There's no question that we've all bought IKEA furniture at some point in our lives. You might even have a few pieces in your apartment right now.IKEA furniture is affordable, attractive, and modern, but for the most part not particularly easy to assemble. In fact, you've probably found yourself sending out a number of profane words while doing so, and that doesn't even stem from hitting your finger with a hammer. It's just about the sheer frustration. But not all IKEA pieces are created equal. To figure out what works best for your time (and money), our friends at Household Quotes have put together an incredibly useful interactive tool that helps you find out the easiest and hardest IKEA pieces to assemble. Don't even think about getting into your car to buy furniture from IKEA without using this awesome tool, which will save you a crap ton of anxiety and stress.

Criteria

Household Quotes did some serious research to create these infographics and their interactive tool. They actually went to the IKEA UK website and performed a full scrape of all furniture pieces in January of 2022 and then broke them into categories (living room, bedroom, dining room, etc.).

  • Ratings are based on average customer reviews for those who actually purchased the item.
  • The items were ranked on a scale of 1 to 5 (hard to assemble to easy to assemble) based on ratings; items with higher ratings achieved a higher rank.
  • Tie scores were broken based on the number of total reviews for each product.

 

The Easiest

If you really want the easiest IKEA living room assembly experience ever (and assuming you want just about every piece in your living room to come from IKEA), just take a look at the photo below. Each item in the photo below rates a 5, which means you might actually have a functioning and beautiful living room in less than a day. From the LANDSKRONA sofa to the LACK coffee table to the ARSTID floor lamp, each item ranked the highest in ease of assembly.

The helpful infographic shows which item ranked the easiest to assemble in every furniture category, which should make choosing the pieces you want that much easier.

 

 

 

 

The Hardest to Assemble

If you love a challenge and you have all the time in the world, the items below should get your juices flowing. Every piece in the photo below shows a rating of 4 or lower (the LIXHULT cabinet gets a painful 2.3, the lowest). Every one of these pieces (perhaps with the exception of the SIMRISHAMN floor lamps, which ranked not-so-awful 4) might make you think twice about ever buying from IKEA. You might get so frustrated that you'll just shove everything back in the damned box (which also won't be a cinch) and take it back to get returned.

The infographic shows the most infuriating pieces to assemble, so you'd best avoid them altogether no matter how good you think they might look (you might never see them put together in the flesh unless it's in the IKEA showroom).

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day, whatever you choose, make sure you prepare before diving in. In most cases, getting ready in terms of space, time, tools, and patience is the way to go. Here are some smart tips before you rip open those boxes and assume it's an intuitive project (it is not).

  1. Wear comfortable clothes and work gloves. Wear sturdy shoes and protect your feet in case you drop anything.
  2. Get out some paper cups to hold screws and other small parts so they don't roll away.
  3. Lay out a work area and protect your floor with cardboard or use a work table.
  4. Open up the box carefully and lay out the assembly instructions.
  5. Make sure you have all the required parts before you start assembly.
  6. Watch YouTube videos on assembly so you know what to do and avoid breaking parts.
  7. Don't rush. Allow ample time, about twice what you think.