If the thought of flat pack furniture fills you with dread, I hear you. I've put countless pieces of it together in my lifetime, and not always to great success. Experience combined with a lack of spare time meant I invested in furniture for my mum's new living room that claimed to be 'partially built'.
I'll admit to not investigating what this term really meant due to the fact I ordered the items late one night on my mobile, so when the boxes of furniture arrived, I was surprised to see them clearly looking like flat pack.
Feeling duped, I opened the boxes to find what I'd refer to as flat pack inside – but with a twist. The pieces included a fixing from a brand called OVVO that I'd not seen before. Could this be the key to improving my relationship with flat pack, or would we remain as necessary acquaintances rather than friends?
Article continues belowWhat is Ovvo?
So what exactly are OVVO connectors? Essentially, they are small plastic fittings that are including in the furniture manufacturing phase, and designed to replace the need for using lots of tools and different fixings.
One piece of furniture has a receiver section, the other a small plastic strip with ridges that slots into the receiver. The idea is that you insert one into the other and click into place.
It sounds simple, but was it as easy to use?
My experiences of building furniture with OVVO connectors
OVVO fixings were included in four different items of furniture. All of them were from the Next Malvern Oak effect range and included a coffee table, tv unit, side table with storage and a wide shelf unit with cupboards and drawers.
I tackled the first three items alone as the size was manageable as a solo job. And, I'll confirm that assembling them saw me singing the praises of the connectors in a team meeting, saying how I'd never build another piece of flat pack that didn't have them.
It didn't remove the need for DIY tools, or different types of screwdriver heads, particularly on items that had more design details and features such as drawers, compartments and cupboards (or at least it didn't with the pieces of furniture I built), but there's no doubt it improved the process overall.
In fact, on more simple items such as the side table, it went together in rapid time and without any issues, making me convinced it was going to revolutionise flat pack.
But, as is always the risk with items designed to be put together at home, things don't always go to plan. There's a clear warning on the instructions that once the OVVO fixing is in place it is permanent and this is very true – as I discovered the hard way.
There are no margins for human error
When it came to assembling the largest and final piece of furniture, the large shelving unit, I knew it would be a two person job and one that would likely be more complicated. The amount of additional screws, fixings and components in the packaging made it clear I was right – as did the instructions.
It all started well, and I began work before help arrived, working on the first steps that I thought I could do solo. And then disaster struck, when assembling two pieces that had two OVVO fixings, I accidentally pushed one of the pieces too hard to one side.
The fixing is that strong, instead of it breaking, or the pieces of furniture popping apart, the fixing pushed through the wood and broke off a small section of laminate. It meant the fixing was still in place, but the section of furniture was now only attached with one OVVO fixing rather than two, and there was a missing piece of laminate.
And therein lies part of the problem. Whereas with most flatpack fixings you'd be able to remove them and remedy the problem, in this instance I couldn't. Thankfully it's in a location whereby there are other fixings in place around it, and the broken piece is inside a cupboard. Had it been anywhere else, I'd potentially have needed to buy a new piece of furniture, and dispose of the whole unused unit which would have been a terrible waste – particularly given the new rules around bins and recycling that are coming into place.
Thankfully I was able to continue assembling the unit, and have added some additional fixings at the rear to ensure it is fully secure. But, inside the cupboard (where the damaged fixing is) I'm going to have to use some glue and wood filler to attach the broken section over the fixing and disguise my mistake.
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Is OVVO the only way or just some of the way?
Having now tested the OVVO fixings on four different pieces of furniture, I'm not quite as excited as I first was when I tried it. It certainly made fixing simple pieces together easier, but in my experience, once you go beyond the realms of a piece of furniture having more than sides, top, base and a few shelves, it only removes a small part of the process.
Yes this helps, but given the scope for error there is when building flat pack, be this not following instructions properly, using the wrong fixings, or as in my case, physical error, it means you have to be fully in control of the process.
Would I buy furniture that had it again? Yes, as anything that sees me having to use one less alan key is always a bonus, but I'd be hyper-vigilant in terms of following every single step of the process to the letter.
And, I'd make sure there was plenty of space for building the items and remind myself not to make the final connection until I was completely confident I had it right.
For more DIY advice from the professionals, make sure you avoid these other DIY mistakes, and if you're considering installing your kitchen yourself (another place where flat pack style items exist), find out what our interiors expert learnt when she and her partner installed a kitchen from Wickes themselves.
