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Life Support For An IKEA Dresser

September 13, 2011

Editor Update: IKEA has recalled its KULLEN and MALM chests and dressers, among other products. Since writing this tutorial, I returned the set shown here for nearly $300 – and they even came to pick it up. If you believe your IKEA dresser or other product is eligible for a recall, get information on IKEA.com.

The IKEA dresser I owned has held up well… with a little bit of maintenance.

All too often, I need to repair a drawer bottom that bows and separates from its track. This happens when I cram too many socks into a non-expanding space. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what happened this time.

What I had encountered was self-inflicted and could have been prevented, and it wasn’t something I was sure I could easily fix. The particleboard partition between two of my IKEA MALM drawers cracked.

The particleboard partition between two of my IKEA MALM drawers cracked.

The particleboard partition between two of my IKEA MALM dresser drawers cracked.

The Damage

See that piece of trim that fits between each of the drawers? If you own one of these dressers, you’ll know that the drawers fit together pretty seamlessly. On the IKEA MALM, a thin piece of particleboard serves as a partition between drawer fronts. The partition on most dressers adds structural support while adding a finishing detail so you don’t have line-of-sight to the drawer contents.

How did this happen? Well, I tried to lift the entire dresser by the partition, which I thought was much, much stronger. Don’t attempt to transport particleboard furniture by its weakest point.

The particleboard partition between two of my IKEA MALM drawers cracked.

Left wondering what to do next, I removed the drawer above the broken partition and took a closer look.

IKEA MALM assembly

IKEA MALM assembly

Fortunately, my partition broke pretty cleanly and exposed the hardware without disrupting it. I was left with a broken piece of particleboard and a piece of hardware called the Cam Lock.

Chip off the ol' particleboard, and half of the cam lock.

Chip off the ol’ particleboard, and half of the cam lock.

Repair an IKEA Dresser Partition

The simplest fix was to apply wood glue to the back of the particleboard and clamp it back into place.

Glued the back of the particle board. Next step: clamp back in place on the partition. Let dry.

Glued the back of the particle board. Next step: clamp back in place on the partition. Let dry.

Once reinforced, the Cam Lock bit fit right back into the existing hole and could be tightened in place.

While the partition is clamped in place, reaffix the round screw end into place, tightening with a phillips head screwdriver to secure.

While the partition is clamped in place, reaffix the round screw end into place. Then tighten it with a Phillips head screwdriver so it is secure.

I let the wood glue dry all day, then removed the clamp and put the drawer back into place before bed.

Remember: Partitions aren’t supporting beams. If your particleboard is shattered beyond a simple re-glue, consider rebuilding a new panel out of plywood (or something slightly more maleable, like cork) and clamp it in place just like I did here.

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Bedrooms  / DIY

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

14 Comments


Miles
September 14, 2011 at 8:00 am
Reply

I think that’s called a cam bolt.



    Emily
    September 14, 2011 at 8:18 am

    Good to know. I searched everywhere for a name but none of my descriptions were yielding anything like that! Thanks Miles.

Kristin
March 1, 2015 at 4:01 pm
Reply

Hi there,

I was hoping you might be able to give me some help on how to replace one of those partitions completely? It broke off a while back in a move, and all that remains is the ugly space and the funny little dowel and other weirdy screw sticking out at either end.

I have the malm with birch veneer. Could you give me some help?

Thanks!



    Asim
    March 23, 2015 at 10:04 pm

    The easiest fix would be to find similar dresser on craigslist (they are common enough to easily be found) that is not in a good condition and taking parts from it.

Tanya
March 29, 2016 at 1:19 pm
Reply

Does Ikea not sell the part as a replacement part? I just leaned on it while moving the drawer and it snapped in half and I want to replace it?



Merlin
September 6, 2017 at 4:13 pm
Reply

thanks for this post! i got a new dresser and one of the little beams broke off just like yours as i was assembling it. it’s too much of a hassle to go to ikea and complain since i don’t have a car so i’ll give this diy fix a try.



Rob
August 2, 2019 at 9:38 am
Reply

Take the broken piece back to IKEA, they will give you a new one. The real issue then becomes the installation. You may need to take the entire unit a part to slip it over the dowels.

THe quicker fix is the glue-in-place method as described above.



John
January 12, 2021 at 6:27 am
Reply

Does anyone know what the part number is for the slat above the drawer? In the installation guide it does not show a number.



    mcr
    January 31, 2021 at 8:25 pm

    did you get a part number for this

    Gail Wright
    September 13, 2021 at 4:57 pm

    Hi John did you find out what the part number was for the draw slat as I am needing a replacement?

Mudassar Ayub
April 9, 2022 at 12:56 pm
Reply

Hi there nice repair but I usually get an angle bracket and put one screw in to the slat and the other in to the side of the dresser works a charm(small screw don’t want to come out the other side!)and no need to take the dresser apart to get the dowels/screws in, problem now is I have picked up a dresser that has some missing but I went to local IKEA store in East London but they were all out of white malm slats so they mentioned to go online but I don’t have any part numbers. I guess I have to write in to them, really weird as this is a common failure one would think they would mention the part number somewhere online or in the manual. Should have asked the staff at the store for number.



Steven McCabe
June 11, 2022 at 1:01 pm
Reply

I have a similar IKEA two drawer dresser of the same vintage where the particle board cross brace did not survive a 1200 mile move. Sounds like a job for an old fashioned wood 1X4. Old school for an old guy.



Denise
November 25, 2022 at 4:26 pm
Reply

Can my dresser live and stay assembled without these middle parts? I’ve had two of mine break!



    Emily
    January 25, 2023 at 10:14 am

    Eeeek. I’m sure you would see some sagging before a terrible collapse but I have to imagine that the tracks are enough to keep the shelf in place. If the middle parts can be repaired, I imagine that bracing the fracture from behind with a flat mending strip would be enough to support the weight of a shelf.

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