Hi all, So, my husband and I are

TammyJ Image
10/22/2015 - 13:02

Hi all, So, my husband and I are finally off to Italy in search of our furniture. We are also hoping to buy tiles and flooring and sanitary ware for our bathrooms. We are thinking of basing ourselves in Como and travelling to Cantu and Brianza from there as I believe them to be good areas for furniture. Can anyone recommend any stores or areas for tiles and sanitary ware? Thanking you in advance, TammyJ

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Hi TammyJJust read your message....but I see that it was sent some time ago. Let me know if you still want info on where to buy or if it is now something no longer urgent or relevant (as you have now bought things and are experts on where to go) Bye Conor

Hi Ronco,Thank you so much for your reply. I would hugely appreciate any advice or info you may have regarding buying furniture & sanitary ware. We won't be building now til the new year so we still have lots of time. We travelled to Como in November and made some contacts in Cantu but mainly we just enjoyed the break and it's an excuse to return to Italy again as soon as we can. Thank you again Conor. Take care and if you're celebrating Christmas, I hope it's a healthy and happy one. Happy Christmas, look forward to hearing from you. Tammy

Hi Tammy, A quick reply just to say that for “furniture” – south of Como there are a lot of important companies of worldwide fame and many more small family run companies which support the big companies and also produce a rich network of possibilities…however I don’t know what “furniture” you mean i.e. which part of the home – Kitchen, Living, Dining, Bathroom Bedroom or Outdoor.Let me know.Whereas sanitary ware is not really a thing local to Como or Lombardy, unless I am getting the wrong drift.There are several are good sanitary ware producers in Italy.We are architects, by the way and we recommend Catalano for good price / quality ratio - http://www.catalano.it/Also worth seeing are:Brera Group   http://www.breragroup.it/web/Flaminia   http://www.ceramicaflaminia.it/itAntonio Lupi http://www.antoniolupi.it/A good showroom to see most of above is:Primula di Restelli s.r.l., S.S. 11, Vittuone, Provincia di Milano 20010Ideal Standard; Villeroy-Boch and Duravit have a significant share of the Italian market in sanitary ware.Tapware is something more local to Como and there are many tapware producers in the Lake Orto area.Our favourite is Fantini   http://www.fantini.it/However worth also looking atBellosta    http://www.bellostarubinetterie.com/itBossini http://www.bossini.it/itGessi     http://www.gessi.it/ Hope this helps and does not make yo more confused. Now I will be off for 10 days or so.Bye for now, Conor

Try the yellow pages here , but we found buying locally helped a great deal and the cost including delivery was little if any difference, for tiles a lot cheaper and better quality.  We were fortunate in popping in to a local kitchen shop after looking at many kitchens in the big companies like Mondo Convenienza and Ikea. The local guy was so helpful and supplied a better and cheaper kitchen with delivery and fitting. They also arranged a plumber, electrician , builder and told us where we could buy tiles, which also sold bathroom fittings. The plumber and builder live local and we have used them both again since to do our bathroom.

Hi LargeLewis, Thank you so much for your kind and helpful reply and my sincerest apologies for my delayed response. I took a break from all this house stuff over Christmas. I had actually looked at the yellow pages before we went to Como but found alot of the websites quite vague. We are actually living in Ireland and as much as i would love to be living in Italy and furnishing a house there, it is our Irish home (for now) that we are renovating. Again, the whole idea of sourcing Italian products directly is only due to the fact that we cannot get what we are looking for here in Ireland. Yes, its  daunting as i will probably have to buy online without having seen the actual products, not something i'm in the habit of doing. However I'm willing to put the work in from this end. I'm assumming you are living in Italy? Lucky you!Thanks so much again LargeLewis. Any other advise you may have would again be greatly appreciated. Bye for now,TammyJ 

Hi all, this is a good point from Large Lewis, if you get the right local shop it can work out well - if you are looking for an inexpensive - at the quality level of Ikea and Mondo Convenienza . I had thought that you were looking for something typically Italian hence the the reference to Brianza and Cantu.Let u sno wwhat you are after price / quality wise.All the best,Conor

In reply to by Ronco

Hi Ronco, Happy New Year, hope you enjoyed your break. My sincere apologies for my delayed reply. I absolutely cannot thank you enough for all your help. Those websites are fantastic, just what i was looking for as i was having great difficulty looking for them. Ok, so here is a list of what we are looking for furniture wise: 2 x matching Leather sofaslarge dining table and chairscoffee tablesconsole tableSuper King size bed2 x bedside tablesarmchairs/loungersBathroom: 2 x bathtubs2/3 Showers (with all accessories)3 x wash hand basins and cabinetsPossibly some accessories such as rugs, lamps, artwork etc, office furniture and outdoor furniture Our initial plan was to source the leather sofas only but obviously if we use a container, it makes sense to source other items. We had initially decided to source our kitchen here in Ireland and i have been working with a local kitchen designer, however, while we were in Como, our beautiful contact, an interior designer, kindly drove us to a showroom in Cantu where she herself sources kitchens. Again Conor, We would love to source everything locally here but unfortunately we cannot get the design or look that we are trying to achieve. Yes, we could probably get what we are looking for in some stores in Dublin but at unaffordable prices. Kitchens are good here but again, everything is imported from either Spain, Italy or Germany as is the same withn all the sanitary ware and tiles. Having looked at multiple bathroom and furniture stores here, everything appears quite safe and dated. It would of course be so much easier to purchase here but again, we have waited a long time for this rennovation having eventually found the right architect. His design is a very modern one and therefore we want to complete the look. Of course, i find the thought of all this quite daunting as I doubt we'll get to Italy again before Summer time so it might be a case of ordering online without seeing the actual products Budget wise, I'm still unsure. We were hoping to make savings but at this rate, if we can procure what we are looking for at a similar cost to here, we will be happy.Once again, thank you for all your help. Any further info would be greatly appreciated.Look forward to your reply, Kind Regards, TammyJ 

Hi Tammy, sorry for taking so long in getting back to you, I was playing catch up at work. Best thing to bring things forward is to look at costs to see if it will work for you and for us.On this forum it is not possible to send personal messages but if you can send me an email to the following email address we can start a more effective correspondence:jimmckeever62@gmail.com