"Furniture District"

There is another one on Rivera. Starting a block or two from 18 de Julio and going untill a couple blocks before Blvd Artigas.

Comment #16 Yenka from Montevideo (Contact Member) - 04/30/10 08:44

"Hi there"

From Rivera and Jackson to Bvar Artigas you can find many furnitures shops, all of them very differents each other in estetic, quality and prices .

Some are factory, some are imported.

You can find several stores lighting also.

Good luck!

Comment #17 Martin (3) from Back in Montevideo (Contact Member) - 05/04/10 22:41

"Mueblerias and Remates"

Hi There,

Remate Bavastro, (Remate means Auntion), a good place to find old good furniture at a quality you will not find new for the same price. Since the furniture was better when we were not in decadence like now. (Made in China for third world markets, you know the score)

About other areas where Mueblerias concentrate, we have:

Pocitos -as already mention, more expensive, for the upper middle that doesn't move away from home to buy

Rivera and Constituyente Avenues in the Cordon -Less expensive than Pocitos, and probably a better trade off

General Flores, between Goes and the crossing with Garibaldi Street

Cheaper, sometimes you find same stuff than in Rivera area, if you care about budget have a look there. The same could be said about 8 de Octubre Avenue.

I hope this help, in my personal opinion old furniture is much better for the money than new one in this country. This applies for example to Viena Chairs and other furniture. Sofas can be re-done to use new fabric.

I hope this helps and happy shopping.

PS: For the ones in a hurry or afraid to speak spanish, you may try to go to the Geant near Av. Gianatassio

• My bilingual blog about living in Uruguay

Comment #18 aleather from montevideo (Contact Member) - 05/06/10 11:51

"cheap bed needed"

hi, does anyone know where i can buy a cheap used double or queen-size bed? it could be just a mattress or a whole bed. thanks!

Comment #19 Martin (3) from Back in Montevideo (Contact Member) - 05/10/10 11:14

"Options to buy second hand"

Remate Bavastro if you have time to go an look:

Street: Misiones 1366/70, Misiones 1365, but there are many others, they are called Remates, and they put a flag outside when the day of the auction. Otherwise buy the Gallito Luis on sundays with the El Pais Newspaper, this is the equivalent of the Loot here:

It is also online, but as is forbiden to add links here i will say that the name is gallito dot com, you should look for the /diversos category:

, under OPERACION, Articulos para el hogar, click radio button: Compra, on the right under TIPO DE ARTICULO select Muebles, and the orange button BUSCAR, and will take you to the list. Once here you can narrow search on the Buscar, by typing CAMAS.

The other place to use for second hand on line, is the local ebay, called mercadolibre dot com dot uy

You need to create a user, when you contact the user and do the transaction after seeing the merchandise, you will have to pay the site a comission. But you can do it using an Abitab, with a reference number given by the site. So not need for paypal or using credit card.

I hope this helps and good luck with your shopping

Martin

• Bilingual blog about the life of an Uruguayan

Comment #20 Lee from Pocitos (Contact Member) - 05/10/10 12:44

"Links ARE NOT forbidden"

Messages cannot contain links in the, but people are encouraged to "You can include 1 link directly relevant to your message" in the space provided below the message.

The part about "General links to your home page should be included in your profile" ie: links not directly relevant to the message is not enforced with a heavy hand at this time with people that make useful contributions.

Comment #21 Lee from Pocitos (Contact Member) - 05/10/10 12:46

"gallito"

Here is the link for Gallito, Diversos section. Their site is running incredibly slow for me at the momento, so I haven't verified the link.

• Gallito Diversos

Comment #22 Martin (3) from Back in Montevideo (Contact Member) - 05/12/10 12:47

"Thank you for the clarification"

Ok Thanks for the clarification, i though it was some measure to avoid spam or something like this.

Martin

Comment #23 Lee from Pocitos (Contact Member) - 05/12/10 13:14

"Reasons for Single Links and Not in Messages"

A bit part is to avoid spam. The word length thing is to avoid people messing up the page formatting with long strings of junk or --'s or the like too.

The ultimate goal with the links is to keep messages and the stuff they link to focused.

Comment #24 Patrick from Rural east Colonia departmento (Contact Member) - 05/12/10 15:45

"Are you sure?"

I reckon its just a plot to deter possible immigrants and visitors from a certain village called Llanfairpwll gwyngyllgogery chwyrndrobwll llantysilio gogogoch (excuse the gaps) on the island of Anglesey in North Wales :-)

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