Ikea is known for its affordable, ready-to-assemble furniture. But the actual assembly is also known to often take a fair amount of time.
The Swedish corporation says its Lisabo collection of ash veneer tables cuts down on assembly time for its furniture by 80 percent. So Consumer Reports bought the Lisabo table and two of Ikea's older designs to compare assembly time in an informal evaluation.
We purchased two units each of three Ikea coffee tables—the Lisabo, $129, Stockholm, $89, and Hemnes, $119. We'll acknowledge up front that it wasn't a fair fight because the Lisabo and Stockholm tables have very few parts (nine and five, respectively) and the Hemnes has many—a total of 100, including all the hardware, plus trim and a shelf.
So let's start with the Lisabo and the Stockholm, which are more closely comparable.
Some of the the staffers who work in the labs at Consumer Reports are pros at putting things together and hooking up all manner of appliances and the other gear and gadgets we test. Others, not so much. So in order to not have an unfair advantage over the typical consumer, we asked two staffers to assemble the tables and timed them both. One was more experienced at putting complicated items together than the other.
Our designated skilled assembler was Richard Handel, a test project leader who has put together hundreds of gas grills and treadmills in his tenure at CR. The less experienced assembler, Lisa Ruiz, comes from our team of test technicians and usually spends her time testing foods and strollers.
The top of the legs on the Lisabo table are V-shaped and grooved, machined to slide into mating cutouts at each corner of the table—a design Ikea calls wedge dowel. Once the legs are snugged into the table, a small piece of plastic hardware is popped into the remaining gap and secured to keep the legs in place.
"Unlike other ready-to-assemble furniture, the design allows you to take it apart without weakening the structure," says Handel, who also oversaw the project. That means the legs are less likely to get wobbly if you need to disassemble the table and reassemble, as you might during a move.
The Stockholm has wooden legs with threaded ends that screw right into the tabletop, so it requires no hardware. (Picture screwing a broomstick into the head of a broom.)
The Lisabo vs. the Stockholm
The Lisabo. Following the illustrated instructions—there is no text, in keeping with Ikea's practice—the assemblers got off to a fast start. Handel was able to build the Lisabo table in less than 5 minutes, 2 minutes faster than Ruiz. You need the included Allen wrench to tighten the hardware that keeps the wedge-dowel legs in place.
The Stockholm. It took Handel one and a half minutes to produce a finished table, and Ruiz needed just 30 seconds longer. No tools were necessary.
(Note: The rectangular Stockholm table we purchased has been discontinued, but an oval coffee table from the Stockholm line can be assembled in the same way.)
So assembling the wedge-dowel Lisabo table is quick but not the quickest. And in case you're wondering, they were both judged to be sturdy, according to an informal check. (We determined how sturdy they are to sit on even though they aren't designed for that purpose.)
The Hemnes Is a Longer Story
To assemble the Hemnes table (in black above) you need a slew of hardware (84 pieces), a flathead screwdriver, a Phillips screwdriver, the included wrench—and probably a tall, cold beverage because it's gonna take a while.
Be smart and empty all the hardware onto a flat surface (like in Ikea's illustration). It's helpful to separate all the hardware by type and check that you have everything before you start putting the table together, Handel says.
Once we started the clock, it took Handel 42 minutes to put the Hemnes together. Ruiz required a bit more than a full hour—62 minutes total.
One time waster was trying to navigate the instructions, which both assemblers found to be unclear at best, especially because the steps weren't spelled out in writing. "The lack of clarity made it difficult to determine the correct orientation to assemble the parts," Handel says. Once it was put together, the Hemnes was judged to be just as sturdy as the other two tables.
Ikea doesn't provide assembly-time estimates with its furniture, says spokeswoman Christine Soner. "Every piece varies according to how many pieces there are to assemble," she says. "Plus, no two people ‘read' the directions the same or build at the same rate of speed."
To get an idea how difficult it may be to put together a piece of Ikea furniture that you're considering, take a look at the user reviews on the model page. Ikea's customers give the Hemnes, for instance, a 4.5 out of 5 points for ease of assembly.
The Bottom Line
Soner says that the Lisabo is one of Ikea's best-selling coffee tables. So did it meet its assembly time claim? When compared with the Hemnes, it wasn't even close. The Lisabo easily outdid its claim that it takes 80 percent less time to assemble. But putting the Stockholm together was a bit faster, so we have to call that one a draw.
