Filling that Apartamento

Once you find an apartment in Brazil, a chore within itself, take time to congratulate yourself.  If you managed to find an apartment where you do not need to provide any light fixtures, door handles or external walls, tonight, drink as many as you want!  If you found one with appliances too, or decent furnishings, you'd best go buy a lottery ticket because it's clearly your lucky day.

The furnishing phase... I just started on this task so I am no expert yet, but I can tell you from my adventure so far that according to most places I've been it will take at least 30 days to get a couch delivered if it is being manufactured (and most places don't keep much inventory), beds can be close to the same amount of time, depending on the bed.  It's best to start early!

When we decided to move to Rio I envisioned some sort of brightly stuccoed apartamento building with lots of character and ornate yet fun, rustic furnishings inside.  With the building - no such luck, it is very modern and plain (a good canvas, you could say, and I am pleased with it nonetheless).  Most of the furnishings I have seen so far, too, are modern and plain. So, I am looking for some furnishings to liven the place up a bit.  I know that there are Brazilians reading this blog... any suggestions??  I am looking for furniture stores "off the beaten path" a bit. Furnishings with character.

Some key words in Portuguese for apartamento furniture shopping in Brazil:

Furniture: Moveis
Desk: Mesa
Couch/Sofa: Sofa
Refrigerator: Jeladero
Chair: Cadeira
Door: Porta
Bed: Cama (a note on this - pronounce sizes queenie and kingie.  Single = de solteio)
Oven/Stove: Fogao
Blinds: Persiana
Curtains: Cortina
Shelves: Prateleiras

Happy Hunting!

Comments

[Rachel]

actually, it's geladeira :)

[lostnbr]

There are some nice antique furniture in the shops along Rua Tonelero (around/south of I think Paula Freitas or Republica do Peru) in Copacabana. But I imagine it costs a fortune. The inexpensive stuff for sale in the big lojas is c*r* a*p but should last a year or two, if you don’t sit down too hard.
Good Luck!!!

[DRL]

I checked out that area of Copacabana today and found one place that had some pretty decent headboards for beds, so thank you for the tip!

And of course thank you for the spelling tip as well.