Thai home décor ideas

When Hong Kong-based commodity broker David Nimmo bought a villa on Samui’s north coast he and his girlfriend, Moon, faced a hefty bill furnishing it to suit their tastes. With a limited choice of furnishings available on the island and inflated prices he decided to go shopping elsewhere, so he flew 1,800kms north to Chiang Mai. The decision proved to be a shrewd move.

“We must’ve saved about 30 per cent”, David beamed with satisfaction. “We found a good local agent who took us everywhere. The range and quality was very good, we were pleased with the amount we could get with our budget”, he adds. David and Moon’s selection included custom made hyacinth furniture, large Buddhist art wall hangings, reproduction antiques, cabinets and smaller décor items. They spent only three days in Chiang Mai and had the entire task wrapped up with time left for a bit of sightseeing. “We were lucky enough to come across an agent called Lek while browsing the internet”, David explains. “That made all the difference. She knew exactly where to take us or we would’ve had no idea where to start”.

David returned to Hong Kong having placed his orders and the rest has been taken care of for him. There is a well developed infrastructure of shipping and packaging agents with plenty of past experience supporting the industry to ensure that purchases find their way to destinations all over the world, long after the tourists have left. David appears to be quite satisfied with the after sales service he has been receiving from Lek who keeps him updated on the supply chain that will eventually see his villa decked out in classic Thai style when he returns.

David is not the only one to have beaten a path to Chiang Mai and the city has long been one of the craft centres of Asia attracting interior decorators for years. It boasts a thriving industry in handicrafts, wooden furniture, décor and other traditional wares which add a distinctive Siamese touch to homes and condos all over Thailand and the world. Many of the goods produced here find their way into tourist shops and market stores in Bangkok, Phuket and other tourist centres commanding a hefty mark up. But by going directly to the source it’s possible to make savings of up to 50 per cent.

I tracked down Khun Lek, the sourcing agent who helped out David and has been working in the industry for more than five years. “I know many suppliers for my customer”, says the petite Northern Thai lady. With her confident manner and professional appearance she agreed to take me around for the day in her comfortable vehicle. She explained that she has been selling advertising for the past 10 years for tourist magazines and built up good relationships with her many clients including antique dealers, furniture makers, interior shops, designers and logistics companies. She’s one of many people, Thai and foreign, who have set themselves up as sourcing agents. Lanna handicrafts agents

Our first stop was Baan Tawai – the well known handicraft centre in the Hang Dong district south of the city. The potential for sourcing furnishings was immediately obvious as we passed dozens of shops lining the main road that leads to the crafts centre. Busloads of tourists are brought here daily to stock up on cheap handicrafts and souvenirs and to see the artisans at work. But Lek had some specific shops earmarked, pulling up at some of the less obvious places that are out of range of the free-spending foreigners. I decided to use the opportunity to buy a few pieces for my own condo and soon realised the huge advantage of having a local do the negotiating for me. She was quite ruthless in bashing the price down, jabbering away in Kham Muang - the Northern Thai dialect strewn with the distinctive Kharb Khun Jao.

Wood is the spirit of the place and many of the shops specialise in furniture, décor or antiques. Ceramics are also well represented here and items such as large garden vases and terracotta sculptures are popular with local landscapers. All of these items, Lek assured me, can be packaged up and sent south, even though some of them are certainly bulky. There is a covered arcade full of smaller shops that sell interior décor items, while the road leading from Hang Dong town has some distinct demarcations. For example, the antique and reproduction dealers tend to congregate at the western end, which then gives way to furniture as you head east, and then ceramics yards before you reach the purpose built tourist centre. Judging by the frenetic building development here, business is brisk and expected to grow in tandem with burgeoning tourism and property development in Thailand.  Expats guide to Thailand

So just what can you buy in Baan Tawai? Furniture is one good value buy, particularly chests, patio sets and custom-ordered dining room tables, beds and loungers. The artisans here have a long tradition of working with wood. But the greatest range of choice lies in décor with endless shops offering Buddhist art, contemporary paintings, ornaments, wall hangings and the ubiquitous wai-offering female figurines that grace the entrance of almost every shop. Walking through the arcade, you sense the charming pride in creativity that Northerners take in their shops.

Many were decorated with little ponds and Bali-styled gardens that had been given that unique ‘Lanna’ touch which can be seen everywhere from restaurants and coffee shops to hotel lobbies and galleries across this ancient city. Within half an hour I found myself brimming with ideas and summing up their clever use of large jars, driftwood, plants and murals. I soon realised that it’s not just houses and condos that can be decorated from a trip to Baan Tawai, but also gardens. This seems to be a particular obsession in Chiang Mai and many of the outdoor shops looked like works of art in themselves, with ponds, statues, pots, murals and water features that can turn ordinary gardens into wonderful tropical sanctuaries.

Getting back to furniture, it is not just the individual who can benefit from this handy excuse to spend a weekend shopping in Chiang Mai, but developers who have several units to decorate within a sensible budget. Michael Youngfellow, a retired lawyer from the US, is one such developer who found he had change left over from his furnishing budget. “I had this stuff custom made and it’s great value”, he points out as we step among the construction debris of one of his condo upgrades.

“I got 17 pieces for 28,000 baht”, he reveals, referring to a popular collection made of teak and woven cane ply which is cheap but suitably elegant with its two-tone style. These chests come in all shapes and sizes, with pyramid-shaped drawers, curvy display plinths and elongated shoe racks among others. Cane or rattan furniture is another perennial favourite that is widely produced in Chiang Mai and more than a dozen shops line the main Hang Dong road heading south. It’s cheap and ideal for outdoor spaces that may get rained on, making it cheap to replace after a few seasons. However, this kind of furniture needn’t been seen as down-market, with the hyacinth variety of woven furniture being far more stylish and ‘warm’ with its plaid appearance.

We were shown some very nicely styled pieces that comprised of teak frames and a woven body that created a very specific tropical home feel. Roman-styled loungers, arm chairs and indoor patio furniture are all popular choices, especially for beach houses or informal villas. A set consisting of a three seater, two singles and coffee table including baby blue and white pin-striped cushions goes for about 25,000 baht.

If there is one wood that epitomises the character of Northern Thailand it’s teak, which doesn’t come cheap these days since logging was banned nearly 10 years ago. Supply is limited or imported from Burma making it an expensive choice for furniture. None-the-less many insist on using this timber for its soft appearance and durability. Buying it directly from the supplier helps eliminate some outrageous mark ups and Chiang Mai’s carpenters continue to work widely with this material. To witness this we by-passed Baan Tawai completely and headed for a small non-descript village outside of Lamphun.

Here we discovered an old Lanna village – the type which formed the pre-cursor to the One Tambon One Product project, with several families all following a long tradition of a single skill. The men, and some women, were busy building teak dining room tables and cabinets that would end up in the wholesale shops of Baan Tawai and eventually boutique furnishing shops further south. If we brought them photographs of what we wanted they would happily construct it, saving us about 30 per cent. For a developer with several units to fill, this certainly presents a good cost saving measure.

However, these artisans are only skilled at producing limited finishes and have little idea of the standards expected for international property decorators. You therefore have to be very specific about your preferences and take a chance. But, by ordering single pieces you are able to sample their finishing and make adjustments. On closer inspection I could see little fault with the sturdiness of the finished product but critical details, such as equal length legs were a problem, resulting in a slight rock.

Thai style isn’t the only choice available and contemporary designs are numerous, particularly with hyacinth products. Several foreigners have established themselves in the industry and one of these is Peter Bartlock, a jovial interior designer from Germany. His eclectic cabinet designs are available from Ambiente on the Hang Dong–Sarapi road and exported all over the world. What caught my eye about this shop was the unusual blend of function and form of his cabinets. What should have been a standard writing bureau had been transformed into art piece complete with inlaid sculptures, murals superimposed on the teak and unconventionally shaped doors and drawers.

By applying outside design influences with local craftsmen they have come up with something unique that will set your apartment or villa apart from the rest. They also have that typically Germanic eye for quality and detail. “We offer a turn-key service”, says co-owner Gregor Jansen, “… you order, we pack and ship”. They have tried their hand at all sorts of items, such as Etruscan horses and a delightful collection of miniature figurines known as eggheads. “Our customers come from Thailand and abroad, they like the customised ordering”, he says. “We’ve often send stuff to Samui and Phuket”.

Once you have your place furnished and want to add an expensive touch there are the antique shops. Chiang Mai is possibly one of the best places in the region to find not only valuable pieces but very authentic looking reproductions. After all, for 200,000 baht you can become the proud owner of a late-eighteenth century Burmese Buddha head made from marble or you can outfit your entire apartment with equally impressive looking copies for the same price.

“There’s a bigger market now for reproductions”, says Khun Monsit Boonvipatsavee, owner of Chilli Antiques – one of the most established dealers in town. “Now antiques are very expensive and difficult to spot, that’s okay if you’re a dealer, but now people are just looking for something that looks old”, he explains. His gallery on the Hang Dong–Sarapi road has some fantastic examples of ancient-looking Buddha figurines, bronze bowls, pewter and Burmese masks. He has perfected methods of burying newly crafted pieces soaked in acid to speed up the aging process to create truly impressive pieces of pseudo antiquity.

“Many people come back to me”, he says from the comfort of his living room which looks like a virtual museum. “Interior decorators, hotel developers, villa owners … they like the personal attention. You have to know what you are talking about when you are dealing with valuable items like these”. Even the reproductions can cost thousands of dollars and people are prepared to pay this to give their Asian villas and condos a distinctly upmarket feel. Many of Khun Monsit’s pieces now decorate the posh new Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi in Chiang Mai and it’s certainly one way to impress your guests.

If you’ve just spent as much on your Phuket property as your London apartment, then it’s worth the effort to jet into Chiang Mai for the weekend to find that precious piece of furniture or décor. You’ll certainly be going home with more than you bargained for.