The Broadway 3 Drawer Chest - White Gloss and White797/0504 from Argos and the Trua 5 Drawer Tall Chest - Painted White/Light Lacquered Oak from Oldrids.co.uk are two attractive storage solutions for keeping your bedroom organised. In terms of style, the Broadway 3 Drawer Chest is a more minimalistic, contemporary design, with a sleek white gloss finish and silver handles. The Trua 5 Drawer Tall Chest is a more traditional, country-style design, with its painted white and light lacquered oak finish.

In terms of dimensions, the Broadway 3 Drawer Chest is smaller than the Trua 5 Drawer Tall Chest, with a height of 73.5cm, a width of 81.4cm and a depth of 38.7cm. The Trua 5 Drawer Tall Chest is taller at 123cm, wider at 88.5cm and deeper at 43.9cm, providing much more storage space. It also features five drawers, in comparison to the three drawers of the Broadway chest.

Both chests are made from high quality materials, with the Broadway chest featuring a strong and durable particle board construction with a white gloss finish and the Trua chest featuring a painted white and light lacquered oak finish. The drawers of both chests feature metal runners, allowing them to open and close smoothly, and both chests are also easy to assemble.

The Broadway 3 Drawer Chest - White Gloss and White797/0504 from Argos is much cheaper than the Trua 5 Drawer Tall Chest - Painted White/Light Lacquered Oak from Oldrids.co.uk, making it a more affordable option for those on a budget. It also comes with a one year guarantee, whereas the Trua chest does not.

Overall, both the Broadway 3 Drawer Chest - White Gloss and White797/0504 from Argos and the Trua 5 Drawer Tall Chest - Painted White/Light Lacquered Oak from Oldrids.co.uk are attractive and practical storage solutions for your bedroom. The Broadway chest is more suited to those on a budget and who prefer a modern, minimalistic style, whereas the Trua chest is better suited to those who prefer a traditional, country-style design and have more space in their bedroom.

Expanding pins are becoming more popular because they are easier and quicker to fit, however it is worth noting a few things about expanding pins, because without taking a reasonable amount of care they will not work, and you will damage your furniture to the point you cannot build it.

You will find these on BandQ’s Darwin Range, the Holstead Wardrobe from Argos and most of the Next-to-no-time furniture from Next.

The principle of how they work is quite simple, simply push the pin into the hole (instead of screwing it in), and when the minifix cam is turned, it pulls the pin up a little and the base of the pin expands, tightly gripping the hole.

In order for the expanding pin to function properly, the collar must be flush against the panel into which it is inserted, and the two panels must be pushed firmly together whilst the minifix cam is turned to tighten the joint.

So there are two points of failure, if the pin is not fully inserted, then it will not grip the hole properly, damaging the edge slightly. On re-seating the pin correctly in the hole, it will no longer grip the hole with the same strength as the edge is slightly damaged. The damage can be less than a millimetre, yet it is sufficient to render the joint to fail. Similarly if the panels are not flush with each other before the minifix cam is tightened, it can draw the pin out of the hole, repeating the problem above.

Whilst both of these issues are very easy to avoid, it is worth pointing out, that it can be very difficult on wardrobes due to their weight, and on small items such as nests of tables to avoid.

Personally, I do not think these fittings are fit for purpose at all.

Certainly the ones on the Argos Holstead wardrobe is simply not strong enough, and expect over time a lot of these wardrobes will come apart during use from the constant banging of the sliding doors. When I have been building them, I have reinforced the joints with discrete brackets.

I have lost count of the number of Next wardrobes with the Next to no time fittings which customers have failed to build themselves and have called us in to fix them. Next seem rather disinterested in helping their customers when this happens, often telling the customers it is their own fault.

So if you do come across them, please ensure you:

a) fully insert the pins

b) ensure the two panels are firmly pressed together and there are no gaps before you tighten the minifix cams.

We have recently built the Holsted Sliding Door Wardrobe from Argos (886/8983).

We have built this wardrobe several times before, it is currently reduced from £394.99 to £315.99 on their website.

This is a large wardrobe with plenty of storage space. The high gloss with doors look good finishing off the wardrobe well, although these are made from three panels each and require assembly.

ASSEMBLY TIP: The frame is connected together using the expanding torsion pins. Unlike traditional mini fix (pin and cam) fittings, the pins do not screw in, they simply slot in. When the cam is turned they expand and grip the frame. It is VERY IMPORTANT when building furniture using this type of pin that you ensure each pair of panels being connected using them are pressed firmly and flush against each other before twisting the cam. If you do not, you can damage the edge the pre-drilled hole and weaken the fastening.

Generally, this is a decent spacious wardrobe at a good price.

I wonder if you could please help me. I have been given a set of Argos Canvas furniture. One three shelved wardrobe and one three shelved set of shelves there are no instruction as to how to put it together.

I would be very grateful if you could help in any way at all.

Hi Anne,

Have a look for the item on the Argos website, many of the items have the instructions available for download as a PDF. Failing that find the product number (this is required) off the website or box and phone the Argos helpline and they will be able to send you a copy.

Edwin.

How do you entirely remove/pull out a Homebase drawer after it has been assembled/inserted in the chest?

Hi John,

There are two screws on the inside of each drawer. These need to be unscrewed before you can remove the drawer form the runners. There is another type which has clips underneath but the first suggestion is mostly likely what you have.

Edwin.

My son is in a furnished flat. He has “lost” the back of three wardrobe drawers. This is the type of drawer that you describe elsewhere as: “back and sides come as one piece with each side hinged using the plastic laminate finish.” Do you know if it is possible to buy replacements?  We do not know where the wardrope came from. BTW there is a groove cut into the three sides for the drawer base to slide into.

Hi Paul,
They are from Argos/Homemade (it’s the same company).  Go on the Argos website and find their spares hotline. They should be able to help you.

NB: there will be a cheap chest of drawers they do with the same  drawers in the same size. If Argos can’t help you, buying a new of these might get you the right drawer backs?

Edwin Cooke

Thank you very much for this suggestion. Unfortunately, neither Argos or Homebase wanted to know without the furniture part number. I ended up getting some board cut to size for the drawer end. I could not manage the groove in this but resorted to corner fixings and glue. So far so good.

Thanks again,.

Paul

Hi - can you advise on the best method of removing the back panel from a wardrobe (flat pack from Argos, now assembled) without damaging it so that the wardrobe can be semi-disassembled to move house and then re-assembled?  The wardrobes are pine and the back panels are pinned in place using small nails (that came with the wardrobe).  Thank you.

Hi Neil,

You can do it but it requires a bit of care and patience.

You will need:-

- Largish flat headed screw driver (at least 7-8mm across)
- A pair of bottle nosed pliers

The way I do it is as follows:

- pull the wardrobe away from the wall so you can get access the inside and the back. Remove the doors and any other loose shelves rails, drawers etc. try to leave enough room so you can tilt it forward to lie on its front later (see BOLD type below).
- estimate where the pin/nail is in the back (say measure 20cm from the top on one side, then measure ~18.5cm on the inside to allow for the thickness of the top panel).
- gently (but firmly) push the back panel with your fingers close to where you have measured the pin to be. It will either: not move; shift a little or move freely.
- If it doesn’t move, find and try another one.
- If it comes out freely then great!
- If it moves a little, use your pliers to remove the pin from the back.

- Once you have removed one pin, there should be some give in the panel when you press it from the inside and it should be easier to locate the next pin. This time you can either repeat the above method or slide in the screw driver along the loose groove to the next pin. Once you are as close as you can be, then use the screw driver as a lever to gently loosen the next pin.

This is quite time consuming, some will come out easily others will be difficult but if you take your time you can usually get them out. Even if you only move a pin by 2-3mm, this is usually enough to get your pliers in to finish off the job.

Don’t get carried away once you have removed a couple, thinking this is easy, take your time.

Don’t worry if you damage the back panel a little when doing this as sometimes the pins can pop through the back panel. This is inevitable, but when you come to reassemble, they should be hidden from view, and hammer a new pin in near to the hole.

As I say it takes a bit of time but can be done with most items of furniture.

BE CAREFULL TO ENSURE THE WARDROBE IS PROPERLY SUPPORTED WHEN YOU REMOVE THE LAST FEW PINS ON THE LAST RIGHT ANGLE. If you don’t the wardrobe might collapse under its own weight (flatten like a cardboard box). Get someone else to hold it or lie it on its front. Also note when moving it, without the back on, it can still collapse like a cardboard box if you move it laterally, so get its front onto the floor so you can undo the remaining panels.

I hope this helps,

Edwin Cooke