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?
I may or may not have started a woodworking hobby out of spite for flatpack furniture. At one time IKEA had some decent things available. The cheap stuff was always crap but if you spent a little more, you’d end up with a pretty solid piece of furniture.
That’s just not the case anymore. The expensive IKEA stuff is quickly approaching the quality of the cheap stuff from 20 years ago.
So far I’ve made a few TV consoles, a closet cabinet, a built in closet system, a desk, and some bedside tables. Oh and vertical pull out cabinets in my shop.
Turns out if you have the space and don’t value your time, sanity, or apply a cost to tools, you can make anything you want! Except for a profit.