What is flat packed furniture?

Flat packed furniture  (Ready-to-assemble furniture (RTA), knock-down furniture (KD), kit furniture ) is furniture that after purchase is delivered in flat parts and it need to be assembled by the customers. The parts are delivered in cartons and beside them customers receive  assembly instruction and all the nessesary bolts and nuts.

Part list of assembly instructions of flat packed furniture
Example of part list in the assembly instructions

 Many of them also include special nut locking tools. Assembly instructions in most cases includes illustrations and every piece, bolt or nut is numerated. Most of the products are easy to assemble, simply by  using basic tools such a screwdrivers. But also there are products  that has more than 50 parts and their assembly requires help from the professional carpenters or companies.

Information describing the time for assembly tools, needed and people needed, part of assembly instruction of flat packed furniture
Information in the assembly instruction
Assembly instruction of Flat packed furniture
Assembly instruction of Flat packed furniture

History of Flat packed furniture

First peaces  was produced in mid 19th in USA .  But the inventor  is considered to be Gillis Lundgren. He was one of the first employee of the famous  furniture company  IKEA and invented the idea in 1956s. IKEA implemented the idea from its employer and   became the most famous brand for this type of furniture in the world.

Advantages

The main advantage  is  low price. Most of manufacturers was machines for mass production  and they was lower cost for storage and delivery and no cost for assembly ( the part that needs human power the most ). With all of that they can sell it by lower prices and the furniture is more competitive and affordable.

This type of furniture is good choice if you move the house often. You can disassemble the furniture and make easy to transport. But here we must mention that dismantling the product few times can affect the durability.

Disadvantages

But also this type of furniture was disadvantages too. Some times for the bigger and more complicated products the ilustations and the assembly  instructions  not so clear so people have problems to understand and assemble on their own. And if the furniture is not assembled correctly it will fail. But as the popularity  increased,  there are more and more companies and carpenters everywhere that can help you with the assembly. That will be an extra cost but nowadays online we can easily compare prices. We can make calculation and see if the price plus assembly cost is still a good option for us.

Many people think that this furniture has low quality, which is not true. The quality depends from the manufacturer. Some manufacturers are using quality materials some don’t, so like all other products the quality depends from the manufacturer and the brand.

Most of our suppliers are selling flat packed furniture. Our most important supplier that produce quality outdoor furniture from solid wood is  Charles Taylor. They have an option for pre assembled furniture and flat packed furniture.

Here you can see the differences in prices and compare.

CHARLES TAYLOR – Pre assembled furniture

CHARLES TAYLOR – Flat – Packed furniture