The Story Behind Toronto's Most Trusted Assembly Team

My story begins not with an Allen key, but on the floors of IKEA Etobicoke in Toronto, where I spent seven years mastering furniture assembly from the inside out. For seven years, I worked in Customer Service and Returns, where I discovered a surprising secret hidden in plain sight: the remarkable quality of the engineering.

People often miss that IKEA uses high-grade European hardware—the same robust components found in expensive custom cabinetry. Their products are manufactured with incredible precision, where robotic machinery ensures every panel is identical. The design is simply brilliant.

So why did so much of it end up back in my department?

The truth is, most "defects" weren't defects at all. They were the casualties of rushed or improper assembly, where the genius of the design was lost in the final step. After processing thousands of returns, I recognized a pattern: 95% of furniture "failures" were actually assembly errors, not manufacturing defects.

I knew there was a better way—a way to honor the craftsmanship and give customers the flawless result the designers intended.

In 2012, I founded AssemblyMan to bridge that gap. We are not just assemblers; we are specialists who understand the "why" behind the build. This philosophy is the foundation of The AssemblyMan Standard, a commitment to excellence we apply to every piece of furniture we have the privilege of building for you.