It only takes a minute to DIY...
Or SEVEN as we try IKEA’s new easy-assemble range
MUCH like the Romans, it turns out the Swedes have done quite a lot for us.
Whether it’s ABBA’s glittering pop music, Henrik Larsson’s sublime goals or the blonde bombshell looks of Rod Stewart’s ex Britt Ekland, our Scandinavian neighbours have generously shared their talents with us all.
And now they’re making DIY a three-minute job.
Giant Nordic retailer IKEA have taken a break from selling comically unpronounceable kitchen cabinets names and suspiciously cheap hot dogs to invent a quicker way to build flat-pack furniture.
A new range of tables uses a system which, IKEA says, doesn’t require screws, bolts, or screwdrivers.
Instead, joints slot together in moments “like a jigsaw puzzle”, apparently.
It’s due to a nifty invention called the wedge dowel, a ridged fitting that can slot into openings and be secured in seconds.
Unlike tables bolted together using fiddly old screws, the new LISABO range can be assembled in fewer than three minutes, according to IKEA’s range and supply manager Jesper Brodin.
“IKEA furniture typically contains quite a lot of fittings,” he said. “We see some challenges in the time and interest in doing that.”
“So we thought, what happens if we try to take them out totally?
“I actually put together a table which used to take me 24 minutes to assemble but took me three minutes to click together,” said Brodin. Three minutes to build a table? I wasn’t convinced. I’ve recently become a dab-hand at building flat pack furniture.
In fact it’s led to my other half nicknaming me Odd Job – which I’m fairly sure is down to how quickly I can hang a mirror rather than me beginning to look like the henchman from Goldfinger. I’ve wrestled with more tables and chairs than the roster of WWE and know that even the easiest IKEA cabinet takes at least halfan-hour to throw together. I decided to try building the £120 LISABO kitchen table to see if it really does take less time to construct than it does to boil the kettle.