Furnishing a place in Accra is one of the few things where having it made is often cheaper than buying it ready-made, and where the cheapest option is frequently the best one.

For the full job of setting up a home - appliances, water storage, the things nobody warns you about - the other guide covers it. This one is about the furniture itself.

— Furnishing a home in Accra

The five ways to buy

Roadside carpenters. Workshops line the main roads across the city, making beds, wardrobes, tables, sofas and shelving to order. Cheapest for anything large, and the only way to get furniture that fits an awkward room.

Melcom and the department stores. Flat-pack and ready-made at fixed prices, everywhere, and reliably below mall prices.

Home-used imports. Second-hand furniture shipped from Europe and North America, sold from yards and shops across the city. Sofas, dining sets, office chairs and mattresses, often of much better build quality than new furniture at the same price.

Markets. Plastic chairs, small tables, stools, mattresses, foam.

Malls and furniture showrooms. New, guaranteed, delivered, and the most expensive by a distance.

Having it made: how to do it well

This is how most of Accra furnishes, and it goes wrong in predictable ways.

  • Take a picture and a measurement, not a description. Every carpenter can work from a photograph on a phone.
  • Agree the wood. “Wood” covers everything from solid hardwood to chipboard with a veneer, at very different prices and lifespans. Ask what it is and see a sample.
  • Agree the finish separately - stain, lacquer, upholstery fabric - because it is where the price quietly changes.
  • Pay in stages, with a deposit for materials and the balance on delivery. Never pay in full in advance.
  • Agree a date, and expect it to move. Build the slippage into your plans rather than into an argument.
  • Check the drawers and doors before you pay the balance. Drawers that bind and doors that do not close are the commonest complaint, and they are fixable while the maker still wants his money.

— Finding a tradesperson

Buying home-used furniture well

  • Sit on it, open it, pull it. The advantage of second-hand is that you can test the thing itself rather than a showroom sample.
  • Look underneath. Frames, joints and webbing tell you more than the upholstery does.
  • Check for damp and for insects, especially in wooden pieces that have been stored in a yard.
  • Mattresses are the one thing to think twice about second-hand. Buy new unless you can see exactly what you are getting.

What to check on anything new

  • Chipboard swells. In a humid city with occasional flooding, solid wood or a properly sealed board lasts and bare chipboard does not.
  • Foam density decides how long a sofa lasts, far more than the fabric does.
  • Metal fittings rust near the coast. Ask, and look at the screws.
  • Measure your doorway, not just the room. A wardrobe built in a workshop can be assembled in place; one bought in a box cannot always be carried in.

Getting it home

Delivery is usually extra, usually negotiable, and often a pickup arranged on the spot. Agree the price before the furniture is loaded, and check for damage while the driver is still there.

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