To Ipswich for an Ikea Adventure

I have said before that most furniture manufacturers use a very similar system these days, with more or less standardised fittings, which makes life easier all round, of course, because the systems they've settled on are simple and reliable.

However, that doesn't mean there's no scope for design, and Ikea like to be innovative as well as efficient in their use of materials.  

This was the chest of drawers our Ipswich customer had waiting for me last week. As you can see, it has a wood frame with panels, rather than using plain sheets of thicker particle board (apart from the top and drawer fronts) like the last few Ikea jobs. I have to say, the frame was a bit of a puzzle and although the diagrammatic instructions were completely accurate they weren't very clear at first glance.

When you're presented with a piece like this you have to take in every clue the illustrations give you, including the number and positions of pre-drilled holes in otherwise identical component parts. Ignore the colours of these parts, because they're not shown in the instructions, but finished serfaces will always show to the front and top rather than the rear or underside.

A few minutes spent working out how things must go will almost always save you time overall - and potential damage, which is obviously not an option when you're providing a professional service! 

In the end, this chest of drawers took about two hours to assemble and the client was very happy with the finished result.