I've been an Argos customer for years, and just assumed that all flatpack furniture was hard work to assemble. That was, until I bought my first Billy Bookcase from Ikea last week!

These bookcases are available in a wide range of sizes and colours, see the Ikea website for the full range. The one I purchased was a small, narrow white number for use by the Mrs to store her craft boxes in. Considering it was a small, narrow, two shelf bookcase I was buying, I was initially surprised to find the flatpacked box so incredibly heavy. I guess that goes to show that this is a good quality item though and while it was heavy to transport, at least it will last.

I got the item out of the box and checked the instructions when I got it home. I was expecting it to involve screwing the sides in then having to hammer on a chipboard back. Nope! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the thick side panels went together easily with thick, sturdy screw joints that latched together with just a few turns of a screwdriver. The back panel then just had to be slid in from the back, and hammered into place at the bottom with just four nails to stop it from sliding back out.

I then inserted a few shelf holders, which are easily adjustable thanks to the little pinch-point ends on them, and I was able to choose from a wide variety of positions when placing the shelves too. I slid my thick, chunky shelves in - and that was that. The process is similar to the bookcases I've previously put together from Argos, but I found that each step took half the time to do than I'm used to. The screws only needed a couple of turns each, and I only required four nails to secure my back panel into place. I was especially impressed with the little pinch-point ends on the shelf supports, as this makes them much easier to put in and out than straight little shelf supports are. It means we can easily reposition the shelves anytime we want or need to.

The finished product looks great sat in the wife's new craft room, and it holds her fairly heavy storage boxes with ease. If she runs out of space, we can get cheap matching items or extensions quickly and easily from Ikea to extend this with. The white narrow bookcase we purchased cost only £10.20, bargain, and if you view the range on the Ikea website you'll see that the whole range has been very affordably priced throughout.