This article was written by EZ Furniture Assembly www.freewebs.com/ezassembly. This is our first posting of hopefully a great many that are interesting, informative, helpful, fascinating, and sometimes funny. My name is Christopher, and I am the owner and founder of EZ Furniture Assembly. Even though I spent over 10 years working in sales/marketing, I have spent my whole life either building, fixing, or tinkering with one project or another. In the last 10 years RTA (Ready To Assemble) furniture has really made its presence known in the U.S., with major retailers like IKEA, West Elm, Crate & Barrel, and many others. It seems like every piece of furniture I, my family, friends, or coworkers purchased required some sort of assembly, and I was the one who always ended up with the screwdriver in hand. And today I am grateful for all those endless hours assembling furniture, blistered fingers, and instruction headaches. Why? Because I have a knowledge that has made my business successful, and only can be attained by exactly what I went through. You could be a rocket scientist and have a truckload of tools, but you're bound to fail at furniture assembly unless you have the most important thing, patience. I'm not talking about the old lady in line who makes it a point to pay the 96 cents in pennies on her bill rather than give another dollar when you're running late for work kind of patience. No way! You need a lot more than that. Think of locking your keys in your car and you use the old coat hanger trick to pull up the lock. You spend 2 hours jigging, tigging, and wigging the hanger on the lock only to have it pop off just as you almost open it up. But finally, as the your hands shake and the sweat drips into your eyes you pop the lock. Great job! But wait, after all this you find out that actually the lock on this side is broken so you will have to go through the whole thing all over again on the other side. Now that's the kind of patience I'm talking about. If you've ever tried to read or understand the paper they call directions you know exactly what I'm talking about. Like after hours of pure hell you finally get that beautiful dresser together only to find out that the front is on the back, and now you have to take it all apart and rebuild it.



Open the boxes and lay everything out on the floor. Sort the screws, fasteners, and other small parts into bowls.

Count the parts to make sure you aren't missing anything.

Take note of any parts that are similar but not identical. Note the patterns of holes in the boards, and determine if certain pieces have differing top and bottom or left and right sides.

Read through the directions once before you start.

Unless the instructions tell you otherwise, don't fully tighten the screws until the end. At the end, go around and tighten up everything. (Remember that IKEA pressboard doesn't take to being over-tightened, though.)

IKEA claims most of their furniture can be put together with nothing more than the included IKEA tool, a small Allen wrench. However, I suggest you have the following tools as well:

An electric screwdriver with an Allen-wrench (hex) bit. Works the same as the IKEA tool, but faster.

A rubber mallet for gently but firmly tapping boards together, or for pounding in the little wooden pegs used to fasten certain items. Even if your aim is off, there is less likelihood you will gouge your board than with a metal hammer.

A medium-sized Phillips screwdriver. The one that comes on many pocketknives will do. Occasionally, IKEA throws in a few Phillips-head screws.

A measuring tape. Make sure your finished item will fit the space you have in mind.

A level. Especially useful if you are hanging shelves on a wall.

A bottle opener. To help celebrate when you finish.

More tips at www.freewebs.com/ezassembly