Furniture assembly and IKEA assembly

What we assemble

• IKEA wardrobes, PAX systems, dressers and bookcases
• Bed frames, bunk beds and cribs
• Desks and office chairs
• Shelving and storage units
• Patio furniture and grills
• Taking furniture apart for a move, and putting it back together after

Safety first on tall pieces

Tall dressers and bookcases should be anchored to the wall, especially in homes with kids. We install the tip-over kit that comes in the box and tell you if your wall needs different hardware.

IKEA furniture assembly

Most of the IKEA furniture assembly we do in Norwalk and the rest of Fairfield County is the same handful of product lines: PAX wardrobes, MALM dressers and beds, KALLAX shelving and HEMNES dressers and bookcases. We have built them enough times to know where the instructions are easy to misread and which cam locks strip if you overtighten them.

A PAX wardrobe frame is tall, heavy and floppy until the back panel and shelves are in. It gets built on its back and then stood up, and standing a 7 foot frame up in a room with an 8 foot ceiling takes two people and some planning so it does not hit the ceiling or rack out of square. Once it is up, it gets anchored to the wall. A loaded PAX can tip forward if a door or drawer is pulled hard, so we do not leave one standing without the wall bracket.

If you are booking an IKEA assembly service for a whole room, send us the item names or the order list. That tells us how long the job runs and whether one person or two should come.

• PAX wardrobes, including doors, hinges, drawers and interior fittings
• MALM dressers, nightstands and bed frames
• KALLAX shelving units, inserts and doors
• HEMNES dressers, bookcases and daybeds
• Other flat-pack brands sold online, built the same careful way

Bed assembly and crib assembly

Bed assembly sounds simple until the slats do not line up or the center support leg is missing a bolt. We build platform beds, storage beds with drawers, bunk beds, loft beds and headboards that bolt to a frame. We check that the bed sits flat, that nothing squeaks when you sit on the edge, and that the side rails are tight.

Cribs get extra attention. We follow the manufacturer instructions exactly, set the mattress height you ask for, and check that every bolt is snug and no hardware is left over. If a crib is missing a part, we tell you instead of improvising one.

Office and desk assembly for home offices

A lot of people in Fairfield County and Westchester now work from home at least part of the week, and the home office is usually a desk, a chair, a file cabinet and a bookcase that all came in boxes. We assemble standing desks, L shaped desks, office chairs, filing cabinets and shelving, and we put them where you want them.

For electric standing desks we attach the motor and control box, run the cables along the frame, and test the desk through its full height range before we leave. For small business offices we can build several workstations in one visit.

Taking furniture apart and rebuilding it during a move

Some furniture will not fit through a doorway or up a stairwell in one piece. Bed frames, large wardrobes, sectional sofas with detachable arms, bunk beds and big desks often need to come apart first. We take them down at the old place, bag and label the hardware for each piece, and rebuild them at the new place.

Flat-pack furniture can usually be taken apart once or twice, but particleboard wears out at the screw holes each time. If a piece looks like it will not survive another rebuild, we tell you before we start so you can decide whether to move it or let us haul it away.

What to have ready for your furniture assembly

A little prep keeps the job short. These are the things that make the biggest difference on the day we come.

• Boxes moved into the room where the furniture will live, so we build it in place
• Boxes left sealed, so parts from different items do not get mixed together
• A clear area of floor about the size of the finished piece
• Your wall type, if you know it: drywall, plaster or brick, for anchoring tall pieces
• Photos of the boxes or the order list when you ask for a quote