Swedish home furnishings juggernaut IKEA have just announced a revolutionary change to one of their most infamous design features.

Words: Erin Stobie
Photography: IKEA

We are, of course, talking about the build-it-yourself furniture kits for which IKEA is best known. However, with one simple new design addition, the frustrating flat-packs look set to become a thing of the past.

IKEA have developed a type of joinery called a wedge dowel. The ingenious system removes the need for any toolbox assembly and is meant to make the putting together of wooden furniture products much easier.

Inspired by both the want to do away with metal fittings and consumer resistance to the often tricky experience of an IKEA assembly; the new joinery fits together like jigsaw pieces. The furniture panels come with pre-drilled holes, into which slot a small, ribbed fitting.

Having first been tested in the ‘STOCKHOLM’ cabinets and the ‘REGISSÖR’ storage series, the wedge dowel joinery is extra sturdy and is designed to withstand being taken apart and reassembled time and time again.

Starting with the ‘LISABO’ wooden table, which hit stores earlier this year, IKEA intends to roll out the wedge dowel joinery system across their entire furniture range.