Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3p5w4l4vno

Who knew there was a championship in flat packing.

Flatpack World Championship

WTF is this? Is she some world leading package manager?

and broken her personal best assembly time in the process.

I guess it must be, they probably mean compiler and not assembler, did she overclock her computer? Or use specially compiled compilers?

building a bedside table in eight minutes 20 seconds.

Goddammit! What does that have to do with "flatpack"?

I came here to make the joke you already made and you made it better so I'll just show myself out.

I did a flatpak list but it didn't show much about her. Guess I'll never know.

I'm guessing bedside table is slang for a small table, and to be honest taking more than 8 minutes to build a small table isn't very impressive for any app.

FWIW this is about speed-assembling flatpack furniture.

I wonder how they standardize. The difference between IKEA and not-IKEA from a familiarity as well as design standpoint can be significant. IKEA is easy, but I’ve had some alternative companies that don’t put any care into how things go together.

I'm amused when TV or comedians make jokes about IKEA furniture being difficult to build. Like, are they confusing IKEA with some dorm furniture they bought at Wal-Mart? Because that junk is sometimes borderline: "make it look like the picture on the box"

Oh snap.

Flatpack vs flatpak

I bought a bed a few years back. It was a continental with a headboard. It had a three step instruction with stick figures on it. Essentially, place headboard against wall, push bed against headboard, you’re done, be happy.

Awful bed, but the instructions were the best I’ve ever had. They felt like malicious compliance.

IKEA world championship.

What a time to be alive.

Flatpack furniture is furniture that comes packed flat.
The most well-known producer is Ikea.

Dude IKEA doesn't care how things go together.

Every fucking time I buy IKEA shit it always comes out wiggly wobbly or something didn't quite align right or this or that or the other. It's cheap garbage.

Relatively recently decided to splurge on a bunk bed for the kids from a real furniture store that costs a little more.

Everything was tight, bro. Fit so good, and everything was just so sturdy and steady. Loved building it together with the wife as well. It was quite enjoyable.

I hate IKEA. Greetings from its motherland. 🙍‍♂️

smack barm pae wet and furniture assembly

Awful bed

IKEA in a nutshell. Simple to assemble, awful to keep. Terrible results.

That’s the complete opposite of my experience

Yeah, ikea is cheap and doesn’t last. But double the price and it feels the same (wobbly), except the holes are 1mm from where they should be.

Ahh, so there's a fork? Hadn't heard of it

Illegal!

I hope she celebrated with a Wigan Slappy.

A woman has retained her title as Flatpack World Champion and broken her personal best assembly time in the process.

eight minutes 20 seconds

Coding anything in assembly in under 9 minutes is incredible, much less publishing a full app!

https://www.alamy.com/video/defending-champion-wins-flatpack-world-championships-for-second-year-at-grand-designs-live-2026-730644304.html

It was not IKEA actually. Fancy furniture store.

I still maintain that IKEA is like that though. 😔

Must be some shitty furniture companies then. Should be a matter of paying more to get higher quality.

Poor quality? Yeah. It’s cardboard, mostly.

Their hallmark isn’t quality though, it’s affordability.

Agreed, and I'm effing done with it. I'd rather pay more for something I do want than less for something I don't want.

I can get behind this, sustainability.

Growing up we had a sofa from the 1800s. Nothing from IKEA will last that long.

I love assembling furniture, I am so glad to hear there's a competition. Sign me up!

Yeah baby, that's also really cool, wow. So old.

Bet it had new fabric though, or was it the original??

Fabric and stuffing was replaced, the rest was original.

I was thinking that too. Honestly I think it was all IKEA (but they're not allowed to say that), unless the UK has some major competitor.

KULLEN Chest of 2 drawers, white, 35x49 cm - IKEA [80309241]

It's so weird that the article just assumed everyone would know what a flatpack was. With all the talk of Lego, I assumed it was a Lego-like toy.