This happened to me yesterday and struck me as possibly one of the most bizzare things that has happened to me in seven years of building furniture in peoples homes.

I arrived to assemble a
Carlene triple mirrored wardrobe in lugano cherry as shown below:-

This is an absolutely beautiful wardrobe and a delight to put together.

Anyhow I arrived at the address, did the usual hello’s and where you want the wardrobe to go. All the general chit chat that accompanies arriving in someone’s home and building rapport. So I was stood in the bedroom and about to start and the customer said to me.

“I was working last night and only got in an hour ago. I am going to sleep while you work.”

Nothing too unusual I thought and then he promptly got into the bed in the same room and fell asleep. Needless to say I was astonished. I simply got on with the job (what else could I do?) and and a couple of hours later woke him up and got paid.

Most people in business are constantly looking at new ways of getting new customers, we all have tried and trusted methods which bring some in, but we always need new business. One approach often touted is that it is easier to get business out of your existing customers than it is to get new ones. Referrals are the main way of doing this, but how hard is it to get genuine referrals? We had a good think about this and have done our best to remove the barriers to getting them.

5,000 Regular Scratch Cards from £419

So what have we done? We’ve been using promotional scratch cards to improve the marketing of our business. We have designed a range with four different prizes or offers. The basic idea is, that we hand them out to customers to pass to their friends and colleagues who might be interested in our services. Each card has a space where we write their reference number so we know who handed out the card. We give our existing customer a 10% fee for introducing a new customer and the new customer has the fun of scratching off the panel to reveal an enticing offer. We use the following four offers:

£150 off a Zencart website

20% off a 6 page website

50% off a Drupal CMS on your website

Free Website Marketing Audit

- see edwin-cooke.co.uk for more details and our other offers

On our website we list all four offers and the option to trade one offer for another. This way it doesn’t matter what the potential client has won, they can choose whichever offer appeals most to them. This is a great way to gain referrals since it’s a win win for everyone involved.

We also use the scratch cards as business cards. Although they cost a bit more than standard business cards, they do not cost much more and they are a much more interesting way to pass on your details and increase business.

Edwin-Cooke Website Offers

If you have got a scratch card please scroll down to find full details of the offers available.

Not got the offer you wanted? – Not to worry, you can swap offers, just so long as you have the scratch card with you when you order, you can choose whichever offer suits you best.

Please note you must state you wish to use a scratch card offer when enquiring about engaging our services.

£150 off a Zencart website

This is a simple discount on the price of a standard Zencart website. As is usual with our payment structure we split the payment into three equal amounts and hence you get 3 x £50 discounts, one for each payment.

20% off a 6 page website

A six page website usually costs £600, but with this discount you can have one for as little as £480.

50% off a Drupal CMS on your website

We normally charge £250 to add Drupal CMS to our websites. With this discount offer we will add this to your website for £125. Please note this offer is only guaranteed for websites we have delivered. Some sites developed by other companies may not be suitable for Drupal.

Free Website Marketing Audit

The free version of the audit is less in depth, but still provides a useful snapshot of where your website is in relation to competitors and what you can do to improve its visibility through a variety of common techniques. This document normally costs £100 to prepare.

The more you prepare the luckier you get.

Our full audit goes into much further detail and covers everything you need to know about marketing your website, from the suitability of a domain, the keywords required to how competitive the market is you wish to operate in. This document can make the difference between setting up a successful website and setting up a website that when you come to market it, you realise if only we had done or considered this! This document normally costs £600 to prepare but with a scratch card referral we will prepare for half price £300.

Harvey’s have announced that they are pulling out of Bedroom furniture to concentrate on lounge and dining furniture. This is a real shame because the sliderobe wardrobes they sold from Rauch were great value for money and provided excellent storage space.

Harvey’s are having a clearance sale and if you are lucky enough to get your hands on one you’ll need to assemble it!

I have written a set of instructions on my Flat Pack Advice website available here

However if you want someone to build it for you, check out my website for further details of a local assembler. Just so you know:

• London: call Brendan Clinton on 07971 949 424
• Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cumbria and West Yorks: Edwin Cooke - 07929 975 809
• North Wales, Chester, Liverpool & The Wirral: Nik Griffiths - 07737 934 639

As the company name suggests most of Pine Solutions furniture is pine. However they supply the firniture in a variety of finishes, including a brilliant glossy white, which is beautiful. This is the Cameo range:-

Cameo three peice bedroom furniture

As with most Pine Solutions furniture the assembly errs towards screws rather than other fittings (such as cam studs and torsion pins) and can take slightly longer than other suppliers to assemble as a result, but the instructions are clear and the product goes together very easily.

The final results of this range are very impressive too. As I say the white finish on the Cameo range of furniture is probably some of the best I have seen.

Very often with white furniture it is not packaged properly, for example unsightly marks appear or the paint isn’t quite dry leaving a rough section where the packaging touched. This is deinfitely not the case with the Cameo range of furniture which from what I have seen so far is excellent!

Chest of 4 plus 2 Drawers from Pine Solutions

Cameo Bedside Table in white

I’ve been rooting through the Internet and noticed that a great many retailers are in the midst of sales and some fantastic bargains can be had.

Furniture123 for example currently offer FREE delivery and also have some end of line items available to clear.

The website has had a big overall since I last viewed it and the product range has expanded, they cover everything from cheap and cheery to some of the more high end items.

I’d draw your attention to the Palermo Bed in Brown which is now on sale at £175.98. A year or two ago beds like this were selling for between £300-£400, so there are some massive savings to be had. This style of bed was the defacto bed that was being installed in city centre apartments up and down the UK for stylish city centre living. I know I built enough!

I thnk this really emphasises the state of the economic climate at the moment and there are some really good bargains out there!

Mind you if the economy is really getting you down, you could do worse than buy yourself a crate of wine from Laithwaites, they have a fabulous Introductory Offer at the moment for only £49.99. I’ve been drinking their wine for about 6-7 years now and honestly think it is the best value for money of al the wine clubs. I’m also a member of Virgin becuase they sell McGuigans Red which is a delight. Not a fancy or expensive wine, and if you find red wine difficult this one is genuinely just like drinking blackcurrent squash!

All prices and details listed in this post were checked on 10th October 2008.

In my last post I said I would add a guide to building a suite of Pax wardrobes with Komplement fittings, to be honest I was surprised that it quickly panned out to eight pages!

I really need to add some photos to bring it to life, but it will take time to collect enough so for the time being here is version one, hopefully someone will find it useful!

Assembling these wardrobes like this isn’t that complex, it is just time consuming and requires a little thought and planning.

Instructions for assembling furniture vary greatly however there are certain products that don’t really go far enough. The initial ones that spring to mind are:

• Rauch Wardrobes (Mainly Sliderobes from Harveys)
• Ikea Building Multiple PAX Wardrobes Together
• Ikea Building Pax Wardrobes Standing Up

Rauch Wardrobes (Mainly Sliderobes from Harveys)

The instructions for building these wardrobes are more of a schematic, i.e. an exploded view of the item, and you have to figure out how to assemble them.

A few weeks ago I was assembling one and took a few photos along the way. I have now written up the guide and it is at the location below on the Flat Pack Advice website:-

Rauch Wardrobes Assembly Guide

The guide is offered free as is, to complement the instructions supplied and to help someone see the stages and emphasise why certain parts are crucial.

Ikea Building Multiple PAX Wardrobes Together

The instructions supplied by Ikea are pictorial so that they do not need translating. This leaves a lot to be desired for some people, but others do not have a problem with it. However, there does not appear to be, to my knowledge any information provided officially by Ikea in terms of how to assemble multiple PAX wardrobes so as to build a range of say 3-4 along one wall. I have put together a guide to give a better idea.

This is pending final review and will be posted on this blog once complete. Why not subscribe the to RSS feed (at the bottom of the page) to be updated when it is available?

Ikea Building Pax & Hoben Wardrobes Standing Up

In some situations you need to build PAX or Hoben wardrobes standing up. This area is frought with distaster whether there are one or two of you. One of the main things to concentrate on is building stability as you go.

In the Hoben range a small square of hard board is provided for this purpose, however the technique I use does not require this and can be done easily on your own without a second pair of hands.

This is pending final review and also the addition of some photos and will be posted on this blog once complete. Why not subscribe the to RSS feed (at the bottom of the page) to be updated when it is available?

I have been assembling flat pack furniture for a living for almost 4 years and have seen almost every product on the high street. I have also worked for many people and heard their good and bad stories about Ikea. In my opinion this is what you get from Ikea:-

GOOD POINTS
- well designed, good quality products at a very good price.

BAD POINTS
- you do all the work involved in the purchase.

If you have never been to Ikea then you need to be warned before you go about the bad point above.

The sales process involves wandering through a pre-defined path so you pass all the stock. More recently they have added customer short cuts to the stores so you don’t have to pass eveything anymore!

As you make your journey you have a small peice of paper and note down the product codes (as you would in Argos) of the items you want (don’t forget the aisle number).

If you are buying a particular set of furniture you can ask an assistant to print the entire list of product codes for that set for you. This is most useful if you have seen what you want in the catalogue and just point at it!

As you near the end you can collect smaller items in your trolley or your fetching nylon shoulder bag, such as crockery, wall art, plants, soft furnishings etc.

The final peice and the one that causes most consternation is collecting the larger items, i.e. funriture (which is really why you came!). It is like a warehouse and you are the picker, with one or more uncontrollable trollies you set about picking your items based on the product codes you have written down. Without the aisle number you are out of luck!

Some items (i.e. Pax Wardrobes ~50Kg) are so heavy you cannot pick them up on your own. As I say you do all the work! When you put them on the trolley align them so that all the bar codes are visible at one end, so the check out assistant can easily scan them and not make you unload the trolley!

You then have a choice, have you arrived in or hired a van? If not go to the delivery desk (after you have bought the goods), and they will advise you how and when they can deliver. This is where the fun really starts, will they deliver when you want? maybe! will they deliver the furniture to the room of choice? maybe! Important if you live in flats or a large house. If the answer is no, then you have to wheel the flipping lot back and get a refund, what a waste of time? So if you are going to use the instore delivery firm, check before you buy, that they will deliver when and where you want otherwise you will waste a lot of time and effort.

Once you have got the furniture home, give yourself plenty of time to assemble it. If you want some help there are plenty of people providing an assembly service online (I do) and you can also find helpful tips here and there (see my profile on here).

Now the final thing that will annoy you is if you have to take stuff back! The whole process takes ages, becuase there is always a queue and the returns desk only ever has one person on it (well as far as Iave seen anyway). I could go on but there is no need.

Here are my tips:

- If you are going to buy furniture plan how you will get it home before you go. Your options include borrowing/hiring a van, hiring a man and van team or using the in store delviery team. Don’t expect people to be available at the drop of a hat either, are you?

- Thoroughly check the exterior of all boxes and packaging, if this is damaged or opened there is a greater chance the contents may be damaged. Let someone else buy it, so you don’t have to queue to exchange it if you need to.
- Do not open any items if you might take them back, Ikea charge a
restocking fee if the packaging is opened.

- Give yourself plenty of time when you go.

- Don’t go on your own.

- Everyone I know raves about the meatballs, I’ve never tied them, but the non-alcoholic Kopperberg cider is lovely!

As I say despite all this, the products are great, well designed and good value for money. So go for it, just plan before you go!

Ikea have recently introduced a range of mattress systems to provide excellent lumber support and a good night’s sleep.

The main difference from an assembly perspective is that the slats that can be purchased for a wide variety of their beds are different to traditional slats.

Traditional Slats are supplied on a roll, where each slat is connected via two strips of fabric, so you can simply roll them onto the bed frame and in less than 60 seconds the bed is complete.

The newer Sultan slats need individual assembly, and contain multiple parts, suffice to say of the two systems available, both take around one to one and a half hours to assemble! This makes a big difference if you are paying a Flatpack Assembler to do it for you!

The slats that fall into this category are:

• Sultan Lillaker
• Sultan Lovene
• Sultan Landon
• Sultan Mane

The following photographs illustrate the additional complexity involved.

1) This is one of the rubber lugs that three of the slats will eventually slide into:

2) This is one of the side peices, the rubber lugs slide into these as shown in the next photo and these are assembled to form the basic frame:

3)

4) Here you can see the slats are slid into the rubber legs and the system starts to build:

5) Of course it isn’t that simple! A fabric ribbon, is also present to keep the slats aligned and this makes putting on each slat quite difficult/fiddly. Although I haven’t shown a photo of it here, some of the slats are doubled up for extra support and this is awkward to say the least to assemble.

6) The final slats all assembled:

Unless you have the patience of a saint and are good with yiour hands you will find this excruciatingly annoying. I know I did the forst time I did one! Further more the more complex systems with bends in them and so forth (such as the Landon and Mane) are even more tricky.

So the delivery truck arrives with all your possessions, and you start directing them to the relevant rooms in your marvelous new home.

When they have gone a few things start to dawn on you, that maybe you hadn’t thought of:

- I need curtains in the bedrooms
- I need to put my clothes and other things away
- I’m tired and hungry!

Yes everything is upside down and you need some order. You can’t even cook, so it is off to the chippy!

You can’t begin to start putting things away until all your furniture is in place and these days this often means assembling flat pack furniture and getting out the screwdriver if you can find it!

Time is the biggest enemy when moving house, and assembling your new furniture takes a lot of time. If you don’t do this sort of thing often it could take you all day to assemble a couple of wardrobes and beds, several days to do more furniture. Very few people have a good idea of how long it takes.

You are also stressed and frustrated so this probably is not a good time to have a hammer and a screwdriver in your hands!

Why not instead, just get some one in?

Pay a flatpack assembler to arrive and assemble all your new flat pack furniture, maybe even the day before your stuff arrives, so you can start putting stuff away immediately after you move in.

Not only will it be done properly and look how it should look, but you will avoid another stressful task!