FLATPACK furniture enthusiasts in Bahrain have been challenged to show their prowess when it comes to putting the pieces together. For the reigning world champion who built a two-drawer side unit in just nine minutes and 33 seconds is looking to defend her title and said she’s hoping there’s ‘a bit more competition’ for her this year.
Hayley McAuley, 38, a British warehouse team leader who runs her own business building flatpack furniture in the Lancashire town of Wigan, competed in the Flatpack World Championships last May and was ‘dead happy’ to be crowned the winner, where she received a gold Allen key as a trophy.
McAuley said she’s ‘always liked building stuff’ because ‘it just comes naturally’, remembering a moment where she put up a six-man tent from as young as seven-years-old when her family went on a camping trip.
The first ever piece of flatpack furniture McAuley said she built was a couple of years later when she saw her dad struggling to build a wardrobe. She said her father ‘wasn’t good at it at all’ so she, at nine, ended up taking over and built it perfectly.
Ever since, McAuley said her friends and family have asked her to help them build everything from beds to wardrobes, which prompted her to start a side hustle in January 2024 – McAuley’s Flatpack Assembly Service.
On how her business came about, McAuley said: “I bought a dressing table and a three-door wardrobe, and after I built them all, I put a picture on my social media profile. A lot of people were saying, ‘I could do with you coming round’, so I thought I could probably try that. I got the poster made, and it just took off.”
About a year after McAuley started her flatpacking business, she said a friend called and told her about the inaugural Flatpack World Championships in May 2025, which was part of Grand Designs Live – an exhibition in London that features expert consultations, live talks, and hundreds of exhibitors.
On the encouragement of her friend, McAuley decided to enter the competition and headed down to England’s capital city to compete.
McAuley said: “There were quite a lot of people there so I was very nervous.”
According to McAuley, the first round saw competitors build an Ikea Billy bookcase, and thought ‘ikea do that’, so she immediately emptied her toolbox out, completed the project in a blur, and then stood around ‘smiling like a little kid’ among everyone else still going.
The second and final round was a two-drawer bedside table, which McAuley said she completed in nine minutes and 33 seconds. Again, she said she ‘sat there’ waiting for her competitors to finish and just cried because she was so happy to have won.
“That was one of the best days of my life,” she said. “Because I just love doing it. Flatpack furniture may look simple, but at speed, it’s a true test of skill, and a bit of chaos too.”
Television presenter Kevin McCloud presented McAuley with a golden Allen key trophy, which she said she’s going to take with her for this year’s competition held in London again this coming May.
In preparation for it, McAuley said she’s planning to get a hand-and-arm massage just before the competition starts, and get there early to scope everything out.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what different kinds of people turn up,” she said. “I’m not really intimidated. I’m quite confident in myself. But I’d like to see a lot more people there and, if they’re lucky enough to beat me, even better.”
If she wins, McAuley said she ‘definitely will cry’ again, but she’ll also get new posters made that say ‘Two-time World Champion’.
McAuley said her training for the competition is baked into her everyday flatpack-building role: “I’ve built sheds, an octagonal greenhouse in the freezing cold, trampolines, and I’ve even built a motorbike. A lady I’d built furniture for, she got it for her daughter’s birthday and she said, ‘My partner’s struggling to do it!’.”
McAuley said she charged BD25 for this service because she’d ‘never done one before’, but she completed it and was ‘dead proud’ of herself. As for her general prices, McAuley said it could be around £30 for a two-door wardrobe, or up to BD100 for a metal shed that took her three hours to complete.
“The only time I’ve been defeated is if the company sent something out and it’s not been right,” she said. “Nothing’s ever really defeated me, although I was close to giving up building a trampoline in the rain where I was pulling the springs.
“Nothing will defeat me.”
McAuley said she never gets sick of building flatpack furniture and shared how she bought wardrobes for the home she moved into in April last year.
“I’ve even been teaching my partner’s daughter,” McAuley said, adding that the six-year-old built the beds in her room and the side unit.
She said: “I like influencing young kids to build stuff, especially girls, because I want them to be able to do stuff for themselves.”
As for tips for those who struggle to build flatpack furniture, McAuley said: “First of all, separate every screw and nut, count them all, and get them all out. Read the instructions. And don’t do anything permanent, otherwise it means buying new.”
Entries to the Flatpack World Championships at Grand Designs Live London 2026 are now open on its website.
&uuid=(email))