As a lot of friends have been chasing me for this list, I think we better quickly upload! Other than our furniture, we would generally recommend the following suppliers. Hope this is of help to you guys. Not sure if it helps, you may tell them you are our friends (bedok south road, sometimes they remember by address). Coz when we negotiate we will always tell them we are referral customers (referred by my bro or contractor)and many of our friends are also using you, so give us good rates. Don't worry, we are NOT getting any referral commission.
; )
Haa! Hope you guys enjoy your shopping,ya! =)
Air-conditioning System
Hong Tar Aircon & Fridge Trading
40 Toh Guan Road East #01-65 #01-65 Enterprise Hub S(608582)
Tel: 6266 6109
Comments: In choosing where to purchase your aircon, the most important is the skill of the installer rather than price. In the industry, those with generally good feedback are Hong Tar, Gain City (mixed reviews but generally ok), Naturecool & Coolserve (the last 2 more expensive). Based on my brother's experience with Hong Tar, we decided to go with Hong Tar and we have no regrets. One thing to note, you may want to get the aircon guys to lay the piping first with your contractor around before doing up your false ceiling etc. This is so that there won't be double work later to try to conceal the aircon piping.
As we gave Hong Tar last min notice, they were unable to head down when the false ceiling guys commenced work. In the end, certain partitions and box up had to be redone.
Lightings and fans
Toyomi
459-461 Geylang Road S(389420)
Tel: 6748 5845
Openining hours: Mon-Fri: 9.30am-8.30pm, Sat: 9.30am-7.30pm
Comments: As this is a recommendation by our contractor, we were initially skeptical in the event that the costs are marked up so that the contractor gets a referral fee. We were very surprised at the final bill which was pretty much on the low end especially since we bought numerous downlights and cove lights. As our contractor and the Toyomi had worked quite closely for a long while, it was so much easier as they liaised among themselves when there is exchange or additional lights required. Good service!
Silly us bought the low end fans on promotion at Giant and were much disappointed as they are not powerful enough. So do take note when choosing fans that the blades preferrably be those thick PVC or metal for stronger wind. *Sheepish* We were tied up with all the house and wedding preparations and headed down to Toyomi to make payment more than 2 months after they delivered the lights... We happened to check out their fans and got 2 of their Toyomi fans (oscillating, ions plasma, remote control). I understand that these are sold at wholesale price to us as we purchased their lights. Quite good so far.
Toilet & kitchen accessories
GR Link Marketing
155 Jalan Besar S(208873)
Tel: 6398 1589
Opening hours: Mon-Sat: 12.30pm-8.30pm
Comments: This is also a recommendation by my dearest brother who had done all the price comparisons and recommended this shop. We had went to a few of the big names but received atrocious service. In comparison, GR Link has pretty good service and best prices.
Furniture
Casa Furniture/ Innovation Furniture/ Furniture Collection Centre (Mattress, storage bed, dinning set, sofa & coffee table)
74 Sungei Kadut Loop S(729513)
Tel: 6366 8062
Comments: We were attracted by the newspaper advertisements to check out this big furniture warehouse. After checking out several furniture shops, we decided on this company as they have the best storage bed (the hydraulics is good as compared to others), nice designs and most importantly, ability to customise my sofa.
We wanted a one piece 4 seater sofa with matching ottoman. None of the shops are able to provide that as (a) they do not do customisation or (b) a one piece 4 seater sofa is unable to fit into the lift and/or carry up the stairs (not enough space to turn round corners of the stairs). We loved the sofa design at Casa and after much brainstorming with the boss, we managed to resolve the design/ measurement issue (as they have their own production plant).
All look nice and rosy until we called near delivery date to check on progress. Alas! All the furniture are not ready and our an chuang and moving in is only 3-4 days away. They promised to deliver our mattress, storage bed and dining table in 2 days while the rest of the furniture would be delayed by 3 weeks. We were so mad and disappointed. We were so anticipating how our customised furniture fit into our new house but then they were not available. End up, we had to make do without sofa, coffee table and dining chairs since we moved in.
We called and reminded them again on the 2nd week. The answer was that the furniture were still not ready! Our blood pressure shot up to skyhigh levels when we heard that. They were unable to commit to a date. After a few calls, the sales manager reverted that another month was needed!?! We obtained the contact number of the boss and after much heated discussion, she said that the furniture were manufactured but on the way here (shipping) and another 2 weeks were required.
We have made a big big mistake when we conveniently forgot and paid on the spot of booking. Lesson learnt: to check out more on firms' reviews and referrals first and do not make full payment. We are keeping fingers crossed that all turned out fine.
UPDATE: The furniture came but they missed out the carpet and refund! Arghs. Irritating.... Lucky the furniture turned out alrite. Keke. Check out the next post for the pics
Jurong West Furniture (Study tables)
Blk 492 #01-02 Jurong West St 41 S(640492)
Tel: 6563 5321
For those who knows the wifey, she can be quite particular about matching colors and materials. Due to the nature of our jobs as real estate consultants, we spent a significant portion of the time at our study tables if not out for viewings. The wifey decided that we need long tables (1.8m) but this must be walnut or black to suit our house color theme (black, white and grey). We have sought high and low but were unable to find the tables in the dimension and colours that we wanted. The longer office tables are usually cherry walnut (yucks!) or grey (looks cheapo). We were able to give up when wifey wanna check out the neighbourhood shop where she bought her SECOND wardrobe and shoerack before. Finally! We managed to get the tables we wanted at a very good price. We were very happy with the sales girl "Xiao mei"'s service as compared to grouchy and rude sales assistants that we met.
Unique Home Furnishings (Study chairs and mahjong table)
Blk 86 Marine Parade Central #01-670 S(440086)
Tel: 6346 6801
Comments: We were making do with folding chairs for the first week since we moved in as we did not have the time to shop for study chairs (most furniture shops do not have much study chairs). One place to recommend would be VHive. Unfortunately, they do not have the models we want. We were having lunch at Marine Parade and happened to pass by this shop. So far so good. The chairs are pretty comfortable.
Electronics
Ever Joint Electrical Trading
Blk 159 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 #01-534 S(560159)
Tel: 6458 2531
Comments: If you have been checking out renotalk forums, Everjoint, Goh Ah Bee, Kong Tai, these neighbour electronics shops offer way much lower prices than the big house retailers like Courts, Harvey Norman, Best Denki. However, to reduce cost, these shops do not carry much stock for display. Hence, you would need to check out the models in the shopping malls and then buy from these neighbourhood shops. We have checked on a few models of electronics and these 3 shops are really priced much lower than the big house retailers. So far, the prices quoted by these 3 shops are almost the same so not much different which one you purchased from. We were around Ang Mo Kio and decided to order from Everjoint. We were told that the Samsung washing machine we bought included a $100 taka voucher from distributor. When we tried redeeming it online, we were unable to proceed as the purchase price we keyed in was more than 15% below recommended selling price. We tried marking it up by $50, $80 and finally at $100 higher than our actual purchase price did we mange to register for our free vouchers. When we checked out at Courts or Harvey, the same model cost at least $150 more. What a good deal!
However, I must say while the sales assistants at Everjoint are nice, the boss's attitude needed much improvement. I was always unable to call and reach the sales assistant as the boss would just dismiss with "She is busy. Call back later" without offering to take down my contact details!
Harvey Norman (Panasonic tvs and hom theatre systems)
Comments: While electronics are generally cheaper at the neighbourhood shops, there are exceptions. The big house retailers are able to extend massive discounts especially for TVs when they are having their clearance sales. We bought our TVs during the IT fair week at Parkway Parade Harvey Norman. Our 37"tv and HTS were one of the specially discounted models in Harvey Norman and as for our 50"tv, we got them to match the lowest price among Courts and Best Denki.
Curtains
J&A Curtain Design
No. 107A Jalan NB 2 2/2, Taman Nusa Bestari 2 81300 Skudai Johor Bahru
Tel: +6012 727 8726 (Angie)
Comments: Again, this is a recommendation from my brother. Keke. Thats why sharing good suppliers is important. Thumbs up to J&A. We have a hassle free experience with J&A. This is run by a couple team who are based in JB. Give them a call and they will schedule to come into Singapore with all the curtain cloth samples. Very value for money. Good quality materials, workmanship and service. Can you imagine 5 room flat curtains for every room (living room: blackout curtains and translucent curtains, master bedroom: roman drape blinds, common room: curtains and study room: blinds) for less than S$1,200?!
Bedding
Robinson
Comments: Haha. No research was done on bedding. We happened to be Raffles City Robinson and needed to find bedding stuff urgently. While there was some minor sale, the bedding stuff still don't come cheap. Nevetheless, quite happy with our maroon bedsheets for our an chuang.
