IKEA With Ease

IKEA has a bad reputation.
This is very unfortunate because it has done nothing wrong. It promotes itself as nothing more than it is: a store that sells assembly-required furniture for a fraction of the cost.
While IKEA is probably not the store for a well established home looking for longevity and quality, it is perfect for a pair of newly independent 20 year-olds needing to fill an apartment with style, much like Roommate and myself.
So off to IKEA we went.

Now, back to the bad reputation, Roommate was very hesitant to get furniture from there. She had heard that the quality was poor, the selection was limited and that it took hours, if not days, to put together the most basic of pieces. I was on a mission to prove her wrong.
We searched high and low (which, if you've ever been to an IKEA, you know I mean literally) until we finally settled on a dresser and nightstand for her bedroom, in the beautiful black-brown color. While Roommate was very pleased with the style and the price (a grand total of $250 for both) she was still hesitant about the whole assembly-required part. I promised her that I'd walk her through it and she ended up building them all by her herself.

These are my hints. :)
(In case you can't tell, I like to number things.)

1. Be honest with yourself about your handyman abilities.
While I have yet to encounter an IKEA piece that requires more than screwdrivers and hammers, you do need to know the difference between a flat head and a Phillips screwdriver. A drill is certainly nice to have on hand, but only if you're skilled. This is not a time to learn.

2. Learn the IKEA language.

All IKEA furniture pieces come with an instruction booklet and instead of words, there are drawings. Lots of drawings. It's very important to make sure you understand exactly what each picture is saying. It sounds like I'm talking to a four-year-old, but it's really frustrating when you get the piece almost entirely built before you realize you put one section in backwards and have to take it all apart again.





3. Recognize the time requirement.
IKEA furniture is assembly-required. Not some assembly-required. Most assembly-required. The time required to build the furniture will vary greatly based on the piece being built, your individual skills, whether you have a drill (I suggest a drill) and if your building-buddy is distracted every five minutes by reality tv. (Mine was.) Building a larger piece doesn't necessarily mean it will take longer. Roommate and I built a dresser and a nightstand. The dresser already had the drawer slides attached, the nightstand did not. Having the slides already attached saved us a good ten minutes.

4. Count everything first.

To your left is a picture of our living room floor covered in furniture parts and hardware. Before starting any project, count all the included parts, not only to make sure there are enough, but to recognize where they're used in the instruction manual and to make sure nothing was dinged or scratched in the packaging. Possibly worse than realizing you'd put a part on backwards would be realizing, once it was completely built, that there was a gash on the top of your beautiful new dresser. Luckily that's never happened to me. Knock on wood ...and fiberboard. :)

5. Be patient and exact.
Patience is a virtue and a good one to have while building furniture. Thanks to pre-cut holes and slots, it's easy to assemble IKEA's furniture, but only if you screw screws in straight and slide slots in perfectly. If they're off by a degree, it won't fit together the way it's supposed. So go slowly and make sure that things are going in squarely. Hurrying won't buy you anything if you have take out the screws because the next piece won't fit squarely.

6. Be proud of what you've accomplished!
Building your own furniture is something to be proud of accomplishing, even if it comes with picture directions. The satisfaction of admiring a piece and knowing that you put it together is a wonderful feeling. Once we finished building the dresser, Roommate stood back and declared, "Look at me, I'm a handyman!"
While I don't suggest she go build a dresser from scratch, she had every right to be proud of building her furniture. Now it not only holds her clothes, but some blood, sweat, and tears as well. (Possibly an exaggeration, but there were certainly more than a few curse words uttered in the process.)





Roommate's beautiful IKEA Hemnes dresser



I hope I've encouraged at least one of you to take a peek at IKEA next time you need a new piece of furniture (or artwork or lighting or bedding.. they have EVERYTHING!)

Until next time...

XOXO-

Not Martha

(Roommate and I might have had a Gossip Girl marathon today...)