Flat pack furniture, whether you love it or hate it, is not going away anytime soon. Variously known as flat pack, self assembly, RTA (ready-to-assemble) or KD (knock down) furniture, there’s just too many advantages, and too few disadvantages, for it to fall out of fashion, well, at least until someone invents the Next Big Thing in furniture.
The story, oft repeated, of how it all started goes that an IKEA employee, bringing home a table in the 1950s, realised that if he took the legs off, he could fit the table (and unattached legs) in his car and thus save the extra cost and hassle of using a van or trailer. So he did, and reattached the legs at home. Thus began our voracious appetite for all things self-assembly.
Now, we buy so much of it, tens of billions of pounds worth in the UK every year, that it seems there’s no way back, because, aside from high end craftsman made pieces, ready-assembled furniture finds it very hard to compete in so many areas, a few of which I’ll touch on below.
Manufacture
Strictly machine made, flat pack furniture benefits from everything that mass production can offer us. Vast machines spit out piece after piece 24 hours a day, with every single one being a perfect representation of the one the designer intended. The machines even take account of wear and tear on the cutters so there’s no chance of getting a “Friday” one.
They’re not just “flat” flat packs anymore either, the designs keep getting bolder and more desirable each year.
Transport
A biggie this one. With so much of what we use coming halfway across the world, volume and weight savings translate directly into less money wasted on transport costs. There’s no saving on the weight, flat pack is obviously just as heavy as assembled, but the shipping volume is drastically reduced, simply by removing the air. As an example, a normal-sized wardrobe occupies 1.3 cubic metres when assembled, but in its flat pack form, it is only 0.15 cubic metres, over 8 times less!
Of course this translates into lower storage costs too, at both ends of the transport chain, not to mention the fact that now it will fit in the back of your car too.
Actually getting it to/into the room
For some of our customers, this is the one and only reason for buying flat pack. An often overlooked benefit is the simple act of actually being able to get the furniture into rooms or areas that have restricted access. Whether it be a tight corner, a badly designed flight of stairs or a tiny lift to your flat, being able to move it in pieces once you get it home can be the difference between living out of cardboard boxes and having the decor of your dreams.
The same applies when moving out or moving on, what goes up, must come down, so keep those instructions taped to the back, think Die Hard but for furniture.
Choice
As a consequence of the space saving quality of flat pack, don’t forget that now us retailers can hold more stock than ever before, in a greater variety of styles, than if it was traditional furniture.
Cost
And now we get to the real reason flat pack has become all-conquering, it’s cheaper. Maybe we were just kidding ourselves above, because when push comes to shove, people vote with their money, and flat pack is, like-for-like, cheaper than a similar ready made item.
Sure, some people pay over the odds to have it collected and assembled for them, but for most of us, we do it ourselves or get a friend to help, thus getting the very best value of all.
Flat pack, if you haven’t tied it yet, you’re missing out on one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century, seriously.
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