Price range for retail seems to be $100-250 for IKEA stuff that will fall apart in 3 years, or $1,000+ for something better. Is there nothing in between? Would prefer to buy new with risk of bed bugs or other contaminants but open to other options if I’m missing something.
I’ve got plenty of flat pack furniture and never had to use wood glue.
If you buy quality flat pack you will get well designed and engineered furniture. The bad reputation comes from cheap tat, often mass produced in China.
Wood glue negates one of the big benefits of flat pack - to take the furniture apart and move it at any point in the future.
I’ve also come across shoddily built flat pack furniture when I was renting when younger and I always found the same problem - a failure to tighten screws. Wobbly bits of furniture became functional afterwards.
I remember my mum built a flat pack computer table when I was a kid and it wobbled all over. She lamented how poor flat pack furniture was. I got fed up of the wobble when I was a teenager and had a look - every single screw was not tightened. It took 10mins to sort and the thing never wobbled again.
I’ve fixed wobbly desks, wardrobes, shelving units - all with just a screwdriver.
Number one tip for flat pack furniture: tighten the screws. And number 2, get an electric screwdriver.
Dud, I’ll figure out how to move it intact. The most i’m doing is tightening the cam locks.