Nursery Project: Assembling the Ikea Henmes 3 Drawer Chest

Have you ever heard people say that assembling Ikea furniture will test your relationship?  Well, I have, and that is certainly true.  Good news, we survived the test!

We took pictures as we embarked on this adventure. This tutorial is meant to provide a visual supplement to the Ikea instructions. It in no way serves as a replacement for the actual instruction booklet that came with the product.  The instruction booklet has no verbal instructions, just illustrations, so you may find this helpful.

The best thing to do when starting on a project like this is to lay out all of the pieces grouped together by likeness. This will help you count to verify you have all pieces necessary to put together the furniture, but also helps to identify the pieces in the instructions. Not all companies are kind enough to label the parts and pieces as they are labeled in the instructions. 

The first step was to lay out all of the legs, known as pieces L1, L2, R1 and R2. Then screw in the screw for the cam bolts. It will not screw in all the way. Part of it needs to be sticking up to connect with the cam bolt. Three of these will go into the predrilled holes on the side of each leg. So, since there are four legs, you end up using a total of 12 of these screws.

 

Then lay out the two side boards for the dresser. On each side of each board, place pegs in the predrilled holes. There will be two predrilled holes on each side.

 After doing that, secure the legs to the side boards. There will be two legs on each side panel. Place the cam bolts in the holes provided. You should see the screws sticking out through those holes. When putting the cam bolts in, make sure the neck of the screw fits inside the opening on the cam bolt. Then, you tighten it with a screw driver to secure. When you put together furniture with these things, it's not coming apart for sure.

 

Next, install the tracks for the drawers. There will be three going down each side panel. If I remember correctly, these were actually labeled accordingly.

 

Below each track, screw in another cam bolt screw. Install a peg beside each of those screws. You will have to look at the Ikea instruction booklet for this one, to get a better idea of proper placement. Then, attach the bars as pictured in the instructions.

 

Where the cam bolt screws show through, again screw in cam bolts.

 

Then do the same thing on the opposite and attach the other side panel to the piece. Once again, securing the side panel with the cam bolts.

 

After this, turn the piece so that it rests on the legs. At this point, you will have the sides and the rails in the front together. It is now starting to look like a dresser.

Using the cam bolt screws again. Screw them into the predrilled holes, starting on the opposite side from the precut groove on the top piece. Put a screw in the first hole on the left side, then skip the second, a screw in the third, skip the fourth, a screw in the fifth, skip the last hole before the predrilled groove. Repeat these same steps on the right side of this top piece.

Place pegs in the existing holes on the left and right sides of the top. Then, place the top on top of the dresser. Once again secure cam bolts in the six places where the screws for the cam bolts show through the predrilled holes, and tighten.

Now, using an Allen wrench, screw in four screws to secure the front face plate under the top of the dresser to the top of the dresser.

Add the back panel to the dresser by nailing it all the way around the back part of the piece.

Then, to assemble the drawers, place the face of the drawer down on a soft surface so it does not get scratch. Screw in cam bolt screws in the first and fourth holes on the left and right side of the drawer face when the predrilled groove is closest to you. Then in the sides to the drawers, but pegs in the two middle holes and slide the sides of the drawers over the screws. The pegs will slide into proper holes also. Secure the sides of the drawers by placing cam bolts in the holes where the cam bolt screws are sticking out. Turn to tighten.

Then, slide the bottom panel of the drawer into the precut groove nearest you. Quickly place the back panel of the drawer. Hammer in the screws shown in the instruction booklet, three on each side of the back of the drawer.

Then attach the track to the drawer.

There will be two smaller drawers for this piece and one large drawer.

Attach the knobs to the drawer fronts with long screws.

Then, place the drawers in the dresser. The two smaller drawers go at the top and middle of the dresser. The larger drawer goes at the bottom.