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I went to China to save on five things. I came home buying three.
Every quote, shipping estimate and compliance check behind the talk — including the two categories I decided not to import, and why those are the most useful part.
What's in the guide
Five calls. Only one of them was simple.
I priced every category against a local quote. Here's where each one landed.
One of those five I bought in Australia anyway — and it cost me more than the cheapest quote I had. Another I haven't committed to yet. Inside you'll find every quote behind these five set against the Australian ones, what shipping actually cost me, the compliance check for each product and whose signature you need, and what I'd do differently.
Here's the only figure I'll give away before you open it. I shipped one vanity as a test: $300 to buy, $1,500 to land. That ratio is why the savings only appear at scale, and why a headline price tells you almost nothing.
Before you import anything
None of it works if the design isn't locked.
This is the part I'd want someone to tell me before I booked a flight.
- Cabinetry and stone run four to six weeks in manufacture — and about a month of shop drawings before that even starts.
- Dimensions are locked before anything is cut. A change mid-production isn't a revision, it's a reorder.
- The factories price from drawings. Send a full set ahead and pricing is waiting when you land. Turn up with sketches and you'll spend the week explaining yourself.
I'm not the person who takes you to China. I'm the person who makes the trip worth taking.
I'm Taeler Jordan, founder of FTLO Design. I've spent a decade buying, designing, renovating and selling my own projects across Melbourne, and I run a three-stage design process for renovators — CAD floor plans, exterior elevations and renders, interior concepts in CAD with renders and material selections — all documented well enough that a supplier on either side of the world can quote from them.
The two projects behind these numbers are The Bass House in San Remo and Horizon House in Eltham North. Both mine. Every lesson in this guide was tested on my own money first.
FTLO Design · fortheloveofdesign.com.au · hello@fortheloveofdesign.com.au · @ftlo_design
Figures are from quotes on my own projects in October 2026 and are indicative, not advice. Compliance requirements change — confirm anything you rely on with your building surveyor, plumber, electrician and a licensed customs broker.
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My real numbers, yours to keep.
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