Casa Pagoda is a furniture shop with a mixed flavor of East and West. “ La Casa” means house in Spanish and the Pagodas are the Buddhist constructions with roofs in layers you can see inside some temples.
This is about good furniture and a bridge between worlds.
We have met Leontien Nipshagen, co-ownner of La Casa Pagoda, and she introduced the Beijing shop to us. La Casa Pagoda is a beautiful adventure in Asia that started in Bangkok in 2003, with US, Belgian and Dutch partners. Eight shops have been opened which represents a nice pace of one new shop every year. You can find La Casa Pagoda’s shops in Shanghai, Bangkok, Moscow, Hanghzou and, of course, Beijing.
The Beijing shop is located in South Sanlitun road, n°6. This is a warm welcoming place, where you feel instantly kind of at home. Around you, the furniture is displayed as a series of little installations, in such a way they look as if they were just captions of actual living places. To introduce La Casa Pagoda, Leontien Nipshagen asks us to sit wherever we want, to make sure we feel at ease.
This shows us as well that just every place around us is equally attractive. Hard to make a choice.
The styles in Casa Pagoda are skillfully mixed. There has been a general evolution over the years, under the influence of Capone Chowdhry, the designer, and interaction with new places, new discoveries, new customer needs. From a dominant Asiatic style in the original creations, the style of the last collections has essentially western influences.
Capone Chowdry has begun his career working for large American furniture companies and decided to develop his own style when co-founding La Casa Pagoda in 2003.
The Beijing shop is a place where many Chinese people come to grasp a little piece of the Western world. But these Chinese customers too have evolved a lot over the years. There are less and less customers just coming in and buying whole installations just as they are displayed, as it was the case at the opening. Now, Chinese clients wander around the shop and pick here and there the things they appreciate, just to have the furniture they want to live with.
This is what makes the charm of La Casa Pagoda, the different styles exposed in the shop in a way they can match together, sometimes with surprises. Furniture feature country style or sophisticated style of various European countries, Italy, France, England… This is really a vast choice of historically-based furniture with original accessories designed by Capone Chowdhry and other designers he works with. Recently, La Casa Pagoda has added some genuine vintage items in its collections.
The shop is a pleasure to visit and you can find everything you need to settle yourself in Beijing: living room furniture, shelves, club chairs, sofas, lamps, accessories, decorative items…
Quality is a constant focus in La Casa Pagoda. A large part of the furniture is made in different workshops in China but La Casa Pagoda has developed a large worldwide network and collects pieces of furniture from everywhere. This contributes to develop a brand image of diversity and originality.
For the Sofas and Club Chairs, fabrics and leather come from high end European providers. La Casa Pagoda’s purpose is to constantly offer very good value for money.
Keep an eye on the website and visit the shop regularly; events are organized where you can have drink while choosing nice furniture with some discounts.
The staff speaks good English; communication with this international team should not be an issue. Of course, everything can be delivered at your home in Beijing.
We left La Casa Pagoda with the feeling we just visited a place which has a real appeal and charm. You can find a lot of things there just to make an original decoration at home.
If you are interested, La Casa Pagoda works with several home decorators in Beijing who can visit your place and design a decoration that fits you. Just ask.
How to go there? At the South of the Sanlitun village (not in Village South, it is outside the village). No. 6 South Sanlitun, Chaoyang District Beijing 100027 P.R. China Tel +86 10 6591 5922 Fax +86 10 6591 4984
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