Just left the furniture industry, never got around to fully solving this but interested in spitballing with you, and hearing others recommendations.
I like the idea of separate SKUS per component, but users pushed back on me for fear of ballooning SKU count. My idea was if product is separate and subject to loss or damage individually, then they need to be accounted for individually.
Some qualifying questions:
• Does the vendor consider them 2 separate items?
• Are assembly items on the table?