IKEA BESTA TV unit assembly and TV mounting in London

IKEA BESTÅ TV Unit Assembly in London

IKEA BESTÅ TV Unit Assembly in London

BESTÅ is IKEA's modular living-room system, and the reason it catches people out is that almost nothing arrives in one box. A bare TV bench is one purchase; the doors, the hinges, the legs, the drawer runners and the interior shelves are all separate. Get one component wrong — four legs instead of six, glass shelves in a tall frame, suspension rails bought for a bench that cannot use them — and the build stops halfway.

The other thing BESTÅ punishes is sequence. The back panel has to go in before the top and before the cam locks come up tight, and it is the back that squares the carcass. Tighten in the wrong order and you get a tapering gap above every door that no hinge screw will remove. That is a dismantle-and-rebuild, not an adjustment.

TaskMan of London assembles BESTÅ benches, tall frames and full wall combinations anywhere inside the M25. Send WhatsApp photos of the boxes and the wall and we confirm everything before you book — DBS-checked and insured team, 12-month workmanship warranty. Anchoring to the wall is part of the job, not an extra.

Part of our IKEA assembly London service.

Which IKEA BESTÅ TV bench and storage system sizes we build

  • BESTÅ TV bench 120x40x38 cm (dark grey, art. 905.386.14). Top panel rated for a TV up to 16 kg, suits a TV up to 45 inches. Floor-standing or wall-mounted. One carton, 41x10x124 cm, package weight 14.40 kg.
  • BESTÅ TV bench 180x40x38 cm (white, art. 004.740.70). Top panel rated for a TV up to 30 kg, suits a TV up to 72 inches. Floor-standing or wall-mounted. One carton, 41x11x186 cm, package weight 23.90 kg.
  • BESTÅ TV bench 120x40x64 cm (art. 405.386.16). Top panel rated for a TV up to 16 kg, suits a TV up to 45 inches. Floor-standing only — IKEA states "For safety reasons this furniture shall not be hung on the wall." One carton, 41x11x131 cm, package weight 17.80 kg.
  • BESTÅ TV bench 180x40x64 cm (white, art. 702.998.79). Top panel rated for a TV up to 25 kg, suits a TV up to 72 inches. Floor-standing only, same "shall not be hung on the wall" wording. Two cartons: 41x6x132 cm with a package weight of 10.61 kg, and 41x8x184 cm with a package weight of 19.74 kg in white (19.00 kg in black-brown).
  • Bare TV benches come in 120 cm and 180 cm widths only. Wider looks are pre-configured multi-frame combinations sold as a single SKU — for example the BESTÅ TV bench with doors 240x42x38 cm, which is three frames, ships as 17 packages, is wall-mounted with BESTÅ suspension rails included, and has a top panel rated for a 16 kg TV suiting a screen up to 99 inches.
  • BESTÅ frames 60 cm wide, 40 cm deep: 60x40x38 cm, 60x40x64 cm, 60x40x128 cm and 60x40x192 cm. Both tall frames (128 and 192 cm) are floor-standing only.
  • BESTÅ frames 120 cm wide, 40 cm deep: 120x40x38 cm and 120x40x64 cm.
  • BESTÅ frames 60 cm wide, 20 cm deep, for narrow walls: 60x20x38 cm and 60x20x64 cm.
  • Frame colours currently listed: white, black-brown, white stained oak effect, dark grey.
  • Doors and drawer fronts, all sold separately and all currently listed on ikea.com/gb: LAPPVIKEN, HANVIKEN, FÖRVALTARE, SELSVIKEN, BJÖRKÖVIKEN, HEDEVIKEN, SMEVIKEN, LAXVIKEN, KALLVIKEN, HAMMARSMED, PIPMAKARE, BERGSVIKEN, HJORTVIKEN, KRUKMAKARE, VÄSTERVIKEN. Glass doors: SINDVIK, GLASSVIK, OSTVIK, FÄLLSVIK.
  • Legs, sold separately. IKEA UK's BESTÅ legs category currently lists five products: STUBBARP (sold as a 2-pack, 44x44 mm, adjustable 10–11 cm), ÖSARP 10 cm, MEJARP 10 cm, KABBARP 10 cm, and the BESTÅ supporting leg 10 cm for mid-span support.
  • BESTÅ soft closing/push-open hinge, art. 802.612.58, sold as a 2-pack. IKEA's wording: "You can choose to use either the soft-closing or push-open function."
  • BESTÅ suspension rail 60 cm, art. 704.883.18, listed by IKEA as silver-colour. For wall-hung frames only — never for a TV bench.
  • BESTÅ drawer runners in push-open and soft-closing versions.

BESTÅ is not being withdrawn. As of 17 August 2026 nothing in IKEA UK's BESTÅ TV bench, frame or door listings is flagged "Last chance to buy", and several fronts are marked "New". Two changes are worth knowing about: TIMMERVIKEN and MÖRTVIKEN no longer appear in IKEA UK's BESTÅ doors and drawer fronts listing, and NANNARP is no longer merchandised as a BESTÅ leg even though it still has a UK product page. If you are extending or matching an existing run, send us a photo of the fronts you already have and we will tell you what still matches before you order.

How long IKEA BESTÅ TV bench and storage system assembly takes

45–90 minutes for a single bare 120 or 180 cm BESTÅ TV bench, including fitting doors, adjusting hinges and anchoring to the wall. 2–3 hours for a pre-configured 240x42x38 cm bench with doors, which arrives as 17 packages and hangs on included suspension rails. 3–5 hours for a multi-frame BESTÅ wall combining tall frames, drawers and glass doors.

Difficulty: moderate. Long builds are exactly what we are set up for — message us and we will confirm everything before you book.

Where IKEA BESTÅ TV bench and storage system builds go wrong

The parts of this build that cost people an afternoon:

  • The back panel cannot be retrofitted. The fibreboard back slides into machined grooves in the base and both side panels, and the top panel goes on afterwards. Build the carcass, fit the top and pull the cam locks tight, and there is no way to feed the back in — the unit has to come back apart. On a 180 cm bench the back arrives as more than one sheet, and they have to go in across the dividers in the right order.
  • The back panel is also what squares the unit, so the tightening sequence matters more here than on most flatpack. BESTÅ carcasses rack easily because the boards are honeycomb-cored. Leave every cam lock a half-turn slack, slide the back fully home into the side and base grooves, measure the two diagonals until they match, then tighten. Tighten first and the carcass locks up out of square, and no amount of hinge adjustment will remove the tapering gap you then get above every door.
  • Cam lock orientation. Each cam has an arrow or slot that must point at the hole the connecting bolt enters from. Dropped in rotated, the bolt cannot engage — and people then force it, which spins the cam in its socket and chews the housing. BESTÅ board is particleboard and fibreboard with a honeycomb paper filling, so over-torquing with a drill pulls the fitting through the filling and raises a permanent dimple or blowout on a visible face. Last quarter-turn by hand, always.
  • The two base panels of a 180 cm bench join in the middle with dowels and cam locks. That centre joint has to be pulled up dead flat, on a flat floor, before the feet go on. Rush it and you get a permanent ridge across the top surface — exactly where the TV foot lands — and it cannot be levelled out afterwards.
  • Panels get fitted end-for-end. The sides look symmetrical, but the hinge-plate rows and shelf-pin holes are set from one end, and the back-panel groove identifies the rear edge. Reversed, the hinge holes land in the wrong row and the shelf pins sit at the wrong heights. We identify the rear groove and the hole pattern on every panel before a single dowel goes in.
  • Soft-close and push-open are an either/or choice on a given door. IKEA's own wording for hinge 802.612.58 is that you can choose to use either the soft-closing or the push-open function. In practice, fit the push-opener with the soft-close damper still engaged and the damper fights the opener, the door will not pop clear, and people conclude the opener is faulty. Pick one mode per door and keep the whole run consistent — mixed modes across one bench feel broken to whoever uses it.
  • Push-open fronts need a deliberate gap between the front and the carcass to give the mechanism travel. It is designed in, not a fault. Customers ask us to close it up; adjusting it out kills the push function.
  • Doors on a long run have to be set to each other, not each to its own opening. Every BESTÅ hinge has three separate adjustments — height, side-to-side and depth — and most self-builds only ever find one of them. Hang all the doors loose, set the heights off a straightedge or laser across the whole front, then work the side and depth screws until the reveals read even along the entire bench.
  • Legs are not in the box, and corner legs alone are not enough. IKEA states that 120 cm wide TV benches require 6 legs, or 4 legs plus one BESTÅ supporting leg, and that 180 cm wide benches require 8 legs, or 4 legs plus 2 supporting legs. The mid-span supporting leg is the part people skip, and it is why the top ends up visibly bowing under a TV.
  • Tall frames are not stable empty. IKEA states the 60x40x128 cm frame must be completed with the included shelf supports and at least 1 BESTÅ shelf made of particleboard "to make the frame stable and prevent the side panels from bowing", and that the 60x40x192 cm needs at least 2. If you have bought glass shelves, or no shelves, the sides will bow. The particleboard shelves are the structural ones.
  • The suspension rail is not how you hang a TV bench. The 38 cm-high benches can be wall-mounted, but with the brackets supplied for direct wall mounting — IKEA states the BESTÅ suspension rail must not be used if you opt for wall mounting a TV bench. The rail is for 60 cm and 120 cm frames. Customers routinely buy rails intending to float a bench and end up with parts they cannot use.
  • Both 64 cm-high TV benches are floor-standing only. IKEA's wording on the 120x40x64 and the 180x40x64 is identical: "For safety reasons this furniture shall not be hung on the wall." The same applies to the 60x40x128 and 60x40x192 tall frames. Only the 38 cm and 64 cm-high frames may be wall-hung at all.
  • Plug and socket clearance behind the unit. The cable outlet is a fixed opening in the top, and once assembled the bench sits hard against the wall. If mains sockets sit directly behind, the plug bodies foul the back panel and the whole unit stands proud of the wall. This is a five-minute check before the carcass goes together and an unpickable problem after — a flat-profile plug or a repositioned extension solves it in advance.
  • Depth changes once doors are on. Bare frames are 40 cm deep; IKEA lists the pre-configured combinations with doors at 42 cm. If you measured a chimney-breast alcove against the 40 cm frame figure, the doors will not sit flush.
  • Levelling on carpet gives a false reading. The adjustable feet sink into pile and the unit settles once the TV and the contents go on. Level it on the surface it will actually live on, and re-check the feet after it is loaded.
  • Glass doors hang from a metal surround and the hinge cup screws bite into a thin frame. They will strip or crack if driven with a power tool — hand-tighten those, and hang the heaviest glass doors last so you are not manoeuvring the carcass around them.

Safety and wall fixing

This item must be secured to the wall. We fit the restraint as part of the job and will not leave it standing loose.

  • Every BESTÅ TV bench carries IKEA's tipping-hazard warning: "WARNING! Tipping hazard – this product must be securely anchored. Use suitable screws and plugs for your home. If you are uncertain, seek professional advice." The pre-configured 240 cm combination uses falling-hazard wording instead, but the requirement is the same. Anchoring is not optional on any of them.
  • Screws and wall plugs for the wall itself are not supplied, deliberately, because the correct fixing depends entirely on your wall construction. This is the most common single reason a BESTÅ ends up unanchored on the day it is built.
  • What restraint hardware is in the box varies by variant, so we confirm it on site rather than assume. IKEA's pages for the 38 cm-high benches (120x40x38 and 180x40x38) state that a floor-standing TV bench must be fixed to the wall with the included wall fasteners. The 120x40x64 and 180x40x64 pages carry no such statement — only the tipping-hazard warning. We arrive with our own anti-tip hardware so that a tall, top-heavy unit is never left unanchored because a part was missing from the pack.
  • TaskMan of London's own build practice, not an IKEA instruction: the restraint bracket screws into the top rear of a honeycomb-cored carcass, so those screws must land in the solid board edge rather than the paper fill. A bracket screwed into the hollow core pulls out under exactly the load it was fitted to resist. We check what each screw is biting into before we trust it.
  • Top-panel TV weight limits from ikea.com/gb, and they are lower than most people assume. 120x40x38 cm: 16 kg, suits a TV up to 45 inches. 120x40x64 cm: 16 kg, up to 45 inches. 180x40x38 cm: 30 kg, up to 72 inches. 180x40x64 cm: 25 kg, up to 72 inches. The pre-configured 240x42x38 cm bench with doors: 16 kg, suits a TV up to 99 inches. Note that the taller 120 is 16 kg, not 25 kg — it does not follow the taller 180.
  • Maximum load is 20 kg per horizontal surface, and IKEA's qualifier is that this figure applies if the unit is placed on the floor. IKEA gives no single load figure for a wall-hung frame, because it depends on the wall material, so we will not quote one. On site we assess the wall and tell you what it will take.
  • Floor-standing only, per IKEA's own wording "For safety reasons this furniture shall not be hung on the wall": the 120x40x64 cm bench, the 180x40x64 cm bench, the 60x40x128 cm frame and the 60x40x192 cm frame. All four still require anchoring to the wall where they stand.
  • The tall frames have a structural requirement as well as an anchoring one. IKEA states the 60x40x128 cm frame must be completed with the included shelf supports and at least 1 particleboard BESTÅ shelf to keep the frame stable and stop the side panels bowing, and that the 60x40x192 cm frame needs at least 2.
  • Open doors and drawers are a climbing frame to a toddler. Where there are small children in the home we fit the restraint as a matter of course, never as an optional extra, and we will say so if we are asked to skip it.
  • We never drill a wall without a pipe and cable detector. In older London housing stock, surface-chased cables and old pipe runs sit far shallower than current regulations would allow.

IKEA BESTÅ TV bench and storage system assembly in London homes

Access is the first real constraint, and it is a carton-length problem rather than a weight problem. A 180x40x38 cm BESTÅ bench arrives as a single 186 cm carton with a package weight of 23.90 kg; the 180x40x64 cm arrives as two, the longer of them 184 cm at a package weight of 19.74 kg. Neither turns the half-landing of a Victorian terrace conversion easily, and both are longer than the car of many small mansion-block or 1960s ex-local-authority lifts. A pre-configured 240 cm bench with doors sidesteps that, because it ships as 17 much smaller packages — but then you have 17 boxes to get in and a mountain of packaging to deal with. We check lift internal dimensions and stair turns before the visit, and where a carton genuinely will not go up we can break the pack down and carry the panels separately. Wall construction is the second constraint, and London walls are a lottery: solid stock brick in the older stock, blockwork or concrete in post-war and new build, timber studs in loft and side-return extensions, and — very commonly in refurbished flats — plasterboard dot-and-dabbed onto masonry with a void behind it. The anti-tip fixing has to suit whichever of those you have, and a standard plasterboard plug in a dot-and-dab void will pull straight out under load, so we carry sleeved anchors that reach through to the masonry plus SDS kit for brick and block. Chimney-breast alcoves are the third: rarely 180 cm wide, rarely square, rarely plumb, so we frequently advise a 120 plus 60 cm frame pairing over a single long bench, and we scribe or pack to the wall rather than leaving a wedge-shaped gap. Add leaseholder rules on drilling party walls, conservation-area and listed-building restrictions in boroughs like Camden, Islington and Kensington and Chelsea, and the parking permit or loading-bay question in almost every inner borough. TaskMan of London covers the whole of London inside the M25, confirms everything from WhatsApp photos before you book, and can wall-mount the TV above the unit on the same visit.

Before we arrive

  • Tell us your wall type when you send WhatsApp photos — solid brick, block, plasterboard on timber studs, or plasterboard dot-and-dabbed onto masonry. Dot-and-dab is the one that catches people out and needs a sleeved anchor rather than a standard plasterboard plug.
  • Photograph the sockets and any aerial or data points behind the intended position, so we can plan plug clearance before the carcass goes together.
  • Check every carton is on site before the visit. A 180x40x64 cm bench is two boxes; a pre-configured 240x42x38 cm bench with doors is 17. On the bare benches, doors, hinges, legs, runners, shelves and suspension rails are all separate purchases.
  • Buy the legs if you want the unit raised. IKEA's own guidance: 6 legs, or 4 legs plus one BESTÅ supporting leg, for a 120 cm bench; 8 legs, or 4 legs plus 2 supporting legs, for a 180 cm bench. STUBBARP, ÖSARP, MEJARP and KABBARP are the current BESTÅ leg options — ÖSARP, MEJARP and KABBARP are 10 cm, and STUBBARP adjusts from 10 to 11 cm.
  • If you are buying tall frames, buy the particleboard shelves too — at least 1 for a 60x40x128 cm frame and at least 2 for a 60x40x192 cm. They are what stops the sides bowing, and glass shelves do not count towards that.
  • Tell us whether you want the bench floor-standing or wall-mounted. Only the 38 cm-high benches can be hung; the 64 cm-high ones cannot.
  • Decide before we arrive whether you want soft-close or push-open, since it is one or the other per door, and which way each door should open.
  • Clear roughly 2.5 m x 1.5 m of floor to build in, plus somewhere to stack a lot of cardboard and polystyrene. If you want the packaging taken away, say so when you send your WhatsApp photos and we will confirm it as part of the booking.
  • Unplug and move the TV, soundbar and AV kit clear of the area.
  • Flag lift access and stair turns. The 180x40x38 cm bench comes in one 186 cm carton and the 180x40x64 cm has a 184 cm carton — either can defeat a small lift or a tight Victorian landing.
  • Let us know about parking restrictions or a visitor permit, and whether there is a loading bay or a controlled-entry door.
  • Confirm whether you also want the TV wall-mounted above the unit, so we bring the right fixings for your wall in the same visit.

IKEA BESTÅ TV bench and storage system assembly FAQs

Can you wall-mount my BESTÅ TV bench so it floats?

It depends which one you have. The 38 cm-high benches (120x40x38 and 180x40x38) can be wall-mounted — IKEA supplies brackets for direct wall mounting, and the BESTÅ suspension rail must not be used for that. The 64 cm-high benches cannot: IKEA states that for safety reasons they shall not be hung on the wall, and that applies to both the 120x40x64 and the 180x40x64. If you want a floating look with more storage, we can build it from 60 cm and 120 cm frames on suspension rails instead. Send a WhatsApp photo of the wall and the boxes and we will tell you which route works and confirm everything before you book.

My TV is 65 inches. Can it sit on top of the bench?

Check the weight, not just the screen size. The 180x40x38 cm bench is rated for a 30 kg TV and the 180x40x64 cm for 25 kg, both suiting screens up to 72 inches. Both 120 cm benches are 16 kg and suit a TV up to 45 inches. A 65-inch set on a wide pedestal stand can also overhang the 40 cm depth. In a lot of London living rooms we end up wall-mounting the TV above the bench instead, which we can do on the same visit.

Do I need to buy legs, or does it come with them?

Legs are a separate purchase on the bare benches, and the count matters. IKEA specifies 6 legs, or 4 legs plus one BESTÅ supporting leg, for a 120 cm bench, and 8 legs, or 4 legs plus 2 supporting legs, for a 180 cm. The mid-span supporting leg is the one customers leave off, and it is why the top ends up bowing under a TV. The current options are STUBBARP, ÖSARP, MEJARP and KABBARP. Buy them before we arrive.

Should I choose soft-close or push-open?

The same hinge pack does both, but you use one function or the other on a given door — IKEA's wording is that you can choose to use either the soft-closing or the push-open function. Push-open gives you a handleless look but needs a small designed-in gap around each front. Soft-close is the better choice if you want handles, and generally the better choice if there are children in the house. Tell us which you want and we will set the whole run consistently.

I already have a BESTÅ built. Can you add the back panel, or a door, later?

Doors and interior fittings, yes, straightforward. The back panel, no: it slides into grooves in the base and both sides, and the top panel goes on over it, so it is captured once the unit is assembled. Adding or replacing it means partially dismantling the carcass. We can do that — it just needs to be agreed on WhatsApp before the visit rather than discovered on the day.

My walls are plasterboard. Is the anti-tip restraint still safe?

Yes, with the right fixing. IKEA does not supply the wall screws and plugs precisely because the correct fixing depends on the wall. Studs get a proper screw into timber; hollow plasterboard gets a rated hollow-wall anchor; dot-and-dab needs a sleeved anchor that transfers load to the masonry behind rather than crushing the void. We carry all three, we use a detector before drilling, and we bring our own anti-tip hardware in case what is in your box does not suit your wall.

Will a 180 cm BESTÅ fit in my alcove?

Measure at more than one height, and measure the depth carefully. London chimney-breast alcoves are rarely square or plumb, so a long bench pushed back will show a wedge of gap at one end. On depth, a bare frame is 40 cm but IKEA lists the combinations with doors at 42 cm — if you measured against 40 cm the doors will not sit flush. Two smaller frames often fit an alcove far better than one 180 cm bench, and we will say so if that is what the photos show.

Book IKEA BESTÅ TV bench and storage system assembly in London

Send us a photo of the boxes or the product name, your postcode and when suits you. We will come back with everything confirmed before you book — no obligation, no call-out surprises.

WhatsApp us to get started or call 07700 170 070, 7 days a week.

Every job is done by TaskMan of London's own DBS-checked, insured team and carries our 12-month workmanship warranty.