It's much more enjoyable (and faster) when you use the proper power tools, instead of those dreaded Allen keys that come with the package...

Second that, without an electric screwdriver with alan key attachments. Without it packed furniture is a serious pita. With it you feel like an unstoppable cyborg.

We furnished our small satellite office in Seattle from IKEA, and putting the supplied alan keys into a drill chuck saved our wrists from hours of torture.

Try with two curious toddlers running around throwing the bits everywhere.

I got two words for you: ziplock bags.

Putting toddlers in ziplock bags would cause a pretty serious asphyxiation risk.

You cant just Ziploc babies like that!

Always felt like following LEGO instructions.

How is it a puzzle if you read the instructions?

IME, there isn't much reading - one follows sometimes sub-optimal pictures to determine the initial state for a step and the final outcome/exit criterion for the same.

Anyway; it's more fun to just look at the picture of what the final thing looks like and then deduce how the pieces go together.

Next step: don't even do that. Forget you ever saw the thing in the showroom. Just take the pieces and and figure out what they make. Then afterward, compare what you built to photos in the catalog.