Sorry, this is a bit of a rant…
I had to assemble an IKEA flatpack cabinet today.
I always find this process painful because, to me, the instructions are always lacking (and a lot of other flatpack kits have followed IKEA’s trend of picture-only guides). How hard is it to put a name below each component on the parts page (so I know what this weird thing is when it appears on page 22!), or indicate what’s the top/front/back/etc.?
Today it would have been really helpful to know which edge was the top and front for the sides of this kit, rather than flipping back-and-forth through the manual to work it out. The irony is that they got so close to realising this was a factor, since the instructions did actually have two procedures (depending on whether your ceiling was high enough to stand the cabinet up after assembly or whether you needed to assemble it in-situ).
Is it just me and does everyone else just find it easy to follow the instructions, or do a lot of other people struggle with them too?
Ikeas flat pack is actually pretty decent for how well it goes together compared to other budget brands. Sure Ikea has reduced quality over the years, we still have a dinning room table thats made from solid pieces of actual beech rather than the vinyl wrapped cardboard that they sell as table tops now. Dont even get me started on the switch from metal to plastic cam locks.
Their builds are usually one of the simplest for flat pack due to better than average build tolerances, some actual QA (although its not foolproof), and well thought out design. I can usually build Ikea furniture without looking at the instructions because it reuses so many of the same concepts, its the Lego of flatpack.
Some basic extra steps with some wood glue, some clamps if it doesnt sit square while the glue dries, and an appropriately coloured gap sealer really goes a long way for improving the final build quality.