Top 10 Flatpack Furniture Tips

Successfully buying and assembling flatpack furniture is sometimes not as easy as it looks - after years of doing this myself here are my top 10 tips when it comes to the classic 'flatpack'!
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[@c.a.g.1977]

Nice tips Stuart! These "Basic" videos are turning into a very nice series!

[@ProperDIY]

Glad you like them!

[@BigSpud]

Strengthening flat pack shouldn't be necessary but well worth before it gets full of gear! Your tips made all the difference to a Billy bookcase I rebuilt last year.

[@dougsaunders8109]

Always make sure you have the bus fare for your passengers in case once they have helped you put stuff in the car you don’t have space for them

[@sydsnott5042]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@pp1mh]

🤣🤣

[@cuebj]

Excellent point. We have a Ford Galaxy so can fit most items, and, being old, bus passes eliminate the need for fares

[@dougsaunders8109]

@@cuebj no brainer then 😅

[@Jules_Pew]

If instruction says 2 people needed to assemble and you don't have anyone to help, a step ladder with well placed paperbacks is ideal. Bonus is that they don't mutter at you taking too long.

[@user-fb3pu3qx3t]

Good ideas! I’m going to use your drawer trick with the flimsy drawers under my bed. In fact, a video on how to repair under bed drawers would be very useful for lots of people, I suspect. They seem universally flimsy!

[@michaelblair2447]

All good advice. The Bosch Ixo is a bit of a toy compared with a full sized drill but for this sort of thing it is very useful and the lack of power is an advantage.

[@evelyngorfram9306]

Tip #11: Always match all the parts, especially the small fasteners & other hardware, to the ones shown in the parts list & make sure they're all there & you know which once is which. Tip #12: Hex keys/wrenches aren't that expensive. Buy yourself sets in metric & imperial, & use your own instead of the cheap lousy one that comes with the furniture. Tip-ish #13: I like to read the directions 3 times - when I first open the package, as & after laying out all the pieces & parts, & step by step as I'm doing the assembly. Call me nuts or unmanly or whatever. But I find doing this makes flatpack assembly, if not easy, at least straightforward.

[@michaeldesouza4911]

Another great video Stuart, some good tips ! I find the quality of flat pack furniture has greatly improved over the last 10 years and Ikea is really impressive.

[@c.a.g.1977]

I beg to differ... IKEA has found many ways to make their furniture cheaper to make, so in my opinion there is a definitely noticable difference in quality. Best example are the kitchen stools. Buy one new: All parts are thinner, made up of more glued up parts, whereas an older one was bigger, had heftier legs and a chunkier top and step... Still, IKEA make decent stuff for a decent price. And one thing they did improve on, greatly, their instruction manuals!

[@MarcusT86]

Great little video! One tip that should be obvious is to check that everything is in the kit as per the instructions before you start assembly!

[@MissLinda777]

This is all so very helpful! Thank you for taking the time to make such a detailed video.

[@outoftheburrough]

Caveat on your gluing the dowels in place at each end... Do make sure you can remove the unit from the room it's in if you plan on moving it around or out of the house in the future.

[@MrChristiangraham]

"Buying flat pack furniture on a Sunday afternoon thinking they can going to be using it all by Sunday evening" - oh, so you've met my missus 😂

[@colingoode3702]

And mine😂

[@ProperDIY]

Maybe it was you two in front of me at the checkout?

[@colingoode3702]

@@ProperDIY Ha Ha.

[@chrisfallon6073]

One absolute essential if you're going to use IKEA flatpacks is to get yourself an IKEA Family card first and use it when you buy. The reason for doing this is that your goods are automatically insured from the point of sale to final assembly. Just imagine paying £100 plus for an item and then dropping it as you're loading into the car. Damaged corners or broken glass can happen, and then you have to buy another one to replace it. If you have a Family card, just take it back and get another one. But - you're also insured for damage caused during assembly. Chipped or scratched edges, broken panels, cracked glass; all can happen very easily when assembling something. Again, just take either the full item or just the damaged part back and they'll replace it.

[@EverBeyondRadio]

Good set of tips Stuart, I enjoy your videos.

[@pault8734]

Great and useful video again thanks. I always try to glue & pin the flimsy backing to bookcases, but I do like your baton idea. The backings are the place that really distinguishes the flatpack from the ready assembled items, but a bit of care can work wonders.

[@ryanclements8320]

Really good videos even for people who might have done this several times before there's still 1 or 2 tips you can pick up from you. Explained simply too.

[@ProperDIY]

Thank you!

[@alex43111]

One way to open the box and will not damage anything inside is to use a round shank skredriver(philips as most people have those aroudn the house) and open the boxes as you demonstrate at 1:55 in this video.

[@rossr100]

I'm a decorator but clients asked if I'd assemble two king size slat beds with 6 drawers each. Sounded easy enough, plans looked ok, everything has a number. Opened the boxes and - nothing had a number, lol.

[@shylockakita]

Very useful! I always use more glue than they send out even on draw bases and cupboard backs, just have a damp cloth to hand to clean up as you build. I also often find those odd bit of wood packaging the right dimensions for popping into corners for extra strengthens and have no problems using extra pins than supplied and sometime slightly better screws ;-)

[@cuebj]

Very good. I'd add: look at the item parts to consider if you should make any modifications before you assemble it. For example, Billy bookcases have a small cutout to allow for skirting boards. I have a template to clamp to the piece and use a router to enlarge the cutout. Before I used a router, I used a jig saw on a low power setting and scored the line I wanted to cut using a sharp point and used masking tape to stop breakout. I don't glue. Sometimes, I want to move the item and I think that glue makes it more rigid and more likely to break, even when heaving it around a room, let alone packing in a van. Edited to cater for typos - could have sworn I checked before clicking the button

[@colinbleach9390]

Excellent video. Thank you

[@FrogeniusW.G.]

Esp. liked the stabilizing hack/tipp! 😊☆

[@ScytheNoire]

Don't glue together if you plan on moving long-distance and may want to disassemble a large item (like a bed frame). Reinforcing is a great tip, especially when you find a design defect like those drawers.

[@David.M.]

Thanks, great tips!

[@jozefbubez6116]

Might it be a better idea to use a soft-faced mallet or scrap piece of wood under the hammer-head when driving in dowels?

[@andyc972]

Good stuff Stuart, I wish I'd known all of that when I started building these 30+ years ago - for all that people like to moan about IKEA it's a load better than MFI used to be in general ! In the latest chest of drawers I built from IKEA, they have added a centre brace under the base to support it and pull in the back panel, it's good that they occasionally return to the design and tweak it ! I built my first ones using a Yankee spiral ratchet - no DIY cordless drills then ! 😉😁

[@cuebj]

I often remind old hands about MFI, they roll their eyes, and say "Good point". I also tell younger folk who struggle to believe it was so bad, like so much of British industry in 1950s to 1980s when it mostly ceased to exist

[@IanFarquharson2]

I find that working at standing height greatly improves the ability to put these together without error. Even something like an electricians donut table beats kneeling down to assemble.

[@barryroberts6470]

One more, don't forget to check all parts are there, the last thing you want is to start putting the furniture together to find an important part or parts are missing. Barry (Wirral)

[@tttt4029]

I'm more worried when I have bits left over 😱😀

[@teresabell1014]

Very helpful advice

[@ProperDIY]

Glad it was helpful!

[@alan36753]

Run glue in the hardboard slots for more rigidity and you didn’t mention checking diagonals for square.

[@SteveMonk1956]

Nice video Stuart, only ever been to Ikea once ... never again.

[@somewhereelse3813]

Basically you're constructing this into a great little reference series. Nice one Stuart

[@ProperDIY]

Glad you think so!

[@valborchardt3596]

Thank you Stuart 👍👍

[@ProperDIY]

Very welcome

[@markoboyle77]

If you buy from ikea and are a member parts are also covered for replacement if you break them during the build

[@awantamta]

Great tips

[@anwolfs9804]

Makes me want to go and buy some more flat-pack furniture ! :)

[@mungoh42]

If possible, when contemplating future dismantling of the item put (say) a green tick beside every screw that needs to be removed. Then you won't remove other screws that don't need to be removed. We bought a second hand king-sized wooden bed frame that had already been dismantled by the owner. I then had a jigsaw of parts to reassemble. The owner just removed all screws in sight, including the ones not needed to be removed for disassembly.

[@benriley324]

Great tips. I remember rushing years ago assembling a billy bookcase. All looked well until I stood it up and I’d fitted the shelves with the exposed edge facing out. Tried to hide it by colouring it in with a sharpie thinking my wife wouldn’t notice 😂😂. Luckily my DIY skills have improved a bit since then.

[@ProperDIY]

There you go - on of my tips!

[@lauriemacquanan2141]

Thank you for this, a friend helped me to assemble a 2 door with a drawer waist high. It was funny bc 1 friend kept saying you put the shelf I wrong n the other friend NO I didn't That went on for 5 mins. Turns out at the end she DID i fact have it wrong we just laughed bc the doors would be closed n no one would know. Thanks again!

[@michaelplays2449]

Very Good video !! thanks

[@ProperDIY]

Glad you liked it!

[@jasonmettam9832]

Could you do a video on how to change a single gang socket to a double

[@caskwith]

RE: The reinforcement of drawers, I have always done this as a preventative measure after having to repair many drawers in the past. When assembling some Malm drawers recently though I was very pleased to find they have metal supports under the drawers now that not only hold the bottom secure they also pull the back in tight so it doesn't warp when loaded. No need for any extra work which was nice.

[@Ginwood]

There some members of my household thank think drawers have an infinite capacity to hold clothes. To repair these damaged drawers where the capacity of clothes slightly brimmed over infinite I’ve used 10mm baton and some 10mm brackets from RS in the past that when screwed and glued not only holds the back in parallel to the front but also stops the saggy bottom. Good to hear some drawers are now designed to withstand more than bare minimum loading 👍🏻

[@caskwith]

@@Ginwood If a drawer isn't crammed tight then it's wasted space ;)

[@Ginwood]

@@caskwith 🤣🤣 too true

[@colingoode3702]

This where the estate car comes into it's own. With the front passenger seat flat I can get 3m long items into mine & it is invaluable for trips to the dump as well. A 2 person assembly or lift is a red rag to most blokes who would take that as a 1 person challenge. TBH I'm surprised they even read the info on the box or the instructions🤭

[@alanthew6490]

#2. My wife had to get the train home as there wasn’t room in the car after buying our wardrobes.

[@smudgetherealmc]

Hi, any thoughts on making small changes to the size of a unit to make it fit a (smaller) precise space? I need to shave up to 10mm off the overall width of some units which measure 2m out of the box

[@yiannisevangelou6246]

Come on mate! How long is it going to take you to do a video where you switch the basic roller runners on an ikea set of drawers with proper ball bearing, fully extendable, soft closing runners?! 😂

[@ProperDIY]

Good idea

[@ChrisShute62]

Another tip: wear knee pads if you're assembling flatpacks on the floor. As Stuart says, the job can take longer than you'd think, and also because it's easy to kneel on a stray screw!

[@evileyelash8094]

Thank you for showing me how to do this without an AI voice! 🙏

[@garvielloken3929]

Nooice!

[@AKAMustang]

Instructions? Where we're going, we don't need instructions. 😄

[@richardhart7652]

No one rule never let the other half choose it 😜

[@chrishartle1326]

Glue them 🤣 are you mad? What do I do when I realise the shelves are in upside down?

[@zeno2712]

If you're going to lay it on the carpet for assembly, vacuum the carpet first. Just one small stone your shoes have just dragged in can ruin it!

[@prodantech]

IKEA delivery sucks. Stuff arrives broken and they seem to forget things often.

[@stevenfromleicester2529]

You forgot the most important tip. Always assemble when your wife's out otherwise divorce beckons 😂😂😂

[@cuebj]

Hmmm! Seriously, this is true. She thinks assembly requires no space, leaves no polystyrene beads, and she is lethally dangerously unable to pay attention to holding something for more than 2 seconds. Daughter, however, is brilliant at assembly and getting ever better at more advanced DiY

[@ProperDIY]

Sorry, I missed this very important one.

[@Theballoonwillpop]

Alot of this stuff is heavy because evil marketing shills think that by making it heavier it appears more "long-lasting" and durable...unfortunately they are right.

[@mattstegall]

Thats not true at all. It’s heavy because it’s made from pressboard. Pressboard is good for this application because it’s cheap and very stable but it god awful heavy. Many very high quality solid wood furniture is not that heavy.

[@luciferfaust]

Effing hate cam locks. Hate, hate, hate them.

[@luciferfaust]

@@jeremiahbullfrog9288 they hurt my hands trying to put them in straight on the screw side and they're very unstable and difficult to tighten the cam screws. They're my bane of existence when I'm building furniture

[@luciferfaust]

@@jeremiahbullfrog9288 that's true, they do make disassembling a bit simpler, but I'd rather work with regular old screws and dowels. The cube storage shelves I get from Walmart don't use cams and I just use a bit of wood glue to keep them stable, but then again I never plan on disassembling them.

[@cuebj]

@@jeremiahbullfrog9288 Agreed. Try Ironmongery Direct or Orbital Fastners. Or the Peanut system from Intelligent Fixings

[@shouwill]

...your socks won't protect your feet well enough so there must be a reason why - carpetted floor is not the answer I trust..?

[@paulwood7798]

Seriously what's flat pack furniture.

[@ProperDIY]

Try Google

[@-chris1965]

Tip 11. Get someone else to do it.

[@johnolly7627]

In my case several weeks later🫣🫣🤣🤣