The Play Kitchen Flat Pack
Overview
The Play Kitchen is a toy kitchen that features a running water system that is safe to drink. When assembled, the solid wood structure is 29.76’’ x 29.96’’ x 17.72’’ and weighs 44.97 lbs. This presented a unique packaging challenge as it needed to ship directly to consumers in over 33 countries.
Design
We conducted extensive user testing during the design phase of this project. The goal was to understand what pain points people were experiencing during the assembly process and how our packaging solution might improve that experience. The throughline in testing was that there were so many pieces of hardware and fasteners that it was difficult to keep it all organized. That led us to design the "tool tray" featured above. The tool tray is removable and contains all of the necessary pieces of hardware and fasteners needed throughout the assembly process. It can easily be moved around the room and all of the fastener boxes are color-coded, making it straightforward to find exactly what part is needed.
Manufacturing
All of Lovevery's packaging is plastic-free, and there is no exception to that with this very large and heavy item. We designed this packaging to be able to withstand a 48-inch drop using only corrugated fiberboard, CCNB, pressboard, and tissue paper. We did this by dividing the kitchen into two separate shipments that allowed us to remain under the size and weight limits for all 33 countries where we have launched.
The video shows how this process works at the factory. Two section boxes are packed out and over-boxed into a master carton for the wood structure. The second shipment (not featured in the video) is the water system which consists mainly of plastic components that would be easily damaged if they shipped with the wood structure.
