Flat-Pack Furniture

Student work: Disney Rococo Furniture

What is flat pack furniture? Flat-pack furniture is a form of furniture that requires customer assembly. The separate components are packed for sale in cartons which also contain assembly instructions and sometimes hardware. In most cases, the furniture is simple to assemble with basic tools, which are also included. There are many advantages to flat-pack furniture from the vendor’s perspective. It is cost effective, easy to transport, easy to store, environmentally friendly, and customizable. It’s popular for great reasons, hence much of the furniture we see today is flat-pack.

Students studied the numerous benefits of flat-pack furniture, including its marketability, sustainable focus, and user-centered (anthropometric) design. Using Adobe Illustrator and a laser cutter, they created tiny scale models of a table set and shelf. Then assembled them, tested their functionality, and took a photograph. We cut the furniture out of 452x304x5mm plywood. I created an illustrator document that size with the male and female pieces as a starting point for each student. It helped to make sure that the holes and connectors fit correctly probably saved us from wasting a ton of wood with trial and error. Students reinforced the joints with glue. I’d like to include fitting it neatly into a box next time I teach it.

At one of our community events, I left unassembled furniture pieces and for children to assemble as a game with these instructions. “Do you like solving puzzles? Assembling a new piece of furniture is a lot like piecing together a puzzle. See if you can assemble some of the mini furniture our year 12 students made looking at the photographs.”