ᐅ IKEA BRIMNES Bed: Drawers Not Wide Enough

Hello everyone,

I have a Brimnes bed (140 cm (55 inches) wide) with drawers. Assembling the Brimnes bed went smoothly except for two beginner mistakes (one wooden dowel wasn’t inserted far enough, and I forgot one board and attached the footboard too early). However, the drawers do not fit into the designated rails. Each drawer is about one centimeter (0.4 inches) too wide between the bed frame rail and the drawer rail — so the drawer can only be hung on one side and then falls out again after sliding a few centimeters (inches). I checked the rails multiple times; they are the ones specified in the instructions and installed on the correct sides (CL/CR).

Am I missing something, or does IKEA simply allow too much tolerance in the width of the drawers?

I’m grateful for any tips or ideas!

Okay. Sometimes you just need to clearly remind yourself of the problem, carefully and patiently study the Brimnes instructions, and... yes... I am the one at fault. In step 11 of the instructions, spacers are installed, which I did not use. Head -> wall.

Problem solved. If anyone else is struggling in the same way, consider this a helping hand.

I specifically signed up here to say thank you.

We made the same silly mistake, and since your question was the first result on Google, we quickly figured out what the problem was.

Hopefully, we can fix it without having to disassemble the Brimnes bed again.

Many thanks!

Hello everyone,
assembling this Brimnes bed drove me crazy! The frame was fine, but the drawers were a nightmare. We put everything together following the Brimnes instructions (including the spacers), yet the drawers still wouldn’t close properly. Then I tried fitting one drawer onto a different rail, and guess what: it worked! Sometimes IKEA is just impossible to understand.

I also had a problem with the drawers once. It wasn’t the same bed, but it really drove me crazy at the time! You just have to check that right from the start—there’s nothing worse than having to take the whole thing apart again. But I’m glad you managed to fix it after all.