4 Reasons to Love Flat Pack Furniture
Typically loved or loathed, everybody seems to have a strong opinion about flat pack furniture. But we’re not talking about the bland, flimsy, kit form kind from Sweden here. We’re talking about custom CAD designs, quality materials and smart assembly.
Flat packed furniture (aka ready–to–assemble furniture) comes as individual sections that you put together yourself. Almost anything can come as a flat pack, from cabinets, cupboards, book cases, kennels and shelving, to tables and chairs, benches, desks and even ornaments and decorations.
They are great for both residential and commercial purposes, especially businesses who need pop–up fixtures for their site offices and storage rooms, as they can get pieces personalised with their name or logo and choose from a range of colours and finishes.
Affordable, transportable, eco–friendly and easy to assemble, a flat pack made with a CNC router is carefully considered and custom made to meet the client’s needs and standards – so what’s not to love?
If you’re in need of some custom furniture, read on for our top 4 reasons why flat packs would be right for you…
1. It’s Affordable
Unlike traditional furniture items, flat packed furniture usually has a much cheaper price point.
This difference comes into play because there are fewer labour costs. You don’t need highly qualified carpenters or skilled furniture craftsmen to make the piece from scratch. You just need a detailed digital design, the right CNC router and a good operator to control and oversee the process from start to finish.
Flat pack items can be mass produced or reproduced, depending on the industry you’re in, because of the inexpensive materials used too. Plywood, MDF and Chipboard are popular sources for flat packs, which are generally cheaper than most other types of wood but are just as strong. They’re also great for routing because they’re easy to cut and shape.
2. It’s Easy to Transport
Another advantage of flat pack furniture is how lightweight, compact and convenient it is in terms of packaging and delivery.
Whether it’s picked up where it was produced, as is, or mailed out in the post, flat pack sections come stacked one on top of the other in a box. This means very little bulk or volume, so most pieces can fit inside the average car.
This is an invaluable asset to the likes of a retail store, as they don’t have to pass big packaging and posting costs on to customers. They can also order in, store and sell more flat pack stock without overfilling their warehouses because they hardly take up any room. For individuals as well as businesses, this also makes setting up the furniture, redecorating or transportation (in the case of moving house or changing sites) a much less intensive job too.
3. It’s Environmentally Friendly
Old style flat packs had little to no durability, and were therefore disposable. As Australians strive to move away from a throwaway culture and into one of resourcefulness and sustainability, flat pack furniture is keeping up with this concept too.
A lot of the MDF used in furniture making is recycled from the off–cuts of natural timbers, so waste is reduced, and if it’s made properly and looked after, it can last for up to 10 years. If its use is temporary, however, the disassembled sections can be reused in other flat packs and projects.
Custom designing your own piece and using a CNC router gives you more options than if you were to get an off–the–shelf piece too. You can make deliberate and considerate choices about the materials you want to use (i.e., non–toxic glues and not just the cheaper wood types).
4. It’s Simple to Assemble
And last but not least, the assembling stage. This is something that has been long debated.
Although many people complain that flat pack furniture assembly is difficult, it’s generally pretty straightforward. All pieces come with all the relevant accessories (such as nuts and bolts), the tools you’ll need to construct it (Allen keys) and an instruction manual. No specialist knowledge is needed, just a bit of patience and concentration.
And when you design a piece yourself, you’re not only in charge of how you want the finished product to look – the size, shape and style – but how it’ll come together to look that way. This means working out in advance where all the nail and screw holes and joins will be, from dovetails to tongue and grooves, or even easier, arranging a snap fit assembly.
Here at Branchflowers CNC Routing, our flat pack process is simple. Our client can go to an interior or architectural designer to get the specs and measurements drawn up, or they can do it themselves on programs like Illustrator or Sketchup. They then send them to us and we create the CAD file to be routed on the CNC machine. So, if you’re interested in getting some flat pack furniture custom made, get in touch with us today!
