Ikea is selling furniture that you can assemble in minutes with your bare hands

People love Ikea furniture for its affordability - but often dread putting it together.

In 2013, the Swedish furniture giant came out with an easier solution: a system that allows you to assemble Ikea furniture in minutes without a hammer, nails, or an Allen wrench.

Instead, furniture pieces connect with small knobs (called wedge dowels), that click into pre-drilled holes. You can dis-assemble the furniture the same way, making moving much easier, Ikea's design manager, Marcus Engman, tells Business Insider.

Ikea just rolled out over 50 more products that assemble with wedge dowels as part of a line of cabinets and other storage units. The series, called EKET, is now available online and in-store. The wedge dowel can cut assembly time down by 80%, according to Ikea.

Engman also tells BI that the company is developing a flat-pack sofa with wedge dowels.

"It could be a completely new way of constructing upholstery," Engman says.

The wedge dowel was first introduced in 2013 with the LISABO table series. (The designers, Knut and Marianne Hagberg, won a Red Dot Design Award for it in 2016.) The REGISSÖR line, made up of a bookshelf, cabinets, and a coffee table, also included wedge dowels and launched in 2014.

It's a simple innovation that could solve a lot of Ikea consumer headaches. To assemble (or dis-assemble) a bookcase or a kitchen cabinet, all you need is your bare hands.

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