Lovevery - Introducing a new approach to the ready-to-assemble unboxing experience.
The global launch of Lovevery’s first working play kitchen, and second direct-to-consumer, ready-to-assemble product, presented an opportunity to reevaluate the often overwhelming and time-consuming experience of assembling furniture.
My Role
Structural Packaging Design
The wood structure, hardware, and assembly instructions are divided into two cartons that arrive in one shipment.
We divided the kitchen into two shipments - one for the water system and one for the wooden structure.
In 2024, consumers outsourced approximately 8.5 million hours of the assembly process for ready-to-assemble (RTA) furniture projects to Taskers on TaskRabbit. That’s how much we hate assembling furniture. Even though the goal of an RTA assembly is to make the process quick and easy, brands have consistently fallen short. So when we decided that we were going to launch a play kitchen that parents would need to assemble, the goal of making the process quick and easy for them became even more important. Parents of young children have small windows throughout the day where they’re able to get things done around the house, so introducing a sense of simplicity and even delight throughout the process was a core goal of the project.
The unboxing experience needed to be organized to help guide parents through the assembly process. One challenge to doing that was designing for a global direct-to-consumer launch. With a product this large that is made of solid wood, global parcel restrictions around size and weight become a limiting factor that can affect the internal layout, as well as ISTA testing standards.
The layout of the second wood structure carton is designed to protect the backsplash and countertop.
To satisfy global parcel standards, we divided the kitchen into two shipments - one for the water system and one for the wooden structure. Both packaging solutions are plastic and foam free, and pass the most stringent transit testing standards. For the assembly process, I designed a tool tray to contain all of the fasteners and other small parts. The tool tray is easy to move around and use throughout the assembly process helping people stay organized, and not lose a fastener on the floor with a toddler running around. All of the fasteners are contained in color coded boxes, each clearly identifying the type of fastener on the outside of the box, and corresponding with the instruction manual. ✖
The first wood structure carton contains the tool tray designed to organize fasteners and hardware during the assembly process.
The second shipment contains the water system.
Publication
January 1, 2026
Credits
Lovevery Design & Engineering Team