I love this bookshelf! It looks really nice. If Amazon had a half star option, I'd be giving it 4.5 stars. The reasons I'm docking off half a star are: 1) There was a scratch on one of the top front pieces. However, it's not very large or super noticable, and I'm sure I could cover it with a similar colored Sharpie or something, so I didn't bother trying to get a replacement because that would just be a hassle. But the packaging the shelf came in wasn't damaged at all, so I'm guessing it happened when the pieces were being put in the box. But things happen, I'm not upset about is as it's an easy enough fix. 2) I read a lot of reviews saying this was easy to put together, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was easy. I'm fairly handy with tools, having put together a lot of furniture and doing minor home repairs on my own. I put this bookshelf together by myself. It took a couple hours and some steps required a lot of arm/hand strength to get the screws in, and I ended up stripping a lot of the screws just trying to get them screwed all the way in. I'm thinking using a drill would have made things a lot easier, but the instructions say not to and I'm usually one to do things by the book, so I didn't. However, if I had to put together another one of these, I think I'd probably go ahead and just use a drill for some of the steps to save time and avoid getting frustrated. 3) Some reviews say that the shelf doesn't seem sturdy on the sides, like it'll topple over onto itself, but I disagree. It seems very sturdy once put together and I'm not at all worried about it falling apart. BUT, I'm not so sure that it wouldn't fall forward if pulled on or hit. I have 2 dogs (50 and 60 lbs) that sometimes play rough, so I absolutely used the safety strap to attach it to the wall because I'm not confident that the shelf wouldn't fall forward if they were playing and rolled into it or something. I do have it on a carpeted floor, so maybe on a hardwood floor it would feel more stable. I don't like that the safety strap pokes through a big hole in the backboard of the bookshelf. I feel like the hole doesn't need to be so big. I ended up cutting the circle that comes off the backboard, leaving enough of a space for the safety strap to poke through, and then taping the rest of the circle back in place from the back so it's not as visible. Overall, I think this is a well made, beautiful piece of furniture. I'm glad this is the one I chose to purchase, and I have no regrets in buying it. I think it will hold up for quite a while. Also, props to the Amazon driver who delivered it! It was a little heavy, and I was home by myself and worried I wouldn't be able to get it inside on my own without opening it and carrying it in piece by piece. It was raining though, and that wouldn't be ideal, so he carried it inside and set it down in my living room for me. He was very nice and I appreciate him taking that extra step to make my life a little easier! Read more
When I received my book shelf , I immediately thought it was damaged because the wood on the shelves looked as if they were chipped. That was not the case at all it is the way they are designed to slid in better. I put it together according to a YouTube video and it was on point , not only that the instructions were really good. Here is my product now I’m waiting for my desk in my office. Read more
For the price, this bookcase is a decent purchase. I’m a grad student — i.e., living off a very meager stipend for the foreseeable future, and in possession of hundreds of books (and always counting) — so after comparing this item to a few other comparable choices on Amazon, I ultimately went with this option because of its aesthetic features and (relatively) reasonable price tag. That being said, it was more difficult than most other self-assembly furniture pieces I’ve bought and put together. I live alone, and can say that this item would have been a lot easier to manage with a second person there to help (both to assemble it and to subsequently move/drag it all over my office while I decided where to place it). Moreover, about half the pieces included (panels, shelving parts, molding features, etc.) were not labeled as the instruction manual indicated they ought to be — they weren’t incorrectly labeled, just lacking any label to begin with, and not all the pieces had this problem, which I found odd. It thus was a far more tedious and time-consuming process to assemble the bookcase following the instructions provided, since I had to do a lot of extra double-checking and measuring to make sure I was using the correct piece before I could attach the hardware or make any other major moves toward progress. It’s also, being now fully assembled, way less sturdy than I’d anticipated based on prior reviews and the item’s listing description. It shifts horizontally, slightly, if I touch a particular side panel (and no, it is not due to improperly affixed hardware or other such user error—when putting this type of furniture piece together, I am always conscientious of making sure every single part is assembled together safely and per the instructions provided, using the proper tools, etc. I literally cannot afford to accidentally break a part, or misalign a screw or something and ruin the entire piece!). It stands upright in such a way that I am not worried about it tipping over forward, but my house is also quite old, with uneven floors throughout, it probably doesn’t hurt that the bookcase is on a carpeted floor; I will have to be continuously checking on this item’s sturdiness as time goes on and it has to withstand actual book weight, as I’m still uncertain if it will end up getting to be an “investment” item for me or not (that is, if it will be among the large pieces of 100% necessary and functional but also extremely difficult to move furniture that I still decide/am able to take with me when I move cities again in a few years, or, on the other hand, if it will essentially have to become included with the house, because it didn’t prove worth attempting to move it down the stairs and into a new home, won’t actually fit down the weird staircase here in the first place — I will not be disassembling it in order to relocate and then reassemble it, for obvious reasons — and/or it hasn’t held up over time, so would be easier just to replace altogether, despite the extra money that would require). TL;DR: It’s fine. It looks nicer than it is (and to a more remarkable/mentionable extent than other, similar self-assembled items I’ve either built or seen in the past, in that it looks significantly nicer than most furniture of this type, but doesn’t seem to turn out quite as durable or sturdy as the pieces which are less aesthetically appealing). I don’t know if I would buy it again, but it will work fine for the particular need I have of it. **Warning to anyone not terribly keen on and/or skilled at tackling self-assembled furniture: The bookcase I received had parts which were missing the labels they were evidently supposed to have based on the instruction manual’s descriptions and illustrations. Some of the issues were quickly non issues because the part or piece in question was the only one of its type included, but at other times I had some trouble differentiating between certain parts/pieces that were only a tiny bit distinct in terms of their shapes/measurements/etc. Be prepared for this to happen to you too, I guess!** Read more
