East Inspirations, Chinatown: Antique Furniture Store Near Me for Qing Blackwood

East Inspirations trades from a shophouse at 256 South Bridge Road, Singapore 058805, a few doors from Sri Mariamman Temple, and its listing on Wanderlog gives hours of 11 am to 6:30 pm from Sunday to Friday and 11 am to 6 pm on Saturday. For anyone in Chinatown typing antique furniture store near me, this is where late Qing blackwood and Shanxi elm sit beside Qianlong porcelain.

The About page tells the founder's story in four lines. PK Cheong fell in love with Chinese arts and antiquities at 20, bought his first antique piece at 26, sold his first at 27, and at 67 is still enjoying what he calls a hobby turned trade. A photograph on the same page shows him sourcing authentic pieces in the early 1990s, and the footer dates the current website back to 2016.

The shop's own Experience page frames it as a refuge from the Singapore sun: air-conditioned, unhurried, with items curated by Mr Cheong from the region and the Far East. Collectors of Chinese ceramics are told to visit the South Bridge storefront for his porcelain collection. In 2017 the business began antiquities and cultural appreciation sessions, one with guest speaker Annig Huchet of APSARA explaining an intricately carved birdcage.

The furniture spans the late Qing to the Republic period. A late 19th-century blackwood chair and stand set, sold as two chairs plus a stand, is S$6,800; both chairs have marble backrests for style and cooling, and the carving pairs bats for fortune with peaches for longevity. A Republic-period blackwood chair and tea stand set from the early 20th century, its backrests refitted with blue and white porcelain of the same era, is S$2,800.

Bigger pieces come with a story about the province. An 18th-century black-lacquered elmwood wardrobe from Shanxi, 191 cm tall and painted with birds, flowers and the hidden emblems of the Eight Immortals, is S$6,800. A set of four late 19th-century elmwood Four Season screens from southern China, each 211.5 cm high with sliding privacy panels, is S$8,000. A small 19th-century Chinese cedar two-door cabinet carved with bamboo and plum blossom is S$980.

Smaller furniture suits flats. A late 19th-century Shanxi kang table in elm with worn red lacquer, 74.7 cm long, is S$600, and a vintage camphor chest with its original metal fittings is S$680, down from S$880; the listing suggests a glass top to turn it into a coffee table. An early 20th-century Zhejiang baby roller chair in red-lacquered elm, with coin-shaped side cutouts for ventilation, is S$1,280.

Porcelain is the other half of the business, and it moves fast. An antique Qianlong blue and white square punch bowl, listed at S$2,288 in September 2026, is already sold out. New in October 2026 are sgraffito Pahua teacups, one with a crane on blue ombre and one with a gold carp on white, at S$88 each. A celadon qilin incense burner is S$168, and a Money Horse porcelain tea set of 80 ml cups is S$198.

The lamp collection turns old ceramics into lighting. A blue and white porcelain fortune pillow lamp is S$188, and an upcycled vintage green ceramic bamboo lamp is S$280. The shop also makes its own upcycled coasters from antique porcelain set in blackwood, S$46 when in stock, and a rosewood box set with antique Ming porcelain, S$228. These are the easiest things here to carry home on the MRT.

Not everything listed sits in the shophouse. Many furniture pages, including the Shanxi wardrobe and the baby roller chair, say the item is held in the warehouse and ask you to contact the shop to arrange a viewing, while others, such as the cedar cabinet and a Shanxi flower stand at S$2,800, are marked as available at 256 South Bridge Road. Message ahead with the item name if a warehouse piece is the reason for your trip.

Be nice, the Experience page says, and you might be invited to a traditional Chinese tea session with the owners, poured from Mr Cheong's personal collection; the teas served are the ones the family drink themselves. For a planned session, the page asks visitors to make an appointment to avoid disappointment. The shop's Tea Guide even gives its gaiwan method for Dancong oolong: 5 g of leaf, 80 to 100 ml of water at 100 °C.

Visitors on a Chinatown walk drop in for a teacup, collectors come for the Qing ceramics, and flat owners hunt kang tables and camphor chests that fit HDB living rooms. One honest judgement: skip the drum stools if you want age, because the porcelain stools are filed under Modern, not Antiques. And if the piece you came for has sold, the lamps and teaware are restocked more often than the furniture.

By OneMap's coordinates, Sri Mariamman Temple at 244 South Bridge Road is about 50 metres up the street, and the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum at 288 South Bridge Road is roughly 120 metres in the other direction. Maxwell Food Centre at 1 Kadayanallur Street is about 200 metres south, close enough for a hawker lunch between the furniture and the tea.

Chinatown MRT station at 151 New Bridge Road is about 300 metres away, on the Downtown and North East lines, and Outram Park is the other nearby interchange. Large pieces are not for the train, so ask the shop about delivery when you pay. Afterwards, the shophouse blocks of Temple Street and Pagoda Street run back toward the station, which closes the loop.

Address: East Inspirations, 256 South Bridge Road, Singapore 058805, in Chinatown. Hours: 11 am to 6:30 pm Sunday to Friday and 11 am to 6 pm on Saturday, per Wanderlog. Warehouse pieces: contact the shop to arrange a viewing. Tea session: by appointment. Nearest MRT: Chinatown, about 300 metres. Founder: PK Cheong.