How to assemble furniture? Types of furniture, necessary materials and tools, step-by-step instructions and expert advice

When purchasing furniture in a store, it is necessary to decide in advance who will assemble it and how. There can be two options - hire a specialist or do it yourself. In both cases, there are advantages and disadvantages. For example, for those who do not have any skills in this area, the process can become painful. Ordering an assembly from a specialist will require additional costs, since it is not included in the price of furniture. To save money, many stop at the first option. As a result, they have a question how to assemble furniture with their own hands. You will find a detailed answer with all the recommendations and nuances in our article.

General recommendations

So, you have decided to assemble the furniture yourself. To make the process easy and give you pleasure, you must follow some rules. In this work, preparation is no less important than the process itself.

1. Prepare all the tools you need. Which of them are specifically required, you will find out below. Upon delivery of the product, you must make sure that there is an instruction in the box. It will greatly facilitate the assembly process of furniture.
2. Perform this work without problems if there are all the details. Therefore, carefully check the equipment. Make sure that there is no damage or marriage anywhere. This should be done in the presence of a delivery service employee.
3. If severe contamination of the package or its damage is detected, a thorough inspection of the elements inside should be carried out.
4. The next important point is the availability of all necessary fasteners and accessories. The fact is that in some cases these details are not included, but must be additionally transferred to you by the delivery service employee. Check this moment.
5. How to assemble furniture, the instructions should be painted, and some even painted. You should plan your next steps in stages. In order not to waste time searching for the necessary element, arrange them all in the order in which the assembly should be performed.

Necessary tools

When telling how to assemble furniture, it is necessary to explain what kind of tools will be required for this. So, you will need the following:

1. Roulette.
2. A screwdriver or an ordinary screwdriver.
3. Hammer.
4. Hex keys.
5. Set of wrenches of different sizes.

These tools will be enough to assemble a simple product. If the design has a more complex system, for example, you need to assemble transformer furniture, then additional elements will be needed. This list includes:

1. Hammer drill.
2. Jigsaw.
3. Device for checking wiring.
4. Building level.
5. Drill with a nozzle for working on glass and ceramics.
6. Furniture stapler.

Mount Selection

In order for the furniture assembled by the owner himself to last a long time, it is necessary to choose the right fittings. They are of the following types: angular, cruciform, end and elements for fixing hanging furniture.

Corner and cross joints are used for the strong association of supporting furniture structures. Rigid fixed, collapsible, as well as visible and hidden elements are distinguished.

Hidden angular and cross-shaped joints provide the furniture with an attractive appearance. For them, as a rule, special holes are prepared in advance. These details can be presented in different forms:

1. Self-tapping screws. Used for quick assembly, most often come with chipboard.
2. Furniture screw M6x60 M6x100 with nut. For a solid connection. The nut is installed in a special hole.
3. Furniture screw M6x60 or M6x100 with a nut installed in the hole. The most durable type of fixation.
4. Eccentric mount. It is used for easy assembly and disassembly of furniture.

Visible Connections

Visible mounts are easier to install and do not require prior preparation. As a mount, you can use metal and plastic corners. Plastic items are cheap, suitable for securing light shelves designed for small loads. To ensure strength, metal parts are used.

Corners made of plastic are fixed at the moment of joining the panels. In the process, it is recommended to use wood screws with a diameter of 4 mm and a building level.

Other varieties

End connections are required for fastening several parts located in one plane. For example, they can be used to make a table.

Mounts for hanging furniture are mainly used in the assembly of kitchens and bathroom furniture. When considering how to assemble kitchen furniture, be sure to take care of the presence of such a connector.

Unpacking and preparing the place

Before starting the assembly process, you need to prepare a place. How to do it?

1. Determine how much space you need. Remove anything that could interfere or be damaged if you accidentally come into contact with bulky furniture parts. When you assemble the furniture-wall, the details of pencil cases, chests of drawers and other things included in the kit must be connected in a lying position.
2. Unpack the furniture. No need to tear the packaging, just gently cut it along the tape. If the product does not correspond to what you ordered or is damaged during transportation, you can issue a refund. When cutting tape with a knife, you should be extremely careful so as not to damage furniture parts.
3. If product items are placed in multiple packages, arrange them separately. This will help to avoid confusion and not waste time.
4. Not sure how to assemble furniture? When unpacking, try to find the assembly instructions first. Do not dispose of the box until the furniture is fully assembled. Find all the elements indicated in the manual, arrange them in the order in which the process should be carried out. Most often, each part has a number or symbol. Put all small parts (accessories, fasteners, screws, etc.) in a separate box so as not to lose or step on them.

Build nuances

So that the process does not turn into chaos, the following should be observed:

1. Thinking about how to assemble furniture? The answer is simple - everything should be done sequentially, as indicated in the manual. This will avoid confusion and errors. Each type of fastening has its own designation and a special hole in the furniture part. The name and purpose of the fasteners should be spelled out in the instructions. It is important not to confuse them with each other. Most often, the assembly process begins with the connection of the side elements with the cover and the lower part of the body.
2. If furniture involves several sets, for example, a kitchen and a living room, then each section should be unpacked and assembled separately. Otherwise, you get a lot of confusion. Professionals recommend first assembling the lower part of the headset and only then moving on to the upper parts.
3. Cover the floor with cloth or cardboard from furniture packaging. This is necessary so as not to damage the flooring and parts of the product.
4. When searching for the answer to the question of how to assemble furniture, it should be borne in mind that this process will take much more time for an inexperienced person than for a professional. Therefore, you should be prepared to spend not only a fair amount of nerves, but also time. It is possible that you will have to swap parts, sequence and correct your own shortcomings several times.
5. Try not to confuse the details. They may look almost the same, but differ in one additional hole or length. When assembling, they will have different mounting locations.
6. A person who wants to assemble furniture himself should be able to distinguish between the front and back sides of the end. In fact, everything is simple here - the edge is always processed on the front, but not on the back. It is also very easy to mix up the bottom of the side elements and the top. In the lower side, holes are usually cut out for attaching the legs or base.
7. On factory furniture, all the holes are made where they should be. Exceptions are in extremely rare cases. If something doesn’t work out for you, then most likely you made the mistake. No need to break fittings and parts in an attempt to insert them where they do not fit. Do not rush to drill new holes that (in your opinion) the manufacturer forgot to make. Read the furniture assembly instructions again. Assemble furniture from the second attempt, perhaps you will succeed without any problems.

Rear wall installation

Before installing the back wall, check the diagonal with a tape measure. This is necessary in order to exclude the possibility of skewing the product. Verification is carried out as follows:

1. Lay the cabinet face down on the floor.
2. Measure the opposite diagonals of the cabinet on the back wall. They should all be of equal length.

Performing these steps ensures evenness of the sides, the angles of which should be 90 degrees.

Back wall fixing

After checking the diagonals, you need to fix the back wall. Most often, it is made of fiberboard material, so fastening can be done in one of three ways:

1. Nails
2. Self-tapping screws and confirmants.
3. Furniture stapler.

If the choice fell on the last option, then staples for the stapler are recommended to take red-hot, not less than 15 mm thick.

Sometimes a groove is provided for the back wall. In this case, there is no need to set the diagonal and mount.

When tightening the screws, try to do this as evenly and tightly as possible. If confirmants are used, then you do not need to press them deeply, otherwise they will not be possible to put on plugs.

When fixing, do not tighten the fasteners too much. Final tightening is best done when the product body is finally assembled. Make sure that no gaps form at the joints.

Installation of additional elements

Fragile parts (glass, mirrors) should be installed at the very last moment. Otherwise, you risk spoiling them. Mounting, adjustment of facades and doors should be carried out only after the product has been installed in a permanent place. In addition, before this you need to set the level. In quality kits, the level is regulated by rotating the adjustable height of the legs. If this is not possible, then you can put homemade or purchased records under the product.

Conclusion

Remember, in this case rush can cost you a lot. You will lose a lot of time fixing errors, and also spend additional money on the purchase of new parts and accessories. Therefore, it is recommended to follow the rules and steps prescribed in the instructions.

However, if in childhood you were fond of the designer, then you will surely succeed!