The whole concept of interior design has changed. It is no longer just about ar ranging a few pieces furniture in the different corners of a room. The idea today is to have a theme and furniture that goes with it. And this has brought about a revolution in the business of furniture and home accessories.

Maitighar gives you easy and the best options while doing your furniture shopping.Three huge furniture stores -Funiture 2000 Pvt Ltd (Fusion), Homemaker and Furniture Land makes this place the best place for furniture shopping.Quality & varieties Homemaker and Furniture 2000 have Nepal-made products, while Furniture Land supplies imported furniture.

Sudeep Manandhar, General Manager of Fusion store said, "Most of our furniture are made from particle board. It is not wood but made of wood particles like saw dust. These kinds of furniture are attractive and cheaper than wood."

He informed such furniture are portable as they can be dismantled into pieces and re-assembled. The hinges and nails used are from Germany "with life time warranty".

But if you are looking for furniture of pure wood, then head to Homemaker, where the furniture is made local wood like pine and gulmohar. Keshav Maharjan, General Manager of Homemaker said, "We have quality products. The finishing of our products, out customer service and warranty products make us different."

The dominant design is Japanese which can be classified as semi-modern and semi-classical.

Right next to Homemaker, Furniture Land provides furniture imported from China, Vietnam and Thailand. Madan Joshi, MD of the store said, "We focus on quality and bring in cost-effective products."

He added, "People look for exclusive designs these days.
The demand has changed and so we have cheaper and durable Chinese furniture with a contemporary look."

A few products are made of solid wood while the rest are made of compact wood.
Furniture solutions "We are a complete store for office furniture and we want to give them at the best price," said Manandhar of Fusion. He added that sofas from Singapore, made of leather and wood are one of the popular items here. Conference chairs and tables, executive chairs and tables and a few fancy chairs are other items to look for in fusion. These have been imported from Malaysia. The pricing is above Rs 3,500 it de pends on the designs.

While at Homemaker you can look for beds, dressing ta bles, varieties of shelves, ta bles, wardrobes and display cabinets. And here the price ranges from Rs 1,000 for show pieces to Rs 70,000 for beds and wardrobes.

The four floors at Furniture Land houses office tables and chairs, sunlight chairs, swing, wardrobe, bed, dressing tables to name a few. Here one can also buy pieces in sets like sofa and bed, or dressing table and wardrobe; these could cost more than two lakhs. Joshi informed that the fitting and locking of the furniture are done in Nepal.
Services offered At fusion customers can give an order for any design according to the dimensions of a room. Manandhar said, "From measuring the office spaces to making the furniture to interior designing, fusion provides a total service package."

Meeting the customers' demands, Homemaker also provides interior designing service. The store also has like lamps and crockery, plates from China, bed sheets and covers from India. Maharjan informed that they sell show pieces made of ceramic and said ,"We are promoting handicraft showpieces."

Furniture Land also sells show pieces and flower vases which look metal-like but are actually plastic ceramic. They also have bed covers, cushion covers. "In the scarcity of wood, we sell products that are not pure wood. We also provide information about the maintenance of furniture during the delivery, which is free if the destination is within the Valley," informed Joshi.

source: Rai, Jessica (2010),"Furniture shopping at its best", The Himalaya Times, 26 December 2010