My son is my number one helper when it comes to assembling furniture…especially Ikea furniture…he is an expert at reading those picture instructions. Assembling furniture with my son’s help used to seem more of a chore than a joy, but with the simple tips I have to share today we turned that around. Now, I wouldn’t dream of putting something together without my little right hand man.
In this 5th post in the Decorating With Kids series, I want to talk about how to assemble furniture with your kids help. I know putting together ready-to-assemble furniture is mildly stressful to begin with, and you might imagine adding kids into the mix will make it worse. However, with the right approach, I think kids can be a huge help.
Again, the theme of these Decorating With Kids posts is about getting your kids involved. It is the number one thing you can do to create a kid-inclusive home you will all enjoy. Some of the bloggers and mothers I admire most make including their kids a top priority.
Melissa, from I Still Love You, says, “We have a pretty large starter home, so Penelope and Felix get to rule the roost downstairs. I include Penelope’s art on our walls, not just in her room. Including toys in the more “grown-up” parts of our home is important. More than decor and toys though, it’s important to make my kids feel like they can be kids in our home. Choosing furniture that is a) inexpensive or b) easy to clean is important. I’m not raising my kids in a mausoleum. Furniture is replaceable, kids are not.”
Jenna, from SAS Interiors, says, “Anything and everything I work on somehow ends up involving my kids. From assisting me with creating a simple craft to planting a terrarium to posing for photos, we are a DIY family and my kids are involved every step of the way.”
Jen, from I Heart Organizing, says, “I adore my kiddos and I want to have them incorporated in every space, even ones that they don’t personally use all that often {like my studio}. I like to get them involved by either having them create a custom piece of artwork, painting a wall with me {kids seriously LOVE to paint}, working on craft projects with me, etc… I loved art as a kid and I hope that my kids enjoy the creative process as well. Majority of the painting and projects we take on, are simple enough that the kids can participate in the fun. They even swing a hammer from time to time {only with us supervising of course}. My most favorite spaces to design are playrooms and kid’s bedrooms, because I get to tap into their creativity and imagination and we get to play with really fun colors and patterns {see our playroom here}.”
Kristen, from 6th Street Design School, says, “My son Jett has no opinion whatsoever with his room. He is pretty easy going with the choices I make for his room decor, which is nice for me! When I decided to design his room I tried my best to get him really excited about the things we started putting in the room. We let him “help” with putting together the bed, shelves and hanging the pictures on the wall. This made him get excited about the pieces we incorporated into his room.”
I am including my son (almost 6 years old) every step of the way on his bedroom makeover. After determining a new room layout to accommodate a desk in my son’s room, we didn’t waste anytime picking up the desk he chose on his Superhero bedroom Pinterest board. Not only did he help choose the desk, he also helped build it.
5 Ways Kids Can Help with Furniture Assembly
1. Counting Parts
This is my son’s favorite job. Most ready-to-assemble furniture comes with instructions including a list of parts. The parts page usually has an illustration of the part and a quantity. I have never in my life verified all the parts were there before starting a project, but it is actually a good idea. When my son was in Kindergarten and practicing counting, I started having him verify the parts before I assembled anything.
He sorts the parts. He counts the parts. He prefers to lay them right on top of the illustration in the instructions. He understands that sometimes they add extra parts. As long as we have at least the quantity listed, it is fine.
2. Assembling Parts
After being so familiar with the parts, it is only natural that my son doles out the parts as needed. On this recent project, a desk for his room, there were a lot of bolts and washers. He assembled them while I put the legs on the desk.
3. Trying Tools
Once the part assembly was done, my son was eager to do some actual assembly. Ready-to-assemble furniture usually only requires a few basic tools, like an allen wrench (usually provided) and a screw driver. These simple tools are perfect for kids to try out. I let my son install one of the desk legs with the allen wrench. I always give each one a final tightening myself.
4. Holding Pieces
There never seems to be enough hands when putting together ready-to-assemble furniture. I was happy to have an eager-to-help-almost-six-year-old’s extra pair of hands. He was always there when I needed home to hold up a desk leg or insert a cam bolt.
5. Unpacking and Clean Up
The beginning and the end of any furniture project gets a little messy. Kids can be big helpers when unpacking furniture parts and cleaning up the aftermath. I can’t get my kids to pick up their toys to save my life, but they will scramble to pick up plastic baggies and styrofoam after a furniture project. Since I am usually exhausted from building and standing up the furniture in question, I welcome their help with clean up.
The best part is seeing how proud they are in the end. My son was giddy with excitement about finally having a desk for his bedroom, and one that he helped build. Right after the picture below, he ran off to find a cup to put pencils in for his desk :)
I believe you can never start them too young. Not too long ago, I had my 3-year-old help assemble the game room table. He loved helping mommy and twisting in the feet on the table!
To see more ways you can get your kids involved in decorating, check out the rest of the Decorating With Kids series.
“Before injury”, with a brood of children, I quickly learned that most of my kids liked to be involved. It was fun to see the strengths of some kids in mechanical areas that I could tap into not just to build them up, but because they were good at the job!!! Projects, fixing things, yes crafts and cleanup, choosing the color that looked best on the back of the art, kept the children involved. But my most hands on own child, right in there as a child helping me paint, build, design…as an adult is not confident now at all! But she’s in a high powerful job in which she excels so maybe it will take time for her to get that childlike strengths to once again blossom. They are in there!! And these skills help your boys learn problem solving, math, spatial geometry skills, and as a teacher, even for your three year old to clean up is really a big skill most adults don’t get. You’re doing a great job! Keep it up! Do I see engineers in the making?
Oh ps. My brood were my kids. Aka my class!
I love that chair! Where did you end up getting it? IKEA? I didn’t see that on your Pinterest board.
Thanks!
Sharon, the chair is the Urban Junior Chair from Ikea. We used to use it as a high chair and already had it on hand.