Furniture Shopping in Chiang Mai for The Woodrow villa

(With shop names and locations 📌!)

I actually can't believe I forgot to post last week. Sorry! This blog is always top of my mind towards the end of the week, but last week was a bit hectic. Hudson had midterm break, I was busy taking measurements at the Woodrow for my upcoming trip to Chiang Mai, and then I went to Samui on Saturday to spend some time with my girlfriend Juliette before I left for Chiang Mai on Sunday morning.

So anyways, that's my excuse, I'll try not to let it happen again!

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I’m writing this blog from the condo I got through a Home Exchange. It’s compact but has everything I need and is RIGHT in the middle of town — like literally beside the night bazaar. It’s perfect. There’s even a gym and pool upstairs and I’ve been up a few times to do yoga and use the sauna.

Keepin' healthy

Chiang Mai is well known to be the Bali of Thailand in terms of its furniture craftsmanship and prices. So I came up here to check out and make connectionds with furniture shops for furnishing our villa, The Woodrow. (Read the most recent update on the build here.)

Since I arrived on Sunday, I've barely stopped. I took an early morning flight and got in about 10:30 in the morning. It was a direct flight from Samui, which is super convenient, as there are not many of those. I managed to score a web saver price as well through Bangkok Airways by booking early enough, so I only paid 3,500 THB one way, which isn't too bad.

I had made contact with a Thai guy named Ojho in Chiang Mai who is interested in our admin position on the island, and since he lives in Chiang Mai right now, I thought it was the perfect time to give him a week trial.

So he found me a really good deal on a rental car, just 570 baht a day. It's a Honda City, that's so much better on gas than my Ford Ecosport (which is neither eco nor sporty!!). And the car was waiting for me when I got out of the airport.

From there, we went straight to the woodworking village that everyone raves about near Chiang Mai called Ban Tawai. Since it was a Sunday, most shops were closed, but I still got a good idea of what was available.

Baan Tawaii is a village devoted to wood working

Here are some shops we visited in Ban Tawai with location and contact info:

Tonpothong | Wooden furniture

https://maps.app.goo.gl/vGv91JggLiH1r2MY8

Iron-Wood | Wooden furniture

https://maps.app.goo.gl/9b83t3LQeuSWWF3C6

Mulsom | Wooden furniture

https://maps.app.goo.gl/WbUg9qUdaZNPJxxP9

Pinthana | Wooden furniture

https://maps.app.goo.gl/vRA4cTNFF4od5VFt7

Bedroom furniture store | Wooden furniture

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ijkS1ysSw2jVd27cA

Monday we went to a couple second-hand shops, as I'm quite interested in doing some furniture restoration projects for the villa and potentially our house as well. I found so many incredible finds in one of the shops. I just can't believe the selection, quality, and prices here.

Just some of the awesome finds at the second hand shop

Here’s the location/contact info for the best second-hand shop we visited (others weren’t worth a visit):

Mue-song-nong-hoi | Second-hand store

https://maps.app.goo.gl/BHjXYkYTdqzeQhHh9

After that we went back to Ban Tawai and I was able to talk to some woodworkers to get some prices for custom furniture. Since I have been doing so much taping at the villa, I have a really good idea of exactly the dimensions for the furniture I want.

Tuesday we designed our sofas at a place in town that does custom soft furnishings. I need very specific sizes for the layout I want to do, and the sofas need to look shit hot. We spent 4 and 1/2 hours in the office with them while we designed both L-shaped sofas, both armchairs, and got some prices for some other soft furnishings for the villa.

It was a looooooong afternoon.

Here’s the location/contact info for the custom sofa shop:

Babel Cushion | Sofa and soft furniture

https://maps.app.goo.gl/YvY11FznURnx813S9

Wednesday we went to this place that my friend recommended me called Thaweepan. He gets a lot of furniture made there for his villas so I thought we’d go check them out. Weirdly they didn’t have a store front and couldn’t really show me anything they make. There were a few items on display but other than that, just a factory with a fancy office and meeting rooms, where we sat and I gave them the dimensions of all the wood furniture I’m looking to source.

They didn’t even have a catalogue for me to look through the different styles they could create, so I showed them some images from my Pinterest board and now they are putting together a quote for me. I have a feeling it’s going to be on the higher end of the scale but let’s see.

Yesterday we went to the place that we ordered the stone sink from for the Sand & Stone office. We got their contact from a client who put their stone sinks in all the bathrooms of his villa. Well, they do SO MUCH MORE than stone sinks (by the way, if you’re in the market for stone sinks, I’m sorry to say that I bought the last 5 yesterday. He says he can’t get them anymore as the Indonesian government has cracked down on mining the riverstones so they are too tricky to get.)

The place is called Cross Roads Asia and oh my GOD — it is the most incredible furniture store I’ve ever been to in all my life. The owner, Josh, is an antiques afficionado and imports furniture from all over the world. He opened his store 30 years ago.

My jaw was on the floor the entire time

They sell everything from gorgeous antique Indian doors to exquisite dining chairs to hundred-year-old Moroccan carpets and floor cushions, to African statues and they even do bath versions of the stone sinks (they need to be lifted with a crane though so good luck getting one of those to Phangan!). The place goes on forEVER.

We’re going back today, because we spent HOURS in Cross Roads Asia — Josh is a talker (he’s lovely) and every time we tried to leave, he wanted to show us something else. But as we were driving home, completely exhausted, we passed a tonne of other furniture shops selling awesome pieces so I decided that we’d come back here today instead of going to Lamphun as we had originally planned. Lamphun is about an hour outside of Chiang Mai and apparently the furniture is even more affordable there, but I’m on a limited schedule (leave Sunday morning and I want one day off so I’m taking at least half of tomorrow off!). So Ojho, who now has a very good idea of what we’re looking for, is going to go himself and send me photos after I leave.

Anyways this post is apparently already too long for email so I’d better cap it here. But if you’re curious to learn more about furniture shopping in Chiang Mai, leave a comment below with any questions and I’ll be happy to get back to you!