Portugal’s High Point
Portugal’s furniture capital…
I was in the final stages of building a house when Denise and I got together. I wanted the house to feel like ours…not mine or hers. So in 1996 we made a trip to High Point, NC to buy all the furniture. Last week, we made a similar trip in Portugal.
Paços de Ferreira
While the house is still months away1 we have from time to time looked at furniture. I consulted a website and found online and retail chain options. Of course, there was an Ikea in Loulé. It was laid out exactly the same way as the ones in the States and was a madhouse on weekends! You will find a store called Conforama at nearly every mall in Portugal. We even took the ferry to Ayamonte, to check out what Spain had to offer.
But I had heard somewhere that “all Portuguese furniture is made in Paços de Ferreira”. Perhaps this was the High Point of Portugal? I even put a post of the American and Friends PT Facebook group asking if anyone had been there. The response was frankly very luke warm. I had also read that the 2008 recession had really impacted this area. One article even suggested that most of the manufacturers had moved from producing their own lines, to being the Portuguese manufacturing hub for Ikea.
Paços de Ferreira is just a bit east of Porto, a five and a half hour drive from VRSA. But we are retired. What else do we have to do? So off we went.
Work on Your SEO
A few days before our trip, I spent several hours trying to find furniture store websites in Paços de Ferreira. Permit me to offer some unsolicited advice to these store owners. Work on your SEO! It is next to impossible to find your online presence. I finally pulled up Google Maps, searching for furniture stores near Paços de Ferreira. Then in a separate tab searched for each store name I found.
I found two areas where there appeared to be furniture malls, so to speak. We passed one as we drove to our Airbnb. So after dropping off Onix, we circled back to take a look. At our first stop we found about 8 different companies represented. While there were different designs and different levels of quality, there were some common themes.
3D Rendering
Every store was proud to offer 3D renderings. Of course, some stores asserted this was their USP, unique selling proposition. But if you choose to engage a salesperson you quickly learned that every store had it and most were using exactly the same program. Whether you are charged up front for this service differed from store to store. Some stores offered it at no charge. Others offered a budget based upon your floorplan and then if you agreed to the budget would provide the specifics and the renderings. Others charged a fee for the rendering which would be deducted from the price of the furniture if you purchased from them. Six of one and half a dozen of another….
We Make It
Another common theme was “we make it”. Every store was proud to proclaim that they made “all” the furniture themselves. Their prices were so competitive because you were buying directly from the source. As we dug a bit deeper this became less clear. For example, when asking about a particular chair that I had seen in nearly every store I was told, “Well most chairs are not made by us.”
I also asked if the store was able to get a particular piece for me. I have always loved the Eames lounge chair.2 In every store I inquired and was told, “Yes, of course, we can get that for you.” So it would seem that they manufacture some pieces and also source others.
One store owner, likely the one we will buy from, offered to take us to his factory and introduce us to the 9 artisans that will build our pieces. Others did not make such an offer causing one to wonder exactly how much of the furniture they manufacture themselves.
Other Similarities
There were other common themes.
Nearly all of the stores were family businesses…often going back three generations or more. Unfortunately, several said their children were not interested in continuing their legacy.
All did lots of business in Algarve. Of course they would deliver and install. If you wanted they would even come down and measure the rooms, scope out the light, etc.
All would customise the pieces…we find many sofas too deep for our short legs. Rather than requiring us to prop pillows behind our backs they could offer a shallower seat.
Of course all had lots of wood and cloth options! These are furniture stores with design centers.
So Many Options
While the photos in this post reflect a cleaner, more modern aesthetic3 every option is available. One store had “Ingles” furniture…which looked like it just came out of Buckingham Palace. And again, differing price points (and quality) were available.
On the second day, we headed off to another mall where we found more than a dozen stores. After a few hours Denise and our friends were ready for lunch. But we had driven all this way and there was one store that I really wanted to visit based upon the website I had found. As it turns out, everyone agreed it was the best place we visited!
So the afternoon we returned to VRSA Denise and I headed to our future home. The interior walls are now nearly completely erected, so with tape measure in hand we remeasured all the rooms. Last night, I sent the updated floor plan to the owner of the store we last visited along with lots of notes.
Do I think the trip was worth it? Absolutely! Will it be cheaper? We are not certain…though based on some of the price tags I looked it, it would appear so.
I’ll let you know how we get on in a future post. Cheers.
Next Week: Feira da Praia, and when one foot is on the dock and the dock is washed away.
I am still insisting we will be in in May 2023. José smiles but doesn’t say much.
Note, if you clicked on the link you might think I am willing to spend €10,000 for one. Think again! I love the look of the chair but don’t expect to buy an “official” one. You can find replicas for €900.
This is the design style we prefer.
Hi Nancy,
Another really interesting and well done post. We'll be looking for furniture sometime soon - our next apartment will be unfurnished - so we may have to make the trek to Paços. I, too, love the Eames chair, but I don't see one in my future, even at the lower price!
Yay! Finally a seriously helpful review of the Ferreira gold mine. Seriously helpful. We bought Eames chairs last year for that €8k each price and love them, but the price...and again, thank you so much for this unique and pointed article!