IKEA flat-pack chest of drawers assembly in a London bedroom

IKEA MALM Chest of Drawers Assembly in London

IKEA MALM Chest of Drawers Assembly in London

MALM is the chest of drawers most London bedrooms already have, and the one most likely to be standing unanchored against a wall. It is a simple cabinet — acrylic-painted particleboard, cam-lock joints, a thin fibreboard back — but it is tall relative to its footprint, the drawers are deep, and IKEA's own manual opens with a tip-over warning. TaskMan of London assembles MALM chests across every London borough inside the M25 and fits the supplied anti-tip restraint into something structural on every single one. That is part of the job, not an add-on.

IKEA has announced that MALM is being discontinued and replaced by STORKLINTA, with the range withdrawn by the end of 2026. As of August 2026 IKEA UK still sells four MALM chest sizes. If you have a MALM on order, or flat-packed boxes sitting in a hallway, this is a good moment to get it built and anchored properly rather than leaving it for a weekend that keeps moving.

What follows is what we actually see on MALM jobs: the steps people get wrong, the fixings that do and do not hold in London walls, and the honest limits of what we will certify as safely installed.

Part of our IKEA assembly London service.

Which IKEA MALM chest of drawers sizes we build

  • MALM chest of 2 drawers, 40 x 48 x 55 cm, white — article 906.253.19. Ships as one package, package weight 15.65 kg.
  • MALM chest of 3 drawers, 80 x 48 x 78 cm, high-gloss white — article 704.240.53. Ships as two packages, package weights 27.15 kg and 16.30 kg.
  • MALM chest of 4 drawers, 80 x 48 x 100 cm, high-gloss white — article 504.240.54. Ships as two packages, package weights 26.20 kg and 21.55 kg.
  • MALM chest of 6 drawers, 160 x 48 x 78 cm, white — article 604.035.84. Ships as three packages: one at 35.40 kg package weight in a box 169 cm long, plus two at 17.57 kg each. IKEA UK's own name for this one is simply 'chest of 6 drawers, 160x78 cm'.
  • Article numbers, dimensions and package weights verified on ikea.com/gb/en, 17–18 August 2026. Availability is changing as the range is withdrawn, so check the live product page before ordering a specific size or colour.

IKEA has confirmed that MALM and HEMNES are being discontinued, with the new STORKLINTA and GULLABERG ranges replacing them; IKEA's own newsroom states both will be discontinued by the end of 2026. The practical effect is already visible on ikea.com/gb/en: the tall 80 x 123 cm six-drawer, the narrow 40 cm three-drawer, the mirror-glass-topped six-drawer and the separate MALM glass top no longer resolve to UK product pages, and the plain white 80 x 100 cm four-drawer has gone too. Four sizes remain. If you want a MALM, or you want an existing one matched, the window is closing — and once the range is gone, replacement drawer fronts and fittings get harder to source, which is a reason to have the carcass built square and the restraint fitted properly first time.

How long IKEA MALM chest of drawers assembly takes

Our own working estimates, not published IKEA figures: 30-45 minutes for the 2-drawer 40x55; 45-70 minutes for the 3-drawer 80x78; 60-85 minutes for the 4-drawer 80x100; 90-120 minutes for the 6-drawer 160x78. Add 10-20 minutes to anchor into a timber stud or solid brick, and 20-35 minutes on dot-and-dab, metal stud or lath and plaster where the fixing has to reach something structural behind a void.

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

Where IKEA MALM chest of drawers builds go wrong

The parts of this build that cost people an afternoon:

  • Pull the carcass square before the back goes on. The thin fibreboard back is what holds a MALM square, and once it is nailed the geometry is locked. Measure both diagonals across the back opening and get them matching before the first nail goes in. Nail it 5 mm out of square and the drawers rub on one side for the rest of the chest's life — and the only way back is prising off a nailed fibreboard panel, which splinters the rebate it sits in.
  • Cam locks are hand work, not power-tool work. The arrow on the cam has to point at the bolt hole before you drop the cam in, then it takes roughly a half turn clockwise with a flat blade. Get the arrow facing away and the bolt never enters the cam: the joint feels finished and is holding on nothing. Put a driver on a cam and you strip the particleboard around it, and on a gloss front you blow the finish off the face.
  • The side panels carry several rows of pre-drilled runner holes. Fixing a runner one row out is invisible on that drawer by itself — you only see it when every front is in and the shadow gaps step unevenly down the chest. Count hole rows from the same datum on both sides, for every drawer, before driving anything.
  • Each drawer bottom is stiffened by a metal support rod, part 123833, fitted in numbered sub-steps in the current UK drawer manual (AA-1972342-2): the first screw (part 105344) is driven in only partway, the rod slides onto it and rotates into position, then the far end is fixed with a second screw. Drive that first screw fully home and the rod cannot slide on — and a drawer built without its support sags under a full load of clothes.
  • There are no handles. The grip is an undercut along the top edge of the drawer front, and a front fitted upside down still bolts on perfectly, still looks almost right, and cannot be opened. Check the undercut is at the top on every front before final tightening.
  • All four current UK MALM chests are white or high-gloss white acrylic-painted particleboard. Gloss fronts pick up scratches from grit dragged across a carpet, so panels go on blankets and the protective film stays on until the last possible moment. A scuffed gloss front cannot be polished out.
  • IKEA marks the MALM chest manuals as two-person builds — the opening pages show the two-person icon with the one-person alternative crossed out. It matters most on the 160 cm six-drawer: the problem is not height, it is the 35.4 kg package that is 169 cm long, and a wide carcass that racks if one end is lifted before the back is on.
  • The restraint bracket has to bridge whatever holds the chest off the wall. In most London bedrooms that is a skirting board, so the bracket needs adjusting out to clear it and the screw still has to land in a stud or in masonry — not into the skirting itself, and not into plasterboard with nothing behind it.
  • A dot-and-dab cavity is deeper than a universal plug's expansion zone. IKEA's supplied plug is genuinely rated for most solid and hollow walls, but plasterboard bonded to brick with a 20-30 mm gap behind it is the case that beats it — the plug expands in fresh air. That is a long-reach dot-and-dab anchor job, or a properly rated toggle, and it is the single most common wall we meet in London flats.

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.

  • Wall anchoring is mandatory, not optional. IKEA supplies a tip-over restraint with every MALM chest, and the warning in the current UK manuals reads: "Serious or fatal crushing injuries can occur from furniture tip-over", followed by the instruction to "ALWAYS secure this furniture to the wall using tip-over restraints". We fit it on every MALM as standard.
  • IKEA recalled around 29 million chests and dressers in the United States in June 2016, of which about 8 million were MALM; Canada was a separate recall of about 6.6 million, and China followed in July 2016 with roughly 1.7 million. The recall was re-announced in November 2017 after an eighth child death. IKEA's recall notices named MALM chests of 3, 4, 5 and 6 drawers.
  • That recall did not extend to the UK or Ireland. IKEA's position was that the chests met the mandatory stability standards for this market. The safety logic is unchanged either way: anchored, a MALM is fine; unanchored in a home with small children, it is a genuine hazard.
  • MALM has no drawer interlock and no Anchor-and-Unlock mechanism. That feature — which stops more than one drawer opening at a time until the chest is anchored, and unlocks simultaneous opening once it is fixed to the wall — debuted on VIHALS, was the subject of an IKEA patent pledge in October 2023, and is now on the STORKLINTA and GULLABERG ranges replacing MALM. On a MALM there is nothing preventing a child pulling every drawer open at once, which is exactly why the physical restraint is the entire safety system.
  • Beyond the anchoring instruction, the warning block in the current UK manuals gives four directions: place the heaviest items in the lower drawers, do not set TVs or other heavy objects on top of the product, never let children climb or hang on drawers, doors or shelves, and read and follow each step of the instructions. Our own site practice on any chest, anchored or not: open one drawer at a time and load heavy items low.
  • IKEA UK does not publish a maximum load figure for any MALM chest — we checked the live product data for all four current variants and the field is simply absent. Anyone quoting you a per-drawer kilogram rating for a MALM is making it up. Load heaviest low, distribute rather than concentrate, and do not treat a drawer as a shelf.
  • IKEA's manual gives drill depths, not screw lengths, and the two get confused constantly. For a solid wall it specifies an 8 mm bit drilled around 70 mm deep, then plug and screw; for a hollow wall an 8 mm bit around 30 mm deep with the expanding anchor; for solid wood a 3 mm pilot around 30 mm with the screw and no plug. The manual is explicit that the supplied screws and plugs can be used with most solid and hollow walls.
  • IKEA UK's Secure It guidance covers three cases: plasterboard with a timber stud behind it (screw straight into the stud), plasterboard without a stud (8 mm plug and screw), and masonry (8 mm plug and screw). IKEA does permit a plug in plasterboard without a stud. TaskMan of London's own practice goes further than that minimum: on a tip-over restraint we want the screw into a stud, into masonry, or into a rated hollow-wall anchor sized for the actual cavity we find. We will not put a restraint into plasterboard alone and call the job done.
  • If your MALM's original restraint is missing, IKEA UK will supply a replacement kit free of charge — contact IKEA UK customer service or use the spare parts order form. Anyone who inherited a MALM, bought one second-hand, or moved house without the fittings bag should request one rather than assume.
  • Re-check the restraint after any house move, carpet change, or whenever the chest has been pulled out for decorating. A restraint that was unscrewed and never refitted is worse than none, because everyone in the house assumes it is still there.

IKEA MALM chest of drawers assembly in London homes

London walls are the whole story on a MALM. The restraint kit in the box is fine on paper — IKEA supplies a universal plug rated for most solid and hollow walls — but it assumes a wall that is one thing all the way through, and much of London is not. Victorian and Edwardian conversions in Hackney, Islington, Camden and across south London give you lath and plaster over timber, or solid brick under soft lime plaster where an 8 mm hole crumbles itself wider as you drill it. A 1990s-onwards refurb almost anywhere inside the M25 gives you dot-and-dab: plasterboard bonded to brick with a 20-30 mm void, which is deeper than any universal plug's expansion zone, so the plug simply blooms in the gap. New-build flats in Nine Elms, Stratford or Wembley give you metal C-stud partitions where a woodscrew has nothing to bite at all. Our team carries long-reach dot-and-dab anchors, rated toggles and masonry fixings on every MALM job, and we scan for pipes and cables before drilling — bedroom chimney breasts in older London stock hide old flues and rerouted heating runs, and alcove installations often land on a party wall. Access matters just as much. The 160 cm six-drawer arrives as three packages and the heaviest is 35.4 kg and 169 cm long: that single box is the reason a fourth-floor walk-up in a period conversion needs planning, and the reason the assembled chest cannot be turned on a Victorian half-landing — it has to be built in the room it will live in. Deep London skirting boards push the chest off the wall, so the restraint bracket has to be adjusted out to bridge them and the screw still has to find something structural behind. We cover all London within the M25 — send photos over WhatsApp and we confirm everything before you book, including telling you in advance if your wall type needs a fixing that is not in the box.

Before we arrive

  • Clear roughly 2 x 2 m of floor in the room the chest will actually live in. A MALM is built in situ — the 160 cm six-drawer will not turn on a typical Victorian half-landing once assembled.
  • Get the boxes into that room if you can. The 160 cm six-drawer arrives as three packages, the heaviest 35.4 kg and 169 cm long; the 3-drawer and 4-drawer come as two packages each with the heavier one around 26-27 kg. Tell us the floor number and whether there is a working lift.
  • Tell us which wall it is going against and what that wall is made of — solid brick, dot-and-dab plasterboard, timber stud, metal stud, or lath and plaster. We carry fixings for all of them, but knowing in advance saves time and guarantees we arrive with the right anchor.
  • Flag anything that might be buried in that wall: radiator pipes, a boiler feed, rerouted cables, an old chimney flue. We scan before drilling regardless, but local knowledge helps.
  • Measure your skirting board depth if it is a deep period one — the restraint bracket has to reach past it to the wall.
  • Check the boxes for transit damage when they are delivered, before assembly day. A crushed corner on a drawer front is far easier to exchange beforehand than mid-build.
  • Decide where the chest sits before we start. Once it is anchored, moving it means fresh holes and making good the old ones.
  • Parking details: permit, bay suspension, or where we can unload.
  • If the chest is for a child's room, tell us — it changes nothing about how we fit the restraint, but it changes what we will and will not sign off on if the wall turns out to be unsuitable.

IKEA MALM chest of drawers assembly FAQs

Does the MALM really have to be screwed to the wall, or is that IKEA covering itself?

It genuinely has to be. The warning in IKEA's current UK manual is blunt — serious or fatal crushing injuries can occur from furniture tip-over — and it instructs you to always secure the furniture to the wall using the supplied tip-over restraints. A MALM is tall relative to its footprint with deep drawers, and it has no interlock stopping every drawer being pulled open at once — a fully extended loaded drawer moves the centre of gravity a long way forward. Our team fits the restraint on every MALM as standard. It is part of the job.

Was the MALM recalled? Should I worry about the one I already own?

IKEA recalled around 29 million chests and dressers in the United States in June 2016 — about 8 million of them MALM — plus a separate 6.6 million in Canada, and the recall was re-announced in November 2017 after an eighth child death. It did not extend to the UK or Ireland, where IKEA said the chests met the mandatory stability standards. So your UK MALM is not under recall, but the safety logic is identical: anchored it is fine, unanchored with young children in the house it is not. If your restraint kit is missing, IKEA UK will send you a replacement free of charge — contact IKEA UK customer service.

We're in a flat with plasterboard walls. Can a MALM still be anchored properly?

Usually yes. To be fair to IKEA, the plug supplied in the box is a universal expanding plug rated for most solid and hollow walls, and IKEA UK's own guidance permits a plug in plasterboard without a stud. The case that beats it is dot-and-dab — plasterboard bonded to brick with a 20-30 mm void behind it, which is extremely common in London — because the plug expands in the gap rather than gripping anything. We carry long-reach dot-and-dab anchors that pass through the board into the masonry behind, and properly rated toggles for genuine metal-stud partitions in new builds. We find the wall first, then choose the fixing.

How long does a MALM take?

Our working estimates: about 30-45 minutes for the 2-drawer, 45-70 for the 3-drawer, 60-85 for the 4-drawer, and 90-120 minutes for the 160 cm six-drawer. Add 10-20 minutes for anchoring into a stud or solid brick, or 20-35 on dot-and-dab, metal stud or lath and plaster. You only need to be there at the start to confirm the position and at the end to sign off — after that it is anchored, and moving it means new holes.

MALM is being discontinued. Is it still worth assembling one?

Yes. IKEA has confirmed MALM is being withdrawn by the end of 2026, replaced by STORKLINTA, and four sizes are still on sale in the UK today. A discontinued range is actually an argument for getting it built right first time: once it is gone, replacement fronts and fittings get harder to source, so a stripped cam lock or a scuffed gloss front is no longer a cheap fix. One point worth knowing if you are choosing between the two — the new STORKLINTA has the Anchor-and-Unlock mechanism, which stops more than one drawer opening at a time until the chest is anchored to the wall. MALM has nothing of the sort, which is precisely why the restraint matters so much on a MALM.

Can you move or dismantle a MALM I already have assembled?

We can, but be realistic about it. The back is thin fibreboard held on by many small nails, and prising it off tends to splinter the rebate it sits in. Cam-lock joints in particleboard lose grip a little every time they are undone. A MALM will usually survive one careful dismantle and rebuild; after that the carcass gets noticeably floppy. If it is only moving to another room in the same property, we would rather carry it whole where the stairs allow — though not the 160 cm one, which will not turn on most Victorian half-landings.

I'm renting and my landlord won't allow drilling. What then?

This comes up constantly in London. Speak to your landlord or agent first — most are reasonable about a child-safety restraint, and it is two small screws we can make good on exit. If permission genuinely is not given, we will build the chest and we will tell you honestly that we cannot certify it as safely installed. What we will not do is put the restraint into plasterboard alone and let you believe it is anchored.

Book IKEA MALM chest of drawers 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.

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