When you are about to furnishing a totally empty house you suddenly discover how many things you have in drawers, closets, cabinets, garden shelter and in other hidden places. The list has become very, very long. The second thing you discovers, sitting half a word away planning the interior, is that Internet not seem to have reach Madeira. Where do I by all the things? How do I know if the budgets will be sufficient? Where do I by what?

On Internet, IKEA in Lisbon has been useful. Since I live only five minutes away from a similar shop it has been straightforward to pick out things from them. It still remains to see how much it cost to ship a container from the mainland and all the way to Prazeres.

On Madeira I have not found much. I think La Kasas is in Ponta Do Sol. And Radio Popular I know where to find in Madeira Forum.

If someone know where to look please add URL, name and description here. Also important to write if the web has a shop on Madeira or if they have to send all things from mainland.

Links I am looking for:

• All kind of furnishing and décor.

• Kitchen equipment. Dishwasher (máquina de lavar louça) etc.

• Textiles and carpets (Têxteis e tapetes)

• Lamps in all kind of variety. (Iluminação / Candeeiros de …)

• Wallpaper and art wallpaper.

• TV, DVD and eclectic equipment as vacuum cleaner and so on.

• Outdoor, garden equipments and trees and flowers.

• Swimming pools. How/where to by or get built and maintenance products.

• Safety product as in case of fire etc. (extintor de incêndio)(detector de fuma)

• PC (computador)

As a start…

PaulDeNoruega

Hello Paul,

My what a project you have at hand and with so many questions!

In January this year I went over to Lisbon to buy furniture and furnishings from IKEA and found that the pricing and quality were very reasonable and I saved a lot of money by buying in bulk and having it sent over as buying things in Madeira is very expensive. I was most impressed with the Ikea delivery service as I spent around 1,000 euros and it only cost me 120 euros to have it shipped over. Furthermore, I visited the store on the Friday (spent eight hours in there actually as I was in shopping heaven) paid for my goods, then went to the shipping counter and was told that it would be on the boat the following morning. I returned to Madeira on the Monday and received a phonecall on Tuesday to say the shipment had arrived and that it would be delivered to my door at 10am the following morning. True to their word and actually on time, everything had arrived and all in one piece! So from that experience I would definately reccomend IKEA in Lisbon.

As for electrical goods there are many places on the island but it is worth shopping around for good deals. I recently picked up an 80" flat screen TV for 399 euros from Modelo in Ribeira Brava, that's the cheapest I have seen so far and they were sold out within a couple of days. You could try Fnac and Worten in Madeira Shopping and also Radio Popular, but sometimes the supermarkets have good deals too.

As for PC's, again Fnac and then Vobis are quite good but I picked up a very good deal through ebay with a company called Palicomp (www.palicomp.co.uk) as I wanted a new system but I needed it in English. If you buy a PC here it will only come preloaded with Portuguese software and having already got a laptop with Portuguese Vista I found it most irritating trying to decipher the lingo when something pops up as vista is so new!

As with anything else here really it does pay to shop around. For building or decorating materials I have found that some of the local hardware shops particularly in Arco Calheta to be very helpful and somewhat cheaper than Maxmat or Mata and do have most items in stock as well as a more freindly service and an eagerness to help.

Good luck with furnishing your new home!

Humm, we don't seem to live on the same planet. Have you ever heard about climate changing? pollution? ecology? What the point of living in Madeira if your preocupation is to furnish your house? Could we all live like American people with big screens and so many useless furniture?

Shame on your vanity.