Lagunilla Furniture Market

The Mercado de Muebles Lagunilla is a giant historic furniture market in one of the City’s most bustling neighborhoods. The market stands at the center of dozens of larger furniture stores, but inside you’ll find, officially, some 344 merchants. It’s a tremendous adventure.

In addition to furniture, living rooms, dining rooms, and bedroom sets, you’ll find patio furniture, framers, and vendors selling simple decorative items, too. There are some traditionalists, some selling rustic furniture, and some selling modernist knockoffs, and some truly high-end gear. There are also complete kitchen cabinet makers, and even some freelance woodworkers. Cast aluminum patio furniture comes in from foundries in Hidalgo and Mexico State.

The market marks something of a northern end to the triangle of home furnishings neighborhoods. The market at Portales corners the used furniture segment. That at Crea takes up the craft and handmade segments. To the west in Polanco, and along the Avenida Altavista, are the truly high-end dealers where people furnishing mansions will go. But La Lagunilla has long had an edge on the antiques market. Those shops extend from here northward toward Tepito. Those peddling true antiques will pull out all the stops for the Sunday La Lagunilla Antiques market. That’s when you need to look behind the street stands to some of the bigger warehouses. Some of them are creepy and packed with old and even unbelievable oddities, but that’s where you’ll really see the good stuff.

But here, in the old fixed market, you’ll find almost entirely new furniture. This can still fascinate the curio hunters and those looking to make off with something completely different. The sheer number of vendors mean it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s a big noisy jumble of a market with fletes and moving trucks all vying for right of way. But international visitors can find their way here, too. And even if you’re not furnishing a whole new flat, it’s a tremendous sight to behold, and not something monopoly economic systems can deliver or support.

Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.