Thursday 8 September 2011

The Flat-Pack Armoire.


Don't you just detest bloody flat pack furniture. Mind you, these Chinese chappies are very clever when it comes to squeezing as much as possible into cardboard cartons. There it all is, surrounded by bits of polystyrene, hardboard, and a strange fleecy plastic wrapping material. These cartons also contain the now mythical instruction details (above); complete with an estimated time for assembly. Mine said 2 hours; it actually took all day.

Here's the small armoire that I foolishly ordered several months ago through the French catalogue 'La Redoute'. It arrived in two scary cardboard cartons; I could tell at once that it was going to cause trouble.

So, what did we end up with.... An armoire that is much smaller than it's catalogue picture suggested. I'd wanted to buy an antique walnut armoire, but they are SO EXPENSIVE. Anyway, this will do for the moment; it's only to be used for storage, I'll probably replace it later, it can always be used somewhere else.


15 comments:

  1. mmmmmmmmm these are always a worry,although the cabinet looks quite nice you should be able to store quite a bit in it...

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  2. An IKEA flat pack once reduced me to hytseria ...and led to an afternoon alcohol binge that never has been surpassed

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  3. There are some very good websites which highlight the best examples of Chinese instruction manuals.

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  4. I have an intense dislike towards flat pack furniture, so much so that when moving here I designed & built my own kitchen & bathroom furniture.

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  5. It looks nice. Don't the catalogue descriptions include measurements?

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  6. Delores. The selection was made by someone else (ahem), I just sent the order.

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  7. Just the mere mention of Ikea throws me into hysterics. Well done for it only taking a day. Brilliant, and over-educated, eldest daughter and I took two days putting together a simple filing cabinet.
    What I want to know is, when aforementioned object was complete, why did we have a ton of 'bits' left over.
    The filing cabinet is still in use, although doesn't quite roll as advertised....I actually think we put the wheels on backwards.

    These days Cro...I'd rather keep an eye out for an abandoned unit that someone is discarding (on special garbage collection days) and turn my hand to repairing/restoring.

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  8. Jacqueline. That's what I should have done, but no-one here throws stuff out. Everything old is considered 'antique'.

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  9. I like it...and the color is so very French...

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  10. It's nice. But it is a bit clean looking, and I think you probably wanted something with more character. You'll have to scruff it up a bit, or replace it with what you really wanted. Whatever you do, just don't put your chickens in there.

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  11. That looks nice, Cro - flat packs - tell me about it. You'll be glad to hear my kitchen cabinets which were kicking about in flat packs for five years (put together by moi) are still standing as yet.

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  12. I rather like the armoire. I bought a package like that and about fainted when I saw all I had to put together. Mine was a hutch. I thought I would never get that thing together, but I did. And I have it in my kitchen being well used for many years now. Good job getting it done!

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  13. It may not be exactly what you had in mind, but it looks terrific to me. And I don't see any fist holes through the wall, either. Bravo. You followed those miserable instructions without resorting to violence.

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  14. Ah well, it looks well and is worth the effort, but you're right that flat-packs are a curse. Anything that comes out of them is flimsier than one would like.

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