There's one thing that all couples know to be true: if you can survive assembling an IKEA flatpack together, your relationship can survive anything.
Building IKEA furniture is fraught with stress, frayed nerves and potential fights. One ill-fitting Allen key or misinterpreted instruction (piece A5 joins with piece D2 using Allen key 3... right?) is all it takes for mayhem to unfold.
It's almost as if those cheeky Swedish designers make the process extra tricky on purpose. But it's comforting to hear their countrymen aren't any better at wrangling those funky 'Expedit' bookcases than we are.
Last Friday, police were called to an apartment in Strömstad, West Sweden, in the early hours of the morning. Worried neighbours had heard screaming and loud bangs coming from inside, but the source of the noise was far less sinister than it seemed - the couple were merely trying to assemble their flatpack. The hammering sound had woken their baby, who proceeded to howl.
"It remains unclear if the baby was simply crying in need of attention, or whether it too was frustrated by the complexity of the Ikea instructions," Swedish news site The Local reports.
Perhaps next time they should consider enlisting a Hire-a-Hubby to do all the hard work while they go out to dinner - for IKEA meatballs, of course.
Who builds the IKEA furniture in your household? Do you have any horror stories of your own?
If your relationship does survive the ordeal of furniture assemblage, perhaps you'd like to be married at IKEA? Click here to read about this surprising new wedding trend.
