3 ms·

I think it may be unfortunate to lump Ikea in with Bauhaus. While I agree with the general sentiment that Ikea tends to be single use, the idea of the flatpack

I think it may be unfortunate to lump Ikea in with Bauhaus. While I agree with the general sentiment that Ikea tends to be single use, the idea of the flatpack was truly revolutionary. Shipping furniture used to be crazy expensive, but the idea of designing a bookcase that could take minimal space to ship and let the customer with no tools other than a screwdriver and a hammer put it together was truly a leap that I’m not sure many at the time were prepared to take.

antiterra 3y ago
> truly a leap that I’m not sure many at the time were prepared to take. I mean, at least one other company took the leap a few years before Ikea did: Sauder.
bombcar 3y ago
And to be fair to IKEA they have a decent amount of higher quality flatpack furniture (as do others in the space) that do survive a move much better than cardboard and particle board pieces do. Those pieces are more expensive, usually.
- fragmede 3y ago
  and their flatpack's just better. I've bought stuff off Wayfair and the like, but Ikea flatpack is better engineered to make the assembly process nicer.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    I have a dresser from Target that came flat packed, and it was as nice as anything from Ikea. Part of it was using "real screws" that screw into wood at places, instead of twist/lock fasteners or whatever those are. Of course, if you also glue it, you get something surprisingly durable.
    - fragmede 3y ago
      to each their own I like those twist lock fasteners
      - bombcar 3y ago
        They work great until a few years later when things start to get loose (at least in my experience, when embedded in particle board).
    - atombender 3y ago
      The technical term for those fasteners is "cam lock fastener". They were invented specifically for flat pack furniture (I believe this 1988 patent [1] is the original), and there's not really any point to use them for anything else, since they're really inferior to most types of joints. [1] https://patents.google.com/patent/US4886326A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US4886326A/en

antiterra 3y ago

> truly a leap that I’m not sure many at the time were prepared to take. I mean, at least one other company took the leap a few years before Ikea did: Sauder.

bombcar 3y ago

And to be fair to IKEA they have a decent amount of higher quality flatpack furniture (as do others in the space) that do survive a move much better than cardboard and particle board pieces do. Those pieces are more expensive, usually.

fragmede 3y ago
and their flatpack's just better. I've bought stuff off Wayfair and the like, but Ikea flatpack is better engineered to make the assembly process nicer.
- bombcar 3y ago
  I have a dresser from Target that came flat packed, and it was as nice as anything from Ikea. Part of it was using "real screws" that screw into wood at places, instead of twist/lock fasteners or whatever those are. Of course, if you also glue it, you get something surprisingly durable.
  - fragmede 3y ago
    to each their own I like those twist lock fasteners
    - bombcar 3y ago
      They work great until a few years later when things start to get loose (at least in my experience, when embedded in particle board).
  - atombender 3y ago
    The technical term for those fasteners is "cam lock fastener". They were invented specifically for flat pack furniture (I believe this 1988 patent [1] is the original), and there's not really any point to use them for anything else, since they're really inferior to most types of joints. [1] https://patents.google.com/patent/US4886326A/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US4886326A/en