Wednesday, 28 March 2007
Assembling a cabin bed can be a two cups of tea job. Assembling a cabin bed in a box room only just big enough for it to fit in adds a layer of complexity and another cup of tea. But assembling a cabin bed in mirror image to the way it's been designed adds at least three extra cups and a complete packet of Jaffa cakes. This cabin bed has a wardrobe on the right hand end. Flat pack comes with pre-drilled and cut boards. What's on the right is supposed to stay on the right, and what's on the left is meant to stay on the left.
Now that's alright if there's plenty of space - but if the bed is 76" long and the walls are 80" apart, a small problem starts to raise it's ugly head.
How do you get clothes into the wardrobe?
After a bit of "what do we do now" puzzled expressions, and a couple of minutes nose scratching we (I) decided to reverse the layout.
On the left hand side of the room is a window, and by reaching around its possible to use the window opening to put things in and out of the wardrobe. Admittedly it's not a comfortable solution, but when the customer has £259 of paid for chipboard and screws on the floor, a solution has to be found. Blind holes had to be drilled through and through holes had to be stopped. Working from Chinese flat pack plans can be difficult enough but working in mirror image makes it just a tad harder! To be fair the plans were very clear by chinese standards, and so, after a couple of hours more than planned for, the cabin bed was ready for use. As long as the child doesn't put on weight he will be able to use the wardrobe for quite a few years to come.
By comparison the two large MFI wardrobes that needed to be put together, went up in a quarter of the time the cabin bed had taken. But I've always found MFI stuff is