Ready-to-assemble furniture

Ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture, also known as "knock-down furniture" or "flat pack furniture", is a form of furniture that is purchased in multiple pieces and requires assembly. This form of furniture generally arrives in a box and contains instructions for the buyer to follow in order to assemble it after purchase.

Uses

Ready-to-assemble furniture can be purchased for a number of purposes:

* Living room furniture
* Office furniture
* Bookcases
* Tables
* Beds
* Lounge-ware
* Outdoor furniture
* Swingsets
* Patio sets
* Kitchen cabinets
* CD/DVD storage racks

History

Ready-to-assemble furniture was first invented by Gillis Lundgren, who was a Swedish draughtsperson. Lundgren developed the idea when he needed to fit a table into his car. According to reports, Lundgren broke the legs off his table so he could fit it in the car and then reassembled the table at home. He then discussed the idea with his employers at IKEA and the company later built its entire business around the concept. [cite book | title = A Furniture Dealers Testament | url = | last = Jennings | first = Jason | publisher = Portfolio Books | date = 2002 ] In recent years fully upholstered ready-to-assemble furniture has been developed and manufactured by Home Reserve, LLC.

Ready-to-assemble furniture is popular among consumers that wish to save money on their furniture purchases by assembling the product on their own and no need for delivery cost. In addition to saving the consumer money, flat pack furniture is generally simple to assemble and requires only the use of simple tools.

Merchants benefit from selling ready-to-assemble furniture because furniture that is already assembled tends to be bulky and more expensive to store and to deliver. Since the furniture does not need to be assembled in the factory, ready-to-assemble furniture is also less expensive for the merchant to purchase. Due to these many factors, selling flat pack furniture is a more cost effective method of conducting business.

Ready-to-assemble furniture is typically packaged in a kit form with the pieces packaged in one or multiple boxes. The kit may contain a number of flat parts, fasteners, screws, fixings, and other parts that are needed to assemble the furniture.

Tools

Ready-to-assemble furniture may include basic tools that are necessary for assembly. IKEA, for example, typically includes hex keys in its packaging in order to help the buyer with the assembly process.

Some ready-to-assemble furniture does require the use of additional tools that are not included in the packaging. There are several tools that may be needed to assemble flat pack furniture:

* Drill
* Screwdriver
* Hammer
* Hex key

Criticism

Although ready-to-assemble furniture is less expensive to produce, to sell, and to purchase, some criticize the furniture for being of lower quality. In order to save on cost, flat-pack furniture may be made with particle board that has been laminated with synthetic materials, rather than from solid timber.

References