The hardest and easiest pieces of IKEA furniture to assemble

In 2013 neighbors of a family in western Sweden called the police after hearing banging and screaming inside a nearby apartment at around 1.00 am

When officers arrived, they found a couple engaging in the most Swedish activities, assembling IKEA furniture. The screaming was coming from an infant child. It’s unknown if the baby was crying at being kept awake or whether it was frustrated by the complexity of IKEA’s assembly instructions.

Either way,  most people have got their own IKEA horror story. Because despite the great prices and stylish design, some of IKEA’s stuff is really hard to build.

So which pieces should you avoid if you don’t want another IKEA nightmare? HouseholdQuotes has the answer. It gave every piece of furniture an ‘Ease of Assembly” rating (1 being difficult, 5 being easy.) Then it created the following interactive tables ranking the hardest and easiest IKEA items to build.

The hardest piece of IKEA furniture to assemble

You might want to avoid IKEA’s SONGESAND bed frame. This deceptively simple-looking frame is IKEA’s hardest piece of furniture to assemble. It scored just 2.1 out of 5 in the ease of assembling rating.

As well as being a real challenge to build, many of the SONGESAND reviews are less than positive. “This bed makes a weird squeaky noise every time I turn over. It’s like trying to fall asleep in a haunted house,” wrote one reviewer.

IKEA has offered a solution. Unfortunately, it involves de-assembling the bed to further tighten the bolts.

The hardest piece of IKEA furniture to assemble by category

IKEA’s iconic POÄNG armchair is as comfy as it looks. Sitting in this chair is pure chill. But building it isn’t. With a lowly 3.8 rating, the POÄNG is the most complicated IKEA chair to assemble.

The DOCKSTA is the hardest IKEA dining table to build. If you do take this on, make sure you really tighten those bolts. Otherwise the table will wobble, and you’ll have to start again.

The BEKANT is the hardest desk to assemble, while new homeowners and tenants looking for a wardrobe will have their hands full with the PAX. IKEA’s PAX wardrobe is big, cumbersome, and intricately held together by dozens of joints and screws. Good luck!

The easiest pieces of IKEA furniture to assemble

The majority of IKEA products are super-simple to put together. It’s one of the main reasons why IKEA became so popular all over the world.

There’s a 5 out of 5 assembly rated item of IKEA furniture in every category except dining chairs. Even then, the highest-rated dining chair (the NISSE) scored an impressive 4.9 out of 5.

IKEA’s easiest pieces of furniture to build includes the BILLY bookcase, the GURSKEN chest of drawers, and the SAGSTUA bed frame.

And even the most DIY adverse homeowners could assemble IKEA’s LAGKAPTEN work desk. This stripped-down desk comprises a worktop and four screw-in legs. You can put it up and start working in less than five minutes.

Check out the full interactive assembly charts from HouseholdQuotes below. You’ll also find two living rooms designed based on the hardest and easiest pieces of IKEA furniture to assemble.