There’s something magical about taking a few entirely two-dimensional panels out of a box and a few huffs and puffs, a scream and an air punch later, presenting to yourself a fully functional three-dimensional object. Pure magic.
Flatpack furniture has accrued a reputation associated with poor quality and lack of style over the years. As it grows more ubiquitous, some have suggested that the flatpack phenomenon is in danger of becoming dominated by functionless trends. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The ultimate space-saving, cost-effective and highly customisable furniture form still has a place in our homes. Here are the why’s and how’s.
Granted, this one is subjective. But if you consider carefully the style of most flatpack furniture and pinewood colours that could almost make a large coffee table invisible; it shares some characteristics with its style-cousin, minimalism.
The flatpack phenomena has expanded beyond the Scandi design of Ikea. Find a new generation of creating stylishly chic self-assembly pieces on the market. Hay has been attracting a new wave of style-conscious customers since 2002.
Its aesthetic is rooted in Danish design, with clean lines and organised form. However, they do experiment with new material and technology, all which maintaining a certain level of chic. Their woody column shelving unit screams (quietly) tasteful and practical.
French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec have upped the luxury buy creating a flatpack sofa and an armchair that can be completely constructed by you at home.
Love it or hate it, one thing remains undisputed- flatpack furniture is simply convenient. This is true in two senses, both time and space can be saved when we put our faith in flatpack furniture.
Residents of small apartments with smaller than average doors will probably see the immediate benefits of sliding a bod of components through the door. Those who have less time than they’d like might have to pass up on the extravagant shipment of wardrobes from abroad to be delivered and built by professionals in their home.
Hem has worked to enhance the convenience of self-made furniture by creating a number of ready-to-assemble designs. Their Key Tripod side table is an elegant addition to any room and according to Hem, can be assembled in less than 30 seconds. No tools are needed and the accompanying key locks the fixtures into place.
Larger pieces are also available, like the 2.5m dining table- constructed using the same DIY method.
In many cases, the final product of constructing DIY flatpack furniture is extremely simple, monocoloured and bland. But that’s not a reason to steer away from it. Use this as your canvas and get creative.
Create beautiful bespoke interiors with upholstery, paint and embroidery. There are effectively no limits on what you can do with a simple Ikea bedside table that took you a few minutes to erect.
If you’re having trouble thinking up some funky designs for your interiors, allow Tylko to help. The simple mobile app allows users to both design and visualise furniture u their home, then order it. Design furniture on the app by changing the configuration and shape of products using the apps simple interface. Augmented reality effectively lets users test the product using the phone’s camera.
Once the furniture has been designed, fitted and approved by the customer, Tylko auto-generated a production program for the factory machines. When the product is created, Tylko will also generate a custom assembly manual for the one-off piece of flatpack furniture.
Like all things in life, there’s a broad range of prices you can expect to pay for a flatpack chest of drawers, for example. Use this to your design-advantage by opting for cheaper pieces of furniture when it comes to bedside tables, shelves and chest of drawers.
This should give you a little more spending money for things that you shouldn’t scrimp and save on. Save a few pounds on cheaper items of flatpack furniture so you can spend a little extra on things like sofa’s, artwork and lighting.
Little needs to be said of the value for money in most instances of purchasing flatpack furniture. When you opt for the cheaper version, you’ll often find that quality isn’t necessarily reflective of the price. Rather, you pay less for a relatively solid and functional piece- making it hard to see where you could go wrong when saving money with flatpack.