SVALSTA is Swedish for Thank You
Today, I assembled a set of nesting tables from Ikea. I’ve spent weeks of my life assembling Ikea furniture and have been both burnt and delighted. Today, I was surprised.
Putting together the two tables took a total of five minutes. It was 14 hex head screws among seven legs. All of the screws were the same size and the legs managed to balance on their own for the guiding of the screws.
The construction seem solid, with layers of birch glued together. The table seems primed for hacking or modifying but is good as is. It’s definitely better than its LACK counterparts in terms of solid design.
Other Ikea products can be an exercise in futility. Several weeks ago, I assembled an Ikea toy kitchen and three hours and 45 steps later, I had something that was still missing screws and didn’t quite align.
Kudos to Ikea for the Svalsta, however. It’s simplicity and ease of setup should be an example to other products as well to all product designers who have some form of self assembly in their products.
