If you’re like most people, you assemble your own IKEA furniture. It’s not always fun, but it’s a necessary evil when you’re trying to save money on your furniture. Luckily, there are a few tools that can make the process a lot easier. In this article, we’ll take a look at the best tools to assemble furniture from IKEA as well as other manufacturers. Obviously, you can always hire a professional if you don’t want to do it yourself.
Protective Gear
The first thing that probably comes to mind when you think of protective gear is probably something like helmet and safety glasses but what about protecting the furniture and/or the floor that it’s being assembled on?
Moving Blanket
A moving blanket (or any large blanket) is a great place to assemble your furniture while protecting furniture from being scratched by the floor and the floor from being scratched by the furniture. It can also help to move the furniture around once you’ve completed the assembly. Sometimes the dark color of a moving blanket can help to make it easier to see screws or small hardware that you might drop while you are putting everything together.
A moving blanket can be a great way to define your workspace, protect your furniture, and move the furniture into place as soon as you have completed your assembly.
Non-Slip Gloves
Non-slip work gloves are helpful because they grip boxes and pieces of furniture better than bare hands. They also protect your hands from splinters and other minor injuries.
If you’re looking for a simple addition to make your task easier, non-slip gloves are helpful as well as one of the best tools to help you on moving day.
Knee Pads or Kneeling Pad
Kneeling on a hard floor for extended periods of time is not only uncomfortable, but it can cause you to take longer to complete your task. Knee pads are a great way to alleviate the pain of kneeling for an extended period of time and help you complete the task more efficiently. Bonus, you don’t tear up your body and will actually be able to walk when you’re older.
If you don’t like actually wearing knee pads because they tend to slide off and constantly need to be adjusted, using something like a kneeling pad (often used by gardeners) that you just place on the floor in your workspace is a great solution.
Unboxing The Furniture
Opening the furniture box is where your task begins. Whether you realize it or not, this is where you need to start showing care. You’ll want the right tool for the job to make sure that you don’t accidentally slice the furniture as you’re opening it.
Box Opener
If you use a razor knife to open packaging, you run the risk of damaging what’s inside. In order to prevent damaging the furniture, it’s best practice to use something that doesn’t have a metal blade or make contact with what’s inside of the box.
EMT Shears/Scissors
Sometimes a box is bound together by those hard plastic ties and you’re going to need something robust to cut through that. EMT shears are made specifically for cutting through thick objects like clothing. Shears are also useful for cutting things like zip ties and neatly opening hardware packages. I have even used these shears to cut through thick wires that I couldn’t cut with a razor knife.
These shears with the carabiner handle make it easy to clip onto your belt loop or tool bag.
Razor Knife
If you’re absolutely certain that you won’t damage what’s inside the box, a razor knife can be useful for opening packaging. It is also really helpful for breaking down boxes at the end of the task. Depending on how much space you have, you may need to break down boxes as you assemble the furniture. If you have lots of room, you can typically wait until you have completed the task and then break down all of the boxes.
Since a razor knife is so sharp, it’s important to be VERY CAREFUL with them to avoid hurting yourself, others, or damaging the furniture inside of the box.
While I use an older model, this Stanley razor knife has a nice ergonomic grip as well as a place to store some extra blades.
Assembling The Furniture
Once you have prepped your workspace and unboxed everything, it’s time to actually assemble the furniture. This is where you will actually need to use the majority of your tools. All of these tools can be really handy but some are absolutely necessary to complete the task.
Screwdriver
A screwdriver is absolutely one of the best tools to assemble furniture but not all of them are the same. If you are a professional at assembling furniture, you will want to use an array of all of these to get the assemble the furniture as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Cordless Drill/Impact Driver
Some larger furniture assembly tasks will require the use of screwing metal bolts into metal threads like some IKEA beds or maybe even some non-IKEA furniture assembly jobs that require a lot of torque. This is one of the best tools to assemble furniture if you want to complete the task as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Be sure to NOT use an impact driver for any soft materials like fiberboard. This tool is best used for screwing metal screws into metal threads or for screwing/unscrewing heavy lag bolts.
Multiple Sets Of Bits
This can include, Phillips head, flat head, square head, Torx head, hex head, nut drivers, your socket set, and more. To get the most utility out of a set like this, make sure that you get a set that works with your ratcheting screwdriver, electric screwdriver, cordless drill, and impact driver.
If you have a single set of bits that works with all sorts of different applications, you’ll be able to complete more tasks in less time.
Hex Drivers and/or Allen Wrench Set
Allen screws and bolts are common in boxed furniture. Most tasks only require a couple of sizes, but every once in a while you will encounter an assembly task that needs multiple sizes. It’s also really handy to have a complete set of both metric and standard.
Flexible Shaft Extension
A flexible shaft extension is a great way to extend the reach of your screwdriver or impact driver. These extensions are flexible, so they can bend around obstacles, making them ideal for hard-to-reach spots. They also have a hexagonal shaft that fits most impact drivers, so you can use them with the tools you already have.
I can’t count the number of times I have used one of these to access a difficult-to-reach screw or bolt.
Ratchet + Sockets
If you’re planning on doing any heavy-duty furniture assembly or disassembly, like a home gym system or a basketball hoop, then you’re going to need a quality ratchet and socket set. Some jobs require the need to torque things more than what you can do with a drill or impact driver. Depending on the job, you will need metric and standard so having both is a good idea.
Universal Socket
A universal socket is a special type of socket that is designed to fit a variety of different sizes and types of fasteners. This makes it an ideal tool for assembling or disassembling odd pieces of furniture, as you don’t have to worry about having the right size socket for the job. Universal sockets are also useful for unscrewing broken bolt heads because they automatically adjust to whatever you’re screwing/unscrewing. I cannot count the number of times I have used one of these while the client just watched in amazement. If you are a professional tasker, a one-size-fits-all socket is one of the absolute best tools to assemble furniture and so much more. Make sure you have one of these in your tool kit.
Crescent Wrench
Flat-pack furniture often comes with a flat piece of steel that has been shaped into a wrench but they never seem to work very well and they’re pretty hard on your fingers when applying lots of torque. If you want a “one size fits all” wrench that can be used across multiple jobs, a crescent wrench is one of the best tools to assemble furniture and more.
Corner Clamps
Corner clamps are a great tool to have when you need an extra set of hands but you’re the only one on the task. A good set of spring-loaded corner clamps are one of the best tools to assemble furniture when you’re working solo. These usually come in sets of 4 which should be plenty for almost any task.
Black and White Mallet
A black and white mallet is a must-have for assembling furniture because you may need to pound two or more pieces together without damaging the furniture. You also don’t want to smear or smudge any of the furniture. The black side is for assembling darker pieces of furniture and the white side is for lighter pieces.
Don’t smash your hands and knees all up by using your body to tap parts together. Use a mallet to join pieces that need a little extra force.
Hammer
A mallet is for applying force to things that you want to avoid damaging while a hammer is for driving things like finish nails into pieces of furniture with a fiberboard backing. Make sure you have a Hammer that is the right size and weight for the job. You don’t want one that is too heavy and will damage anything.
Staple Gun
If you want to avoid having to use a hammer to attach fiberboard backing, a handheld staple gun can be a lifesaver. If you’re a tasker assembling furniture for someone else, it’s probably a good idea to make sure that the client is ok with you using staples instead of the nails that are included.
Attaching Furniture To The Wall
As any parent knows, keeping small children safe can be a full-time job. One area of concern is furniture that could tip over and fall on them. To help prevent this, it’s a good idea to attach furniture to the wall using wall fasteners. This will help to keep it stable, even if little ones are climbing on it.
These tools make it much easier to attach furniture to the wall.
Wall Fasteners & Anchors
Wall fasteners are essential for assembling IKEA furniture that will be attached to the wall. Without them, your furniture could fall and break. Even worse, it could land on someone and hurt them. IKEA furniture comes with the necessary wall mounts but they are usually pretty cheap. It might be a good idea to bring some higher quality drywall screws just in case.
In order to avoid any warranty issues or the guilt of potentially injuring a client’s child, use a wall fastener to attach the furniture to the wall.
The StudBuddy
If you have to secure some furniture to the wall, you may need to screw into a stud with a wall fastener. Finding studs with a standard electronic stud finder can be pretty hit or miss. In my experience, it’s mostly miss. Luckily, someone told me about the The StudBuddy and I will never go back. It’s a simple tool with strong magnets inside that magnetize to the screws in the drywall. They’re both cheaper and way more effective than electronic stud finders.
If you ever have to find a stud to affix any assembled furniture to the wall, The StudBuddy is king. The Stud Buddy is also one of the best tools for mounting things to the wall or ceiling.
Completing The Task
Once you have completed the task and it’s time to pack things up, these “tools” are helpful to streamline the cleanup process.
Collapsible Trash Can + Bags
As soon as you open the box and need to deal with the trash, it helps to have a collapsible trash can or bin to put all the trash as you unpack the furniture. This is more important if you are dealing with styrofoam because it can become a huge pain to deal with smaller bits of styrofoam that can get all over your workspace and create more work during your cleanup process. This also helps with all of the small plastic bags you may open as you work your way through assembly.
Keeping all of your trash in a single place like a collapsible trash can makes it much easier to deal with when you’re done with assembly. This is also one of the best tools for yard work.
ZipLoc Bags
As soon as you have completed the task, having a Ziploc bag is incredibly handy to keep any extra hardware, the instruction manual, and the (junk) tools that it came with. If you’re a tasker, it can also be a great place to leave a few business cards to promote your tasker profile. When your potential client opens up the bag of parts in the future, maybe they will decide to hire a professional instead of doing it themselves.
Conclusion
With the proper tools, you’ll be able to put together even the most complicated pieces of furniture with ease. Be sure to check out our list of the best tools to assemble furniture next time you’re in the market for some new pieces. You won’t regret it.