Home Décor
Buy and sell home décor in Costa Rica.
Plenty of Tico houses still have celosías, the glass-louvre windows that stay open through an afternoon downpour, and they settle more about curtains and blinds than any colour scheme does. The rest of a room depends on where the house stands: a wool rug that is welcome on a cold night in Zarcero is wasted in a house on the coast, where a ceiling fan with a light kit does the work of a lamp. Pieces come new and pre-owned, and the used ones were bought for one particular window or ceiling, so the measurements in a listing count for more than the photo.
Celosías, curtains and blinds that have to clear the crank:
louvre windows never close airtight, and a curtain over open louvres moves all day and catches the spray when rain blows in sideways, so a washable fabric on a rod does better than a heavy lined drape. A blind mounted inside the frame has to clear the crank or lever that works the glass, which is why so many go outside it. Among curtains and blinds, a roller in screen fabric filters the light and keeps the view, blackout belongs in bedrooms and PVC mini blinds are the cheap fix for a bathroom or kitchen. A ready-made roller blind in a standard width runs around ₡20,000 to ₡45,000 new, blackout at the top of that, and a PVC mini blind sits near ₡10,000. Buying the mini blind used saves a few thousand colones, which one slat bent on the way home cancels out. The saving worth chasing is on a made-to-measure roller or screen blind: it costs well above the ready-made range, and it holds its value only for a window as wide as the one it came from.
Rugs, cushions and candles from Zarcero down to the coast:
the same room is furnished differently at altitude. Up toward Zarcero, a wool rug, a heavy throw on the sofa and lined curtains earn their place on a cold night. Down in Jacó or Cahuita that wool rug holds heat and dust, and a flat-woven cotton or polypropylene one that can be washed does better. With the windows open, cushions with zipped, washable covers outlast sewn-shut ones. In home fragrances, pillar candles soften and lean in a hot room or a car parked in the sun, so on the coast a reed diffuser or a candle in a glass jar holds up better.
Ceiling fans with a light kit, lamps and mirrors:
in a hot lowland house the main light in a room is often a ceiling fan with a light kit underneath. The blade span decides whether it suits a small bedroom or the living room. Higher up, where nobody needs a fan, pendants and table lamps from lighting take over. Many ceilings are suspended, in PVC, gypsum or timber boarding, so a heavy fan or pendant has to hang from the structure above rather than from the ceiling panel. With large mirrors and framed art, ask the weight before you buy.
A fan that wobbles, slats gone yellow and a blind that will not stay put:
each shows up in a quick test. Run a ceiling fan at every speed if it is still installed: a wobble or a hum at the top speed points to a bent blade bracket or a tired motor, and the light should switch on separately. Pull a roller blind halfway down and let go; if it creeps or snaps up, the clutch or spring has gone. PVC slats that have turned yellow spent years in the sun and crack when you tilt them. Turn a rug over: a backing that sheds powder or smells musty is finished. A candle that has warped or sweated, and a diffuser that lost its cap, have lost most of what they were worth.
A blind listed by its width, a fan boxed with its canopy:
measurements do the selling. Give the width of a blind’s fabric and of the tube with its brackets, say whether it sat inside or outside the frame, and tape the brackets and screws to it. For a fan, give the blade span and say whether the light kit and the remote come with it. Photograph a rug on both sides, a mirror from the back and a lamp switched on. Someone driving from Paraíso or Jacó for a ceiling fan wants to hear that it is already down and boxed with its blades, canopy, downrod and remote, not still turning over your bed.