Hot take: IKEA furniture lasts longer if you ignore the instructions

I visited my buddy's place in Austin last weekend and saw his IKEA desk that's been holding up for 8 years. He told me he skipped half the plastic brackets and used wood glue and extra screws instead. His TV cabinet from 2015 is still solid too, no wobble at all. Meanwhile my own IKEA stuff that I built by the book started sagging after 2 years. Has anyone else ditched the included hardware and gone rogue?

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lilychen3mo ago

Honestly though, I think it depends a lot on what you're building and how much weight it has to hold. I've got a Kallax shelf I put together strictly by the manual and it's been fine for 5 years with no sagging. Meanwhile my buddy tried your friend's trick on a Malm dresser and the drawers got all misaligned after a year because the glue didn't hold the cam locks. Ngl, skipping brackets might work for desks and stuff that don't get moved much, but anything with moving parts usually needs those little plastic pieces to keep everything aligned.

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faithb783mo ago

Oh wow, you might have just changed my mind on this... I used to be one of those "glue is fine, skip the hardware" people, honestly. A few years ago I put together a nightstand with nothing but wood glue and it's still standing, so I thought I was onto something. But hearing about your buddy's Malm dresser makes total sense... drawers get yanked open and slammed shut, that's a lot of stress on cam locks. My nightstand just sits there holding a lamp and some books, not the same at all. Guess I got lucky and never had to learn that lesson the hard way...

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