Everyone knows that putting together flatpack furniture can be aggravating, but assembling the Sturt desk from Officeworks presented me with a challenge I’ve not faced before: a printed guide that wasn’t just filled with poor, tiny, diagrams and incomprehensible product abbreviations, but actually skipped several crucial steps and also put others in an order that would render the desk impossible to complete. (When I posted on Twitter that I was assembling a desk, one friend replied “hope it’s not from IKEA”, but their manuals are in fact models of clarity compared to this one.) I got the job done eventually, and I was happy with the end result, but the experience emphasised the importance of not just sorting through the parts and reading through the instructions, but also thinking about whether they make sense, and modifying or ignoring them if they don’t. Have you faced similar challenges with built-it-yourself furniture? Share (and vent) in the comments.
idodialog
Monday, February 2, 2009 at 3:58 PMIs that a snap of it assembled. Are you sure you did, in fact, get it right? Coz to me there’s something oh so wrong! for starters are you sure it isn’t old stock rescued from the tip marked “1978 no good then, no good now”. And is’nt that fake veneer look meant to be the other way around so you can’t actually SEE it? And are you sure that shelf is meant to be on top – coz isnt it a health hazard for not only collecting all the dust your home has to offer but also all the folders, magazines, nick-nacks DVDs that should actually be in the tip. In that position you will surely experience an unwanted surprise while browsing Lifehacker one night when the narrow shelf dumps all its contents on your head. And didn’t you forget the back board coz I can see your wall ready to get crayoned and markered and highlighted.
(Oh and so far so good with pretty damn good instructions from Ikea – neither of my two orders from Officeworks ever arrived – thank God).
ma
Monday, February 2, 2009 at 9:33 PMa friend of mine said he was thinking about geting a new computer and im sure he might one day need a small desk for the computer or other house hold items. i will recomend this website to him before he makes a purchase, i’m sure the information here will help him with the desk he might eventialy purchase and he can avoid the sticky situation the writer had experienced.
Liatach
Monday, February 2, 2009 at 10:26 PMI will no longer buy flat pack furniture from either bunnings or officeworks. Both companies production standards, instructions and general design principals have proven sorely lacking for me more than once.
IKEA on the other hand, good design, straight forward instructions, i can but heartily recommend every assembly experiance thus far.
Paula
Monday, March 2, 2009 at 11:51 AMI am on my way to return my sturt desk to officeworks. Half the pieces were missing and most of the locking nuts made of some type of plastic smashed when tightened. Terrible quality and difficult instructions. I congratulate you on completing the job Angus but I’m buying a desk for my daughter and this one is likely to fall down on her. I think I will have to spend at least twice as much to get the quality.
Thomas
Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 9:17 PMI bought one of these for my room. Did you notice how they don’t tell you how to use certain important parts of the design, and miss out large chunks altogether? I almost felt like crying when I finally finished.
cc
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 10:20 PMhow do you install the draw runners please help
NK
Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 8:06 PMmate help me put the same desk together
Jeffrey Noll
Monday, March 22, 2010 at 6:52 PMI just purchased this piece of shit and its going back nothing lines up I did follow it step by step.Just Furget it.
Simon
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 3:36 PMAnyone remember the phrase “You get what you pay for”??
And if it is that difficult to put together, get someone to do it for you! I happen to know a bloke…
Megan
Saturday, September 4, 2010 at 8:58 AMHELP! My dad is helping me put this same desk together and we are only up to putting the draw runners on…. we have noooo idea how to do it as the instructions are useless. Is there a website that can help me with better instructions??? This is terrible but a nice looking desk
Mel
Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 7:16 PMTook me all day but I somehow managed to assemble this & it looks good. I also had problems with the drawer runners – the instructions are pretty terrible & don’t tell you exactly where to put screws and joiners. Check out all the pics in the instructions for a certain area (not just the step you’re on) to get an idea of how it’s done. This clip on drawer runners also helped me understand how it should all fit together. http://www.ehow.com/video_4463760_attach-drawer-slides-chest-drawers.html
Good luck!
AJ
Monday, November 14, 2011 at 7:46 PMI’m doing trying to do this right now and seriously am having a mental break down – the instructions are… s**** fill in the blanks. It doesn’t tell you where to put what exactly the C,E,J screw together.. hello? What direction do you put the runners. Ikea instructions are far clear. I am pretty good at putting things together but this one has got me. It’s sitting in pieces on my lounge room floor. I understand you get what you pay for but surely a set of decent instructions can’t be too much to ask!
Sean
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 at 9:38 AMVery poor instructions and I ran out of connectors. It says that connectors must be fixed on to panels A, P, G..and so on but it missed panel AA. When you are fixing one step you need to refer to following steps to figure out how it all unfolds. I fixed the draw runners wrong way around once. After about 8 hours, I managed to fix it but the drawers only go half way. Will have another look at them today.
Amelia
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 8:01 PMWe’re up to the drawer runners. There are holes already there for the screws when you’re at this part. It’s just which way do the runners go? Not as in vertical or horizontal – I’m talking about the wheel with the metal bit on the left/right. Which way for which piece? It’s so hard to explain…
Fonzie
Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 8:43 PMMan talk about frustration I have never been so Grumpy putting something together my whole life..the instructions might as well be written in Japanese as I found myself losing my sanity and my hair ( as much as my already bald head could handle ) trying to put together a desk that looked so bold and upright on display …this should be a breeze I thought boy was I wrong…good luck to all who may put this nightmare desk together…yours sincerely MR GRUMPY. Thanks of course to dumb desk…
CS
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 1:05 AMIt’s funny, because I’ve been putting together a LOT of flat pack furniture lately (new study, my sisters kids, friends etc), and I found the Sturt desk pretty easy to be honest. Yes, the instructions were not a beacon of clarity, but nor were they in a foreign language.
Dunno, maybe it’s just my disgustingly high IQ but I found this one dead easy.