Semi-Furnished

A month ago, we moved into a semi-furnished apartment. This generally means serviceable kitchen appliances, beds in the bedrooms (used mattresses) and a couple of places to sit. It would be up to us to fill in the gaps.

The first place to look for home furnishings is on the local buy/sell Facebook pages, but finding things there is completely dependent on timing. You can buy new items but they are all imported, often poorly made and expensive. The final option is to order custom pieces from local artisans.

This has its own challenges. You need to find a reliable vendor who does quality work. There are plenty of furniture makers in Kampala, of course. There are whole sections of the industrial area populated by nothing but workshops for woodworkers, upholsterers, welders, etc. Some of them have a few ready-made items – like tri-level metal bunk beds that are often painted hot pink, bright blue or lime green. But we were not looking to furnish a boarding school or a psychedelic submarine.

Several people referred us to Mugavoo. Run by Ronald, a Ugandan, and Ken, a Kenyan who went to university in Ohio, Mugavoo employs a couple dozen tradesmen to fill orders. Ronald runs the shop - a dirt, open-air former parking lot packed with refurbished power tools. Ken handles the marketing and orders. Not only do they have their own catalog (a rarity here), if you show Ken and Ronald a photo of a piece of furniture you like from any US vendor or Pinterest, they reproduce it.

Mugavoo is a little hard to find. 500 meters down a dirt road, around 2 blind corners, then through a gate and around a wall. When we visited Mugavoo for the first time, we didn’t know most customers have Ronald or Ken come to them, so few clients ever see the shop.

We initially did a trial-run small order of a couple of beds and side tables to be delivered in 4-6 weeks. But as we were walking through the shop, Scott noticed some knotty boards leaning against one wall. Ronald said the boards were damaged and would be cut up and used for scrap. Scott saw some potential and asked Ronald to use the “scrap” wood on our headboards. Ronald thought this was ridiculous but agreed.

Fast forward to mid-March. Ken came to deliver the beds. You can see below how they turned out.

Because the beds are so beautiful, we asked them to make us some lamps. Lamps are not big here. Lights are attached to the ceiling. You turn them on with a switch on the wall. They are almost always fluorescent so you have the “overtired vampire” look when you glance in the mirror. But Mugavoo made some for us and we topped them with locally made lampshades from another shop.

Finally, sofas. If you like the Ugandan day-glo, triple-layer steel bunk beds, you will love the sofas. Scarlet, gold lamé, cheetah print and purple “leather” are all very popular options. What those sofas might lack in subtlety, they make up for by being incredibly uncomfortable. We decided to go a little more inconspicuous and hopefully a bit more cozy.

Didas has a shop a couple of blocks above the industrial area of Kampala, on 8th street. When we called him for directions to his shop, he said, “just past the big building and under the tree.” Seriously. What he should have said was “just find the worst road in all on Kampala and, as soon as you get through the deepest potholes, look to your right.” Didas made us beautiful sectionals from wood and local reeds, similar to wicker.

Then, cushions. We got a referral to Robert at Sofa King. After driving around for about an hour trying to find Robert, we realized we just should have gone about 40 meters past Didas on the worst road in Uganda and looked to the right.

We brought Robert some fabric, he took some measurements and 4 days later, we had sofa cushions. They are, at the moment, quite firm. Think “bag of cement” or “unripe avocado.”

Robert assures us that they will soften up shortly. We found out later that right after our meeting with Robert, he headed off to the hospital for treatment for malaria (he is feeling much better). That might explain his optimistic delusions about the cushion comfort factor.

But they look great.

We are beginning to settle in and our home is starting to come together.

Come by any time. We will save a seat on the sofa for you. Wear some padded shorts.