Tips for Assembling Ikea Akurum Cabinets

Today my husband and I figuratively rolled up our sleeves and got to work assembling some of our Ikea Cabinets.  I have to admit that I was dragging my feet to get started.  I was afraid of messing up the assembly and not having the skill or muscle to do it.  Boy, could that assumption not have been further from the truth!  I'm happy to report that it was actually quite easy, even for a first-timer such as myself.  It even took less time than I anticipated (though you should be careful not to underestimate the time it will take!)

Here are some things I learned along the way that might help you, too,  if you are thinking about building your own Ikea kitchen.

(1) If you're having your kitchen delivered, get help taking inventory.

Our Ikea kitchen cabinets arrive for delivery!

My husband and I are doing a full-gut kitchen renovation, so we had a whole kitchen's worth of material on order. The three gentlemen that delivered our order commented that it was a large delivery even for them.  And they do this for a living!  I had intended to assist my husband with inventorying the delivery, but as luck had it, when the shipment arrived I had to dismiss myself for another obligation.   There were 278 individual items on our 8-page inventory list.  It took the delivery crew an hour to unload the truck, and my poor husband another 4.5 hours to check off all those items!

Poor DH sitting atop a stack of flat-packed boxes while counting out packages of drawer dampers.  

If you have some extra help on deck, consider making a copy of the inventory list for each person.  Have a designated space for the delivery, and divide up the task of marking both the items themselves and their part numbers on the inventory list using highlighters or sharpies.  You may even want to pair people up - one to count items and one to check the list.  This is because everything Ikea makes is modular and can be customized, so everything is packaged separately.  For example, if you ordered one Adel wall cabinet, the cabinet box will be in one package, the door fronts will be in another package, the hinges will be in another package, the door dampers will be in another package, etc.

(2)  Label, label, label

Since you're taking on the work yourself, there's a lot to keep track of.  The more organized you are, the easier it will make it in the long run.  When our shipment came in, we not only checked it against our inventory list, we also numbered the packages with the cabinet numbers.  We ordered 18 cabinets, but because Ikea packages everything separately, the components for a single cabinet might come in 8 separate packages!  Your Ikea inventory will list everything needed for a single cabinet in one section and each cabinet on your layout will be numbered (e.g. "Cabinet 18").  If you take the time to label each package (or at least the flat-packed boxes) for a single cabinet with the same cabinet number, it makes finding materials for the assembly process a lot easier.  It's also a good way to double-check the inventory.  Plus, it's a lot easier to find all the boxes marked "18" in your delivery area, than it is to re-check all of those 9-digit Ikea numbers, especially if you have 278 items to look through!

Label the extra pieces in a separate baggie for easy identification in the future!

Even if you can get everything done in one day (and I'd think twice before you make that assumption), it helps to label things as you go.  Since our only objective today was to assemble the cabinet boxes (i.e. things like doors and dampers will done on a different day), we have some parts left over for each cabinet that we won't use until we go to hang the cabinets.  We put all the extra pieces for a single cabinet into a baggie, then marked the baggie with the cabinet number.  Now, when we proceed on Cabinet 18, for example, we just have to find the baggie marked #18.  We don't have to separate all the pieces and count items again.

Each cabinet gets numbered on the back so in can be easily identified before being hung.

Finally, after each cabinet box was assembled, we numbered the back of the cabinet, so we can be sure in the future that we hang the right cabinet in right place.  The back of the cabinet box isn't going to be seen anyway, so label away!

(3)  Read and re-read the directions.

Of course, "read" is a bit subjective here because Ikea's directions are more like pictograms, but the point I want to convey is this: because the Ikea business model is based on economies of scale, they manufacture a lot of parts that do double duty.

An example of this are the cabinet brackets.  There are four holes in the bracket, but you'll only use two screws to attach that bracket to the panel.  Upper cabinets use the inner set of holes, while base cabinets use the outer holes, and Ikea only has to make one bracket for either.  If you're following the directions very carefully, you'll see this difference.  Particle board does have it's limitations and you don't want to be screwing and unscrewing all the pieces too much.

(4) Give yourself lots of space and time.  

My husband and I pitched a tarp on our back deck, then created  a temporary work table with a couple of saw horses and some plywood.  It was really nice to be able to spread out all the items for a single cabinet on the table.  This also allowed us to work simultaneously on each end of the cabinet, making the assembly process go pretty quickly.

We decided to start with the manageably sized wall cabinets.  Our first wall cabinet took us 30 minutes, but we worked very slowly, checking and double-checking the directions (Remember me freaking out about messing up the assembly process?).  That even includes the time it took my husband to teach me how to use a pneumatic nail gun to attach the back of the cabinet to the sides.  If you are handy, or have experience assembling other Ikea furniture, you probably could assemble your first cabinet in less time than it took us.  Our second cabinet took us about 20 minutes.  And by the time we did our last one for the day, we were down to 15 minutes, tops.  In total, we put together 7 wall cabinet in less than 3 hours.

(5)  Consider adding to or swapping out some of the tools that Ikea recommends for assembly.

DH shows off his latest toy.  The pneumatic nail gun saved us a lot of time (and maybe even frustration).

When my husband realized that each cabinet back would be attached to the box sides with 24 nails, he splurged on a pneumatic nail gun.  Considering the fact that we'll use it for other projects, like crown molding, it was worth the money.  Of course, if you don't want to buy one, you can rent one.  And if you're really lucky, maybe you can even find one to borrow!  Nailing the back can absolutely be done with a hammer, but I know the pneumatic nail gun saved us time and energy.  In addition, it was nice to have a rubber mallet to hammer in the wooden support dowels, or to ensure a tight fit between box sides.  It was also nice to have a drill with a magnetic head to hold onto the stubby short screws.

In addition, I highly recommend reading this blog about assembling Ikea cabinets over at TheKitchn.com.  Reading Faith's thorough comments before starting our own project was immensely helpful!

Now it's time to here from you!  If you've assembled Ikea Akrum Cabinets, do you have some helpful tips to share?