Ordinary Gweilo

I have had a very frustrating day.  We ordered some tailor-made furniture a long time ago, and it finally arrived yesterday, followed today by the people who install it.  We imagined that this would take a couple of hours, but in fact they spent all day here and it still isn’t finished.

Prior to coming to Hong Kong I wouldn’t have thought of going into a shop and ordering furniture to be made specifically for my apartment. There are companies in the UK who specialising in fitted kitchens, bedrooms or home offices (which I believe is quite expensive), and on a much smaller scale there are ‘handymen’ who can do jobs such as putting up shelves.  However, I’d say that most people in the UK buy furniture from companies such as IKEA or MFI that comes in standard sizes and which you often have to assemble yourselves.

In Hong Kong, there are a large number of shops offering to make furniture to fit your apartment.  If you like something that is on display (or in the large number of books of designs they have available), they will discuss your requirements and then send a designer to measure the space in your apartment.  If you eventually agree to purchase the item, the design is faxed to a factory in China and the finished items are delivered a few weeks later, to be assembled and fitted in your home.

As far as I can see, they are willing to do almost anything.  Obviously the size of Hong Kong apartments makes it important to make the best use of the space you do have available, and a well-designed piece of furniture can make a big difference. 

The first such item we had was a shoe rack that fitted very neatly into a small space in our small apartment.  As I remember, the man was only around for a few minutes to slot it into place and then he was gone.  Now we have a larger apartment, and prior to this week we have had a bookcase, a shoe cupboard and a TV and video stand installed.  All have been as we requested and none of them have fallen apart yet!

This week’s job is slightly more ambitious, including a proper home for my computer, but unfortunately a few things went wrong somewhere along the way.  One of the parts was just too big to get into the room, and has had to be taken away to be broken into smaller pieces, and other components didn’t fit together as they were intended.  Plus my desk didn’t have the promised slot for all the cables.  I suppose it will all be OK in the end, but I wasn’t very happy this morning!

This is one of the many benefits that we derive from having China on our doorstep.  If the furniture was made in Hong Kong I’m sure it would be a great deal more expensive!

IKEA still seem to do good business, though I guess a lot of people pay the extra 10% to have the items delivered and installed (a service that isn’t available in the UK as far as I am aware).  Their flagship store in Sha Tin is virtually surrounded by other small furniture shops, which initially surprised me because I thought that IKEA would blow them away.  Presumably the reverse is true – people may be attracted to IKEA but if they can’t find exactly what they want then they can go to one of the other shops and get it made, probably for a similar price.  Or perhaps they visit one of the other stores first and never get to IKEA.  Anyway, both seem to be thriving