Ikea furniture

[user1465146157]

Hello
Looking into getting a handyman to build our flat pack furniture (not been delivered yet) but considering doing it myself.

Is Ikea stuff generally quite easy to build? I would of thought it should be straight forward?

Anyone had good / bad experiences?

Thanks

Thanks everyone - really useful, I will definitely do this myself now!

windowSong - glad my post provided such a huge LOL.... not sure why its that hilarious.
Not familiar with Ikea and their MALM range so I'm glad I asked for advice from people who had experience of it. Sort of the whole point of Mumsnet message boards no?

Yes, it's an absolute piece of piss. The hardest thing is dealing with the weight - you may need someone to help you lower and lift some of the bigger pieces. You really really don't need a professional to do it, though. Do heed the advice about wall fastening.

IKEA now offers a service with delivery and putting item (flatpack) togva

Oh god am now regretting ordering a bed from Argos. The rest of the house is all ikea mainly Hemnes..except Dd room. Eeek

Thanks all on the advice on attaching to the wall - I may need to get someone in to do that bit?!

But building sounds easy after reading here

Can't believe they tip over so easily....

*The MALM chest of drawers should be ok?(
My 18 year old DS made up 3 of these for me last week and has the final one to do this evening.
He said it was easy. I gave him a tenner because I cba doing it myself!

Well clearly I’m a nugget as after about ten mins it gives me the rage and divorce is a thing on the cards. I’d pay someone. Life’s too short...

Can't believe they tip over so easily....
Our's aren't attached to a wall. However if it was in a child's room or if I had young children I definitely attach them as a priority.
As it is we have heavier stuff in the bottom drawers and very light stuff at the top.
There hasn't been any sign of instability but it is something you should be aware of if you have little kids.

Easy. Read instructions first, check your pack contains everything it should, lay it out in order of assembly and away you go. We'll that's what my DH says anyway

Well Ikea furniture is designed to be put together yourself at home. The idea of asking if you need professional help with is fairly hilarious. Especially for a chest of drawers 😂

You don't need anyone to help fix them to the wall either really. You just need a drill, a couple of screws and some rawl plugs. The Malm range (as most others) come with the wall fixings in the box. Just position the drawers where you want them, mark the wall through the fixings with a pencil, drill a hole (mind keep the drill nice and straight), real plug in (bop it in with a hammer if needed), and then screw the fixing/drawers straight in.

Also, keeping heavier items in the bottom drawers doesn't really stop the tipping issue. An open, heavy drawer, even at the bottom, can flip the whole thing. A design flaw yes but lovely furniture nonetheless.

I’ve built many-a-Malm in my time, and I am notoriously lazy, cack handed and un-physically-practical.

My advice is:

The drawers are interminable...just when you think you’ve almost done (because the shell is made) you’ve got to build 4+ bloody drawers). If you’ve got space do the drawers first.

Speaking of drawers double check the sides, the runners need to be facing out and the right way around. Sounds obvious (did I mention I was un-physically-practical?).

Always nail/pin the backboard on the back of the shell, even if it sounds like a waste of time. Otherwise your shell won’t be stable. This is loud, make sure you don’t do it at a time that will annoy your neighbours.

If you’ve got small kids, use the wall attachy things. There was the case where a kid was crushed by some Malm drawers a few years ago.

Either way, it really is quite easy, even I can do it, and I can hardly tie shoe laces.

The malm drawers have been recalled in the US due to safety issues. At least three toddlers have been crushed to death.
Even if you don't have your own dc curious visitors might wander in the room.

thanks again all - yes heard about the draw accidents - will certainly attach to the wall.

Any chest of drawer (or at least quite a few) won't support a toddler pulling open all drawers in order to get "stairs" to climb to the top. I actually recall doing this myself on kitchen drawers in the kitchen when I was around three or four years old as my mum had tried to stow away some goodies out of my reach, but even at such a young age one is quite able to solve certain problems in order to get to the candy bars.

Personally I find building flatboacks dead simple and Ikea is the simplest of all of them. Any large furniture should be fixed to the wall, especially drawers or shelves that could be climbed.

I recently built some tall bookcases for my adult DDs room and fixed them to the wall!