Mushroom growth of furniture shops in city

KOCHI: If you have just built or bought your dream home and are on the lookout for the right piece of furniture to spruce it up, you don’t have to hunt high and low for it. The umpteen number of furniture cum home decor shops that have sprung up in the city recently make sure that you are indubitably spoilt for choice!Apart from the customary designs in wooden and leather upholstery, today the demand for eco-friendly furniture is on the rise. “We have a wide range of imported products made from materials like water hyacinth, abaca and sea grass. People’s response to these eco friendly products has been incredible as most of our present stock has already been sold out,” says Sonal Devanand, showroom manager of Woodstruck, Panampilly Nagar. Most of the newly opened furniture showrooms in Kochi also boast of blanketing all other areas of home decor as they provide an alluring range of accessories, be it in furnishing, lighting or kitchenware.“When I saw the myriad options available in Kochi in furniture, I decided to reconsider my earlier plan of importing furniture from abroad,” says Prakash, a businessman who recently shifted to Kochi. According to Sonal, this rise can be attributed to the real estate boom happening in Kochi. The boom has provided motivation for mega stores like @home to launch their outlets in the city. Says Saurabh Ray, marketing head,@home, “a substantial number of people in Kochi are exposed to ready-to-assemble furniture sets, a trend in the Middle East. As a result, there is a hot market for the same.” “People nowadays keep themselves updated about the latest designs and trends, what with all the information available just a click away,” says P Vijay Sankar, general manager of OSS, Valanjambalam. TOSS, an initiative by a group of architects and designers, which provides theme-based home solutions, is a new generation furniture store that aims at maximising utility and redefining space.The lack of such a satisfactory shopping experience earlier had led Kochiites to flock to the neighbouring states of Kerala. Whatsoever be the reason for this recent spate in the furniture shops in the city, Kochiites have a lot of reason to cheer about as an international shopping experience is on offer just near at hand!