Importing Furniture for Entire Home from China - Suggestions or Recommendation

summithunter on 25/07/2024 - 00:01
Last edited 25/07/2024 - 10:02 by 1 other user

Hi all, we are building a home, and I am seriously considering travelling to China and ordering furniture for the entire home as we have ample time. I am looking for Harvey Norman or Nick Scali grade/quality furniture.

Has anyone visited China and ordered furniture for their home or office? Which area has concentrations of furniture warehouses/factories? How can I know about the tradeshows where I can see and order items? Are there any brokers who can assist me and spend time with me and take me around if paid?

Any advice or recommendation is very much appreciated.

Home & Garden Furniture

Comments

  • jv on 25/07/2024 - 00:04
    +4

    Importing Furniture for Entire Home from China - Suggestions or Recommendation
    Any advise or recommendations is very much appreciated.

    Call my agent…

    https://www.homebridgechina.com/journal-posts/how-to-import-…

  • MS Paint on 25/07/2024 - 00:08
    +1

    Any advise

  • shxhshzhz on 25/07/2024 - 00:17
    +12

    Forum posts to choose from to post a few months later:

    • Shipping company damaged brand new furniture, who is responsible?
    • Thousands of dollars of furniture stuck at customs, customs charging extra taxes and duties, is it fair?
    • Overseas furniture company not responding to enquiries about missing pieces and parts not joining properly, what to do?
    • Imported furniture falling apart, can ACL still apply?
    • Mechz on 25/07/2024 - 09:23

      Don't forget

      • all my new furniture is mouldy but we had no choice but to use it now my family is in hospital with decreased lung function
    • Ryanek on 25/07/2024 - 11:00

      Lol highly accurate.

  • sumyungguy on 25/07/2024 - 01:05
    +2

    Many Chinese products are made for export markets and aren't available to domestic retail consumers. However there is a King Living showroom in Shanghai. I assume you're getting mates rates from an international freight forwarder to make the exercise affordable? Consider at origin you'll have to engage a forwarder to consolidate your shipment and pack your container.

    • sumyungguy on 25/07/2024 - 09:39
      +1

      Also, wood is a target high risk commodity for BMSB season which typically runs from Sep to Apr and will add a treatment fee to your shipment.

  • Gunnar on 25/07/2024 - 07:10

    LOL

  • coffeeinmyveins on 25/07/2024 - 07:35

    I'm curious what benefits you think you'd be getting?

    Have you factored in all the costs associated with not just shipping it but getting it to your house?

  • Dollar General on 25/07/2024 - 08:01

    So if a few weeks or months later there’s a problem with the furniture, what’s your recourse?

  • websterp on 25/07/2024 - 09:32

    Also are you aware not all furniture sold at stores here come from China? For example I bought three pieces from three different furniture chain stores in Melbourne and two were from Malaysia and Indonesia and the last was made in India.

  • scotty on 25/07/2024 - 10:06
    +4

    Some of my Chinese friends furnished their houses from container of furnitures from China. Significantly cheaper according to them, and they like the styles better. However the logistic can be a headache and it helps when they have families there to make sure everything is packed and loaded into the container.

    Since you are travelling to China, maybe you can ask the furniture warehouse there as they would have experience dealing with overseas Chinese buyers shipping a container full of furnitures? They might have their preferred agent and logistic company that can deal with custom & GST etc.

    I've also heard a lot of furniture shops on Parramatta Road, between Auburn and Granville, are pretty much just display shops for Chinese furniture. You make an order, they get manufactured in China and shipped here in a few months. They'll handle all the import logistics but obviously it would cost more than DIY imports.

  • rumblytangara on 25/07/2024 - 11:30
    +2

    Has anyone visited China and ordered furniture for their home or office? Which area has concentrations of furniture warehouses/factories? How can I know about the tradeshows where I can see and order items? Are there any brokers who can assist me and spend time with me and take me around if paid?

    Pretty much Zhuhai. It's where the factories are concentrated.

    There used to be fronts/showrooms in Macau for easy visiting and salespeople who were fluent in English, but sadly they've vanished as Macau has turned into a one-dimensional casino destination for Mainland gamblers.

    You can turn up with photos and get stuff made- much better than looking through catalogues as the premade options tend towards tacky AF modernist to extremely corny faux-Asian. But if that's your cup of tea, then you've hit the jackpot.

    Quality (even from the same source) can be variable. We've got some pieces stuff that will last multi-generations and is so solid that even the broken down components are too heavy for a single adult to lift, and we've got a coffee table from the same factory that is so flimsy that even child standing on it would probably break it.

    I would only get furniture made of wood or welded metal tubing- would not get anything upholstered there as foam quality is going to be impossible to assess. And probably leak formaldehyde. The wood is unlikely to be carefully dried, and even if it is, it'll be manufactured in a high humidity climate, so will be prone to minor warping once it's in Oz. Not an issue for huge items like beds, but things like cupboard doors might jam up over several months.

    Edit: Your Nick Scali comment. I don't think that's really a good comparison. The Nick Scali stuff looks… fancy, uses lots of fake marble. I generally haven't seen stuff like that from the Zhuhai sources, and wouldn't trust them to make it to the same standards of finish. Stick to wood, and expect things like dovetail joints. Not fancy stone composites invisibly joined onto metal frames.

  • GuitarNeo on 25/07/2024 - 12:00
    +1

    OP, are you chinese? or have chinese family to help? Otherwise you wont save much with a lot of added risk. Makes more sense if you are opening a store etc.

    Had an Indian friend go to India and import a container full of fully handmade furniture for his house- few headaches but turned out well in the end (what he wanted wasnt available here).

    P.S dont forget to order outdoor furniture. and measure your doors to not order oversized stuff which is very popular in India/China

    • rumblytangara on 25/07/2024 - 12:07

      Would not order outdoor furniture from China. There is no way to verify what the woods used are, that the coatings are properly UV/weatherproofed, or that metals have been treated properly to prevent rust.

  • simplystu on 25/07/2024 - 18:20

    About the only reason - I feel justifies such an idea …
    Is if you are going for an authentic Chinese look through whole entire house.

    Which your post certainly didn't imply … (Eg. Comment about NS/HN types of businesses).

    Ages ago - a couple I used to visit for coffee …
    They had themed their whole house in a Thai theme - and I mean EVERYTHING was Thai themed.

    To do this - they sourced majority from Thailand - and used a shipping container to get it back to AU.

    Prob cost lots of $$$ - but it was the entire look of the house they were after.

    For simple NS/HN style furniture == nah, prob not worth time or effort.

  • froddoog on 25/07/2024 - 21:55
    +2

    Let me share my experience.

    If you are thinking of getting furniture in China, go to Foshan. It’s like their furniture capital, with lots of great furniture made there.

    We furnished our home from Taobao and had our Chinese friend help with ordering and handling the shipping. Shipping cost almost $4k+ with taxes. It was 2 tonnes worth of furniture in one container.

    The furniture was shipped to their warehouse in China first. Then, when everything was ready, they shipped it to our door in Australia.

    It was a gamble though when we throw that kinda money. To our surprise, quality were really good!

    • felicific on 26/09/2024 - 19:18

      Great suggestion. Foshan is known as the capital of China's furniture trade. The furniture here is really great.

  • Tomcruise on 27/07/2024 - 12:41

    Where will it end.

  • Euphemistic on 27/07/2024 - 12:45

    Are you just hoping to save money? Sounds like a lot of headache for little reward.

    • rumblytangara on 27/07/2024 - 14:37

      If you know what you are doing, you can end up with exactly what you want- designs that are simply unavailable locally, for a tiny fraction of what it would cost to get custom made here. Stuff that looks a damn sight more interesting than anything you'd find at Harvey Norman.

      But there's a big risk of both what the end result is, and shipping/customs charges.

      We had stuff custom made and shipped as part of a container. If I was redoing an entire house and had the time, I would seriously consider it as an option. Not sure what the customs charges would be though.

  • pieoz on 24/10/2024 - 18:00

    How did you go if you went down this route? I'm in the same boat and i'm currently looking to purchase furniture for the whole house from china to aus.
    I am in contact with an agent and gotten a quote for a fully furnished Living/Dining/Master for about ~$9k and shipping to Perth ~$5k. With shipping cost included, the benefits are slowly diminishing, however the quality COULD be better and everything is custom to your liking.

  • Mars2089 on 25/10/2024 - 23:10

    Foshan City, Guangdong Province is China's largest modern furniture sales base and the largest mattress production base. There is a big difference in quality, and it is best to have the help of a Chinese friend you know

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