How do I disassemble my Ikea bed?

May 30, 2007 2:51 PM

How do I disassemble my Ikea bed?

What's stumping us are these black screw-like anchors.

Unlike normal screws, these fasteners hold the board they're in to the perpendicular board. Turning them tightens some other unseen part that connects the two pieces of wood. Turning them the other way does not remove them from the board.

I had thought that I would have to unscrew the black anchors enough to loosen the connection between the two boards and then I'd be able to pull them apart, but that doesn't seem to be working.

The bed is a king size LEKSVIK.

posted by Yogurt to home & garden (8 comments total)

The longest leg of the screw head should be pointing towards the piece that it is connected to. So, the left screw in your picture would turn counter clockwise until the part that is currently at the 10:00 position is at the 3:00 position (unless there is a connecting piece at the top outside of the picture that I cannot see).

Once you turn the screws in that manner, you should be able to slide the pieces apart.
posted by odi.et.amo at 3:01 PM on May 30, 2007

Looking at the last picture in the series, it seems that the left screw attaches the bed frame to the headboard, so you may need to deal with the right side first, assuming those other screw holes are now empty :)
posted by odi.et.amo at 3:03 PM on May 30, 2007

Okay, so to release the connection between the two pieces, the longest of the two lines of the cross in the screwhead should be parallel to the ground.

(There's no single arm in the cross that's longer than the other three, but one of the two lines in the cross is longer.)

There's also a small arrow with a plus/minus symbol beside it on each screwhead.

I think I'm doing what you're suggesting, but the pieces are holding firm. All normal silver screws are out, and I've tried to free all four black anchors.

I'll fiddle with it a bit more. Thanks for the pointer.
posted by Yogurt at 3:30 PM on May 30, 2007

The instruction manual for your LEKSVIK bed can be downloaded here. The above posters have described how to do it above but the actual picture/diagram helps.
posted by junesix at 3:34 PM on May 30, 2007

Left fastener: turn fastener until arrow points 9:00. Now you should be able to unscrew the screw attached to the left board.

Right fastener: turn fastener until arrow points 3:00. Now you should be able to unscrew the screw that attaches the headboard (or whatever the bigger chunk of dark wood is) to the frame.
posted by junesix at 3:44 PM on May 30, 2007

Assuming there are 4 pieces in the cross, you'll want whichever piece is the longest to be pointing TO the wood part that you need to disconnect it from.
posted by odi.et.amo at 3:45 PM on May 30, 2007

Excellent! The manual made it all clear.

For posterity, to make the black Ikea anchors release their hold, line up the arrow on them so that it's pointed at the board you want to release. (The arrow will be parallel to the floor.)

In my case, this meant that the longest arm of the screw head was actually vertical.

odi.et.amo did have my number when it came to the normal silver screws though. There were two more screws hiding just underneath the metal rail that I'd missed. Slaps head.

Thanks everyone. Back to moving for me!
posted by Yogurt at 3:55 PM on May 30, 2007

Data point: I recently moved a queen sized LEKSVIK bed. My movers took it down and put it back up again. Given their hourly rate, it was a wash - it would have been exactly as costly to buy a new bed. The bed wobbles and creaks a bit now, too - it's really not meant to be disassembled and reassembled.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:09 PM on May 30, 2007