Assembling Flat-Pack Furniture - 5 essential tips

I'll bet there's at least one piece of flat-pack furniture in your home. Perhaps a bookcase or the TV stand? What about wardrobes or drawers or even your kitchen table?

Flat-Pack furniture is so called because it comes with all the various pieces packed flat for you to assemble yourself at home. This saves on production costs (where the company would have to build the furniture themselves) and transportation costs from the factory to the shop.

The flat-pack 'experience' can also mean a few hours of cursing and hunting for elusive tools before finally presenting a piece of furniture that looks like it was caught in a hurricane. Should it really lean to one side like that?

No fear - help is at hand with our 5 essential tips to putting together your flat-pack furniture purchase.

As an aside, I think a lot of the shops that sell flat-pack don't so themselves or the product justice. On many occasions when I've looked, it's obvious that the display unit has been poorly put together. The whole unit very often 'rocks' or has movement in the joints - no glue used! And the hinges etc are often not adjusted for that perfect lining up. Don't be put off though. A little care using our tips below could probably get you a job on the spot. Anyway - on with the tips!

1) Choose a large flat area for the construction - with enough room to move around all sides of the finished piece. If it's large, making it in the room or at least on the floor of your house it's intended for will save a lot of heavy lifting. Please check it will fit through the doorway.

2) Unpack carefully and check you've got all the bits before you start - easily done when you're keen but a few minutes unpacking and checking you've got all the bits and they're in good condition will save hours if the worst happens. Getting to the final piece to discover it's missing or badly scratched - I've got the badge to prove I was there! It's worth mentioning that you should also identify the correct screws and fixings with the instructions. There's nothing worse than using the wrong screw for half the construction until you run out or finding out the screw you thought was J was actually K and has gone right through and out the other side of your piece of furniture.

Try counting the fittings and screws out as there is very often different amounts of two similar fittings so you'll have help in identifying the right one.

3) Familiarise yourself with the instructions - It's all very well going Gung-Ho and starting where you think best. It's only later when you discover a vital screw hole is covered by another piece you fitted out of order earlier (got the badge for that one too!). The manufacturer knows there's a certain order to completing the furniture - that's why you get instructions in the first place.

4) Make all joints tight - sounds silly but you'd be amazed how easy it is to forget to tighten one joint or another. Use the special fitting supplied - most work on a screw in spindle with a 'cam' lock on the other end you twist to tighten. Very easy. Top Tip - if the construction uses wooden dowels, use a dab of wood glue in each hole (sometimes it's supplied) for really solid joints. Be careful if you think you might need to dismantle the furniture in the future though and wipe any excess away with a damp cloth immediately (or see glue's instructions).

5) Check for squareness of corners - with bookcases, it's usually the back board, fixed using panel pins, that determines the final shape so be careful and work methodically - corner to corner, half way to half way etc.

Finally, keep any special tools that came with your furniture - you may need them to periodically re-tighten joints.

And a word on safety - if it's a tall item, many manufacturers will include a strap or bracket to fix your new furniture to the wall so it can't topple over. It's very important that you use these straps and fixings to secure such items so that they don't topple over and fall on someone or something.

Once when moving house, I'd left a perfectly stable bookcase standing against a wall (temporarily of course). There was a loud crash and we discovered one of the cats had tried to climb up the bookcase causing it to topple…. through a window so yes, (sigh) I have that badge too.

If you're thinking of a flat-pack kitchen, then think very carefully indeed. Putting the cupboard carcasses together may be easy enough - it's only when it comes to getting the doors to all line up, including the appliances and of course, working around uneven walls, floors and those ever-present bits of beam or wall that would challenge even NASA boffins, that you begin to realise it would have been easier and cheaper to get a professional kitchen fitting company in the first place.

The best place to start is by getting a quote, which you can do online without any salesman ever calling, by using KitchenQuoter.

Flat Pack Kitchens - It's OK to call in the professionals

It's OK to call in the professionals.

We’ve written before about how easy it is to get the kitchen of your dreams, what to look for when choosing a kitchen company and how to take advantage of computer-based planning to get a good idea of what you’re new kitchen could look like.

We’ve covered topics like ensuring any plumbing work is carried out by a Corgi registered engineer if any gas appliances need re-plumbing or gas pipes need moving.

We’ve shown you some pretty pictures of kitchens to die for – the latest trends in colours and designs as well as kitchen designs for disabled and wheelchair users.

We’ve proved that it doesn’t have to cost the earth to get a new kitchens, planned and installed by professional kitchen companies and our online kitchen quoting website is always busy helping homeowners get an instant online price for their ideal fitted kitchen.

And yet, we still receive calls from homeowners who have a room full of half completed kitchen unit carcasses, unable to complete the job for a variety of reasons – ill health, not having the right tools, unable to get that finished look due to uneven walls and floors, or suffering horrendous home-plumbing nightmares. Yes, unfortunately for those homeowners, we’ve heard them all.

And it’s nobody’s fault. A fit your own flat-pack kitchen, on the face of it, sounds like good value. It’s only when you start totting up the extras – taps and tiles, handles and granite worktops that the costs start rising – not to mention the large quantity of your valuable time to that the time factor and how doing it yourself could mean being without a kitchen for a few weeks, that it doesn’t sound so attractive anymore.

Getting a professional company round is so relaxing compared to DIY. You go online, type in your measurements, select your style and get a rough expectation of cost there and then – job done!

We’ll call you back from our own offices in Derby, discuss your choices and find out a bit more about what’s involved (perhaps you were thinking of an extension to put the new kitchen into? Or there’s a wall you want knocking down?) and then offer to get three local companies to call round, cost up the job, discuss your design requests etc and leave you with a written quote.

They’ll have the right tools for the job, the experience to cope with the most uneven of walls and floors or removing walls as part of the planned refurbishment and qualified plumbers as part of the team. They’ll also be remarkably quick compared to doing it yourself too.

Their cupboard carcasses are usually factory made, solid units so they’ll last longer and take more punishment than flatpack. Finally, they’ll have specialist tools and tricks to tend to those all important finishing touches.

Visit KitchenQuoter today and get your instant online quote for your dream fitted kitchen.

photo credit: hannahandsimon

Forget Flat-Pack Kitchens - Go Fitted

Forget flat-packed kitchens if you want something a little more unique and perfectly suited to your needs.

A fitted kitchen design will not only give you the perfect kitchen, it will also add value to your property and overcome those hidden jobs like plumbing, gas and electrics which can turn a flat-pack into a nightmare.

We've highlighted some of the more popular design choices below but it's your kitchen so don't be afraid to give your input when the designer calls.

For an instant online fitted kitchen quote, visit: kitchenquoter.co.uk.

Bursts of colour add a bold, contemporary statement without being overpowering or garish. Try bright splashbacks or work surface alongside neutral cupboards and flooring, to add a splash of your own personality.

Modern kitchens now focus on comfort and lifestyle as well as good old fashioned cooking. Using an island as a seating area means you won’t miss out on any of the conversation while you’re preparing dinner for family or friends and parents can also use it to spend more time with their children over breakfast or homework.

Not everything about a chic kitchen has to be black, white, silver and shiny! Don’t be afraid to incorporate a modern kitchen into your style of home – they can be perfectly mixed with natural wood floors and wicker furniture.

Bespoke kitchens not only make use of every little nook-and-cranny, but also keep the overall design as sleek as possible. Walls and ceilings flow into one another when kept the same colour and appliances, such as microwaves, add to the smooth finish if integrated into cupboard space.

Supply only kitchens - are they real value for money?

Is that 'supply only' kitchen the value for money you think it is?

A price tag of £1000 or £1500 for a brand new kitchen sounds tempting doesn't it? For the sake of a few hours with a screwdriver and a drill surely that's a worthwhile saving over the price of a full installation?

Not always. Even taking advantage of many suppliers' planning and advice services may not provide the results you're looking for, and don't forget that the showroom that shows off supply-only kitchen units has been designed around the units – not the other way around.

At the KitchenQuoter.co.uk desk we receive calls every day from people who have got as far as half way through the installation of their flat-packs and then end up calling us to see if we can recommend a local tradesman.

Kitchen Quoter's Vernon Baptiste explains: “There's a lot more that goes into the design, planning and construction of a kitchen than people often think. Unless you happen to live in a brand new house, the chances are the kitchen will be far from square for a start, so off-the-shelf units will only fit to a point. After that you either put up with gaps and unused spaces or you have to embark on some pretty fancy carpentry.”

“The other difficult parts come along when you need to plumb in appliances. Modern integrated appliances will often need some degree of coordination with the cabinet design or require the manufacture of doors or panels to blend in with the rest of the kitchen. It's these touches that add those extra thousands of pounds of value to your house and that extra quality of life.”

“There are also lots of specialist and unusual products available that our network of installers can suggest and source for you. Taking a flat-pack design off the shelf probably means you're going to be limited severely by the range of the catalogue you're choosing from.”

By law you will also require competent certified tradesmen to make plumbing or routing changes to gas or electric supplies, and these are all costs that need to be factored into any price comparison. By the time these are added in and you've done with the hammer, chisel and plane yourself then there's always much less of a difference than you think.

If you're thinking about a new kitchen, make sure you get independent quotes from registered and approved local companies to you by using KitchenQuoter for an instant online quote. Click here to get your online quote now.